Students Learn It’s Not Easy to Balance a Budget

I’m extremely proud of the fact that we teach a full semester of economics to our seventh-graders. Educating young people on how businesses work, the principles of personal finance, and how they can invest in their future provides them with invaluable life skills.

Recently, our students had the opportunity to apply their personal finance skills in a “real-world” setting at a Junior Achievement Finance Park simulation. A four-week personal finance unit — including classroom lessons covering credit cards, taxes, and investing in the stock market — culminated in the November 19, 2012 simulation, where students were assigned careers, incomes, and specific family situations before visiting a series of businesses at the Park's virtual "city".

Seventh-graders investigate how to buy a car at the simulation.

Applying for loans, purchasing utilities, exploring housing options, and settling on cell-phone plans were just a few of the lifestyle choices our students made during the all-day event. Money was also allocated to cover items such as insurance costs, food, transportation, and stock market investments, while a few "unlucky" students were assigned unforeseen financial hardship penalty situations as part of their budgets.

This unique opportunity allowed our students to gain an understanding of the importance of making thoughtful financial decisions. I expect this experience and the life lessons they learned to serve them well in the years to come.

In case you missed it, click here to view the Fox 6 news coverage of our students at the simulation!

Welcome Back

Happy New Year and welcome back from Winter Break! I hope everyone had a relaxing and wonderful time off. As this has been a short week, check back during the week of January 7 for my next blog post.