UPDATED WITH 2023 TAX INFO AND BLANK TEMPLATES

Game of Life: Financial Reality Fair is an interactive financial literacy curriculum that gives junior and senior high school students the opportunity to experience some of the financial challenges they will face with independent living.

 

The Financial Reality Fair is flexible enough in work in any school setting, homeschool communities and cooperatives or traditional school. This toolkit provides you with all the information and planning resources needed to host in any homeschool community or school.

 

The Financial Reality Fair consists of two parts:

1. In Classroom/At Home Career Survey and Choosing their Job

In class or at home, students take personal inventories that aid them in deciding which job option would best fit their strengths and interests. All positions are entry level salaries. Their job options also include information regarding the education level needed to obtain that position and if health benefits are provided, which is information they will need as they visit the booths.

 

2. In Person Reality Fair

Using their chosen job, student will identify their tax bracket, then calculate their yearly and monthly net income. Using their monthly take home pay students visit a total of ten different booths where they make decisions about how to live independently within their budget. For example, at the Housing booth they decide if they will rent or buy, and if they can afford to live alone or need a roommate. The reality check comes when they are made aware of not only the high cost of living, but also of the many hidden costs the student may have considered, like renter’s insurance, heat, and utilities.

 

The goal of this eye-opening interactive experience will give the student a glimpse into what costs they can expect and how take responsibility for personal financial decisions with the use of a Monthly Budget.

 

Some Skills Learned:

• Identify how personal strengths and interests determine career choice

• Identify how career choice, education, skills, entrepreneurship, and unexpected life events affect income

• Identify tax bracket, gross versus net income, and employee health benefits

• Calculating single and multi digit fractions, along with addition/subtraction needed in monthly budgeting

• Responsibility for personal financial decisions with the use of a Monthly Budget

• Identify the relationship between spending practices and achieving financial goals.

 

Toolkit Includes:

• Planning Timeline & Materials List

• Learning Objectives

• Pre-Fair Student Packet, including personal-inventories and job 60+ job options

• Reality Fair Student Packet, including Income Planning and Monthly Budgeting forms

• Booth Signs

• Booth Volunteer Directions

• Booth Information Sheets

• Sample Registration Forms

• Homeschool Parent Letters

• Student Evaluation

• Blank template to use prices from your own area