Real Money, Real World is a great program that helps middle school students start to understand the complexity of running a household, and being in the "real world" There are various stations set up, and they must go to each station and find out how much they owe. They are given an occupation, and a salary. Before the stations, they take out taxes, and figure out how much they must put into savings.
The stations are:
Child Care, Clothing, Communications, Contribution, Credit/Banking, Entertainment, Food, Housing, Insurance, Transportation, Utilities, Retirement, and a chance (for those unexpected costs) They can also go to get "financial advice" and there is a cop that can give tickets to those who are uninsured.
There were 8 classes that participated in the event (2 in each session) In each session they had about 1.5 hours to go to each station, and keep their finances in line. Salaries ranged from 12,000, to 80,000.
Most of the kids remained fairly positive about the event, but I started to see more and more frustration start in towards the end of the session. I think that for the most part this helps them understand their parents, and motivate them to take their education more seriously as they get closer and closer to college.
I think that this program should definetly be considered to become a "signature program" for the state level. It could be modified for any group, and with a little bit of help from vounteers, it can help give youth a direct connection to what it is like in the real world (without the danger of being chased down by the law) I hope that it continues to grow, and become more and more like real life!
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