REALITY FAIR
Students learn about good financial choices
Cutter Morning Star High School students were challenged to make sound financial decisions to prepare them for life after high school at Eagle Arena earlier this month.
The school’s first financial reality fair, held March 9 in conjunction with Diamond Lakes Federal Credit Union, offered over 120 students an interactive financial educational experience by simulating real-life choices related to spending, saving and budgeting.
Students visited various booths that challenged their understanding of needs and wants against realistic career incomes. Such decisions included whether to get a larger home or an apartment, a sports car or an economy car, or an expensive shampoo or a basic drugstore brand.
“It’s a way for us to teach budgeting in a fun, dynamic environment,” Lorraine Davis, Diamond Lakes Federal Credit Union vice president of systems management, said.
“And then we roll in with budget sheets, assigning the students a family to make financial decisions for two working adults with a small child, so they go into the fair with that knowledge and go to each table trying to make decisions to build a monthly budget so that they can pay this family’s bills and have money left over at the end of the month.”
Davis said they hold the fairs in most of the schools within their six-county region, and just got through hosting a classroom version at the Malvern School District the day before.
According to the National Credit Union Foundation, reality fairs give students a hands-on experience in which they “identify their career choice and starting
salaries, then complete a budget sheet requiring them to live within their monthly salary while paying for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing, and food.”
Additional expenditures such as entertainment and travel are also factored in. CMS Career Coach Christi Nation, who organized the event along with CMS High School counselor Michelle Edgin, said the student volunteers at the tables are encouraged to create temptations for additional spending to make it even more real.
Davis said when she was growing up, paying bills was sort of a secret in her home.
“My mom did it; I knew she sat down once a month and paid the
bills, but there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation about it. I feel like a lot of people don’t talk about that at home with their young people,” she said.
“And so then, young people grow up, get a paycheck, and now they’re trying to put a budget together and (have) bills they can’t afford, and that’s when core decisions happen.”
She said if the fair can help any one of the students realize they need to live within their means, and teach them how to, that is what it is all about.
“You need to be able to pay all of your bills and have money left over at the end of the month,” she said. “If you can handle your finances like that, then you won’t
have all that financial stress that so many people experience.”
Edgin, who serves as a counselor for grades 7-12, said they wanted to have the program in a larger, fair-type setting to make it more entertaining for the students and engage them more.
“We wanted this to be, especially, (for) the juniors and seniors, because it’s about to be their time when they’re going to have to learn to budget and they’re going to have to learn how the world kind of works, unfortunately,” she said. “Like, the reality of how much your phone cost and how much your utilities are, and just get a gauge on that.”
She noted the senior students are getting extra engagement through their volunteer work at the tables in addition to their actual participation.
“It’s helping their skills and social skills as far as like reaching out and being able to talk to people they wouldn’t normally talk to every day. So they’re getting a basis for that too,” she said.