This week is a wild one coming back from Spring Break. Students had it extended by having no school on Monday but 7th and 8th graders were welcomed back with PARCC testing from Wednesday to Friday.
Tuesday we had a fun lesson on budgeting for a completely made up life. It started with giving all students a job that you only needed a high school diploma in order to be hired. The monthly salary range was between $1,300 to $3,100, a lot of money either way when you're only a middle school student (or so they thought). We quickly dove into taxes (federal, state, social security) and they realized that their "huge paycheck" was already dwindling and they haven't even purchased anything yet. Next we moved onto expenses, so students had the choice to live with their parents for a small sum of money, rent an apartment either by yourself or with roommates, or purchase a house and pay a mortgage. Some students wanted the freedom of living on their own, some said their parents wouldn't charge them rent and I said wait until you're in your 30's and still living at home, trust me they'll want some money.
We moved onto car expenses if they wanted one or they had the option to walk/bus/subway to work. Their final expenses we talked about involved their food budget and luxuries like internet, cable, laptop, TV, entertainment, etc. A lot of students initially went over budget but went back and decided to cut some things out of their life that were not necessities. This taught them a great lesson on budgeting and also how a high school diploma will limit your career choices and the amount of money you can make in the future.
For the rest of the week I only had the mentees in class so to continue with finance we did a mock stock scenario. I gave the students an imaginary $1,000 and they used this to invest in stocks that interested them. We'll check back at the end of the year to see if they earned or lost money but it was fun talking with them about how stocks work.
(Student looking through their stock options!)
On Friday we will be working on our own Piggy Banks that will be made from recycled plastic bottles and the students will take them home and use them as their personal piggy banks to collect coins.
Have a great weekend!
