Income Stacking

Start with the two lead-in slides before you touch any vocabulary. Ask students which income setup sounds best, a single stable job, freelancing, a small side hustle, or three or four income streams at once. This C1 group usually has strong opinions here, so let the debate run for five or ten minutes before moving on. It also gives you a quick read on how much students already know about the topic.

Hand out the vocabulary preview so students can check off words they already know. Go through the definitions together, then use the discussion slide to talk about specific side hustles like YouTube, dropshipping, vending machines, and property rental. Ask which one has the highest earning potential and which carries the most risk. The ten definitions cover phrases like recurring revenue and feast or famine, so give students a minute to guess meanings before you confirm them. This gets students using the target vocabulary before the video even starts.

Play the video about Cara and Stanley, two young people who built income outside a traditional job. Have students take notes on what each person does, why they started, and how it turned out. The comprehension questions check basic understanding, and the follow-up questions push students to form their own opinions about income stacking and social media influence.

Finish with the matching exercise, the sentence-building practice, and the three case studies. The case studies work best in pairs or small groups since students need to weigh financial security against earning potential and defend their advice using at least three vocabulary items from the lesson. This is where C1 students really show what they’ve learned about income streams and money management.