Excerpted from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Building Blocks Program at: bit.ly/responsibilitylink9
Financial responsibility is a critical life skill related to this month's pillar, which goes miles in preparing high school-aged students for productive adulthood. If you feel that you are capable of teaching this lesson and that your students would be receptive to participating, consider using the lesson below from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Have students make a list of up to 10 items they’d like to buy. These items can range in price, but encourage students to think as big as they’d like. Then, ask students to get in groups to identify the things their chosen items have in common and how those items are different.
From this exercise, ask students to explain why they chose these items and to answer some other guiding questions. What personal values do these items represent? How will these items help them achieve their goals? Will those items make them feel happy?
Then, have students create a buying plan for a few of the objects that they’d like to buy in the next year. Help them decide, based on whether they have a job, receive an allowance, or have a savings account, how they’ll make the purchase and help them tailor each plan to their situation.