In an endless search for better-paying jobs to fund future spending, many Canadians overlook their largest and most valuable asset -- namely, their human capital.

Human capital refers to your lifetime earning potential based on your existing skills, training and experience. Essentially, it allows you a glimpse into your financial future to see how much you'll have at retirement.

If you're trying to decide whether to obtain another degree before entering the workforce, or working up the courage to ask for a raise, read on. Each of these decisions could affect your lifetime earnings by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Estimating human capital is simple, thanks to the online human value calculator from the Quantitative Wealth Management Analytics Group. CreditCards.ca used this free calculator to identify some of the factors that influence your human capital the most.

1. The younger you start working, the better.
The single most important factor for valuating human capital is your age. If you're a 25-year-old insurance clerk earning $30,000 yearly, your future income stream is worth an estimated $1.8 million. If you're 45, you'd have to be earning $75,000 to keep up.

2.  Show me the salary.
Higher wages do make a big difference in the human capital value for persons of the same age. At age 35, the human capital amount for a $100,000 wage earner is $4.1 million, triple the $1.2 million in projected lifetime earnings for a $30,000 wage earner of the same age.

Still, top salaries often demand at least seven to 10 years of prerequisite formal training. If you decide to get an advanced degree, keep in mind that tuition debt -- and the fact that you'll be entering the workforce later -- will cut into that six-figure income.

3. Job security is like hidden treasure.
Even the best-paying employment can generate lower human capital values if job security is low. This is often the case with seasonal or project-based consulting work. For example, a 35-year-old whose annual salary is $70,000 but who toils in a high-turnover position has the same human capital value as a worker of the same age earning only $30,000 in a highly secure job.

4. Progressive salary increases add up.
Pay raises also have a strong effect on your human capital valuation. If you are 35 years old with a starting salary of $40,000 and average a 1 per cent annual wage hike, your human capital value will be $902,377 at age 65. Boost your average yearly salary increase to 5 per cent, and that projected amount rises to more than $1.6 million.

5. Working longer can improve your human capital.
Even if you have a modest paycheque, you're not necessarily doomed to low lifetime earnings. Based on the human value calculator's results, a 35-year-old making $30,000 and who plans to retire early at age 55 can more than double his or her human capital amount from $737,737 to $1.5 million by retiring at age 70 instead.

Longer working lives may well become the norm for building human capital. A recent Statistics Canada article reveals that, between 1997 and 2010, the percentage of Canadians age 55 and over who continue to work full-time rose by 29.2 per cent (from 30.5 to 39.4 per cent) for males, and by 81 per cent (from 15.8 to 28.6 per cent) for women.

Money isn't everything

No matter how mathematically accurate the human capital calculator is, or how rich your future income stream is, the online tool doesn't gauge how happy you are while working towards retirement. As Dr. Michael LeBoeuf, author of "Working Smart," comments in his book, "You may be highly paid for what you do. However, if you don't enjoy what you are doing, I question your success."

A 2007 Workopolis Study on Canadian job satisfaction supports that notion. Financial rewards, flexible work hours and stress levels placed as the bottom three drivers for making Canucks happy or unhappy on the job.

 "We're seeing a strong shift in priorities on the job," said Patrick Sullivan, former president of Workopolis, in a news release about the study.

Instead of financial perks, factors like corporate culture, learning opportunities and the chance to use their skills were more likely to contribute to Canadian workers' job satisfaction.

 "Canadians have made it clear that money really isn't everything," Sullivan concluded.