Find out how high schoolers did facing financial reality
By Anthony Panissidi, Asbury Park Press, N.J. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
After taxes and other deductions, including contributions to an employer-sponsored retirement plan and health insurance premiums, Elbery brings home
Even though Elbery earns a healthy salary, however, he lives well beyond his means. He spends
Luckily for Elbery, he will probably avoid those budgeting mistakes when he actually lands his first job. Right now, he is still a senior at
"There's so much you have to pay for," said Elbery, who now plans to opt for a Mazda2 instead of an Audi A6 to save
Income vs. expenses
Prior to the fair, roughly 215 of 250 seniors chose their expected careers. Then, United Teletech Financial provided budget sheets to the students with their average salaries for their professions, a breakdown of their monthly gross and net pay, a credit-card limit, monthly loan payments based on how many years they would attend college to achieve degrees in their fields, random credit scores and so on.
Next, the students visited different tables in their high school's gymnasium, where United Teletech Financial employees acted as salespeople trying to push the most expensive products imaginable, from apartments to cellphones to pets. Once the students chose their expenses, they met with financial advisers from the federal credit union to see how they could better spend their money in the future.
"We recognize, as a financial institution, that financial education in our communities is really lacking," said
As a solution, United Teletech Financial advocates the use of gaming to financially enlighten millennials -- those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. In 2011, all Americans 15 years old and older spent an average of 12 { hours per month playing games or using computers for leisure; for those 15 to 19 years old, that amount of time jumped to 28 hours, according to the
"Learning by play or gamification, it kind of hits home with Gen-Y, millennials, high-school-aged kids that are going into life because they're used to learning that way with video games and other things," Amar said. "The reality fair kind of mimics that with financial education."
Hands-on learning
"It's a reality check," she said. "They really retain the information, I think, because on those portfolios, it says their name, so it's very personalized to them. They chose their career."
"It was interesting to learn about how you're going to have a lot of expenses that you don't really think about right now because we're in high school and we don't have to account for it," she said. "Once we're out in the real world, (then) we do have to worry about all this money. You think
MILLENIALS BY THE NUMBERS
--23 percent spend more than their income
--24 percent can correctly answer four of five questions on a financial literacy quiz
--25 percent save for retirement
--31 percent have unpaid medical bills
--33 percent have rainy-day funds
Source: 2012 National Financial Capability Study (
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