Introduction

• Open with:

What is something you want to buy?

Have kids go to easel and write something down. If they see something on the easel they also want just put a checkmark next to it.

Use the popular items to sort the kids into teams

Part 1: Understanding Hourly Income

Questions to pose:

“How many of you get allowance?”

“How many of you make money some other way?”

• "Let’s suppose you make $X per hour."

  [Use an example from the group, maybe something that costs $1,000 like a PC or gumball machine or bike. This will be used for further questions.]

  • Question 1: How long would it take you to save up for it?

  • Question 2: What is your weekly wage? Your monthly wage? Annual wage?

    [This is reinforcing basic math — annualizing]

Part 2: Disposable income

Before you can save for X you need to take care of necessities. As kids, you mostly have your necessities paid for but that’s not true for all kids. Some of the parents here might have needed to buy their own sneakers or backpacks when they were kids.

• Can you make a list of necessities that adults need to pay for?

  Looking for these 9 categories (asking this question is like playing Family Feud)

  • Food/Drink
  1. Shelter
  2. Transportation
  3. Clothes
  4. Utilities/Energy
  5. Hygiene/Medical
  6. Entertainment/Fun/Vacation/Recreational
  7. Furniture/technology (inc: phone/computer)
  8. Savings

Part 3: Creating a Budget

• Introduce the idea of pie chart and refresh “percentage” math
• The thing we are saving for is going to come out of the savings slice

Part 4: Savings and Goals

• How long does it take to save up for that $1,000 gumball machine [or whatever we are saving for] based on our savings rate?
  • Understand the less recurring expenses we have or the more money we make, the higher our savings rate.