Financial Literacy: Y9 Social Studies

Yesterday we started a new topic: Financial Literacy.

We discussed what financial literacy means and why it's important to be financially literate.

I shared my experiences with being financially illiterate as a high school student through to being a university student. When I was growing up I was taught about paying bills off. I never got taught to save my money. I learnt how to spend money... but never to save it. I was taught about how to stretch and juggle my money... but again... never how to save and definitely not how to invest it.

Through my experiences... flatting, terrible boyfriends, taking landlords to tenancy tribunal hearings and the issues around bank deals and 'free' overdrafts during O Week... I was able to paint a pretty clear picture that I had to learn the hard way. That I didn't want my students to learn the hard way.

So... we talked about flatting. What you needed to do when setting up a new place. Signing tenancy agreements, finding flatmates, paying bills, setting up joint bank accounts, finding furniture, organising power companies and internet to be set up... oh and figuring out whether to buy food as a flat or individually.

So... after that awesome lesson - even during it I felt that we had some real, purposeful, relevant learning. I lined them up like we usually do when we start a new topic at the end of the lesson and asked them what new thing they'd learnt that lesson.

Many of them were truly shocked with the experiences I had while at uni... and those were the ones I could tell my grandmothers about haha. But I think it sparked interest for many of them because they understand that it's important to be smarter with our money. Perhaps this generation is more savvy than mine with money - perhaps they've learnt from their parents mistakes and won't make stupid decisions like I did while navigating my way to becoming more financially literate.

Yesterday afternoon I made play money. They're super cool. Photos to come.

Now I just need to print off some examples of tenancy agreements ... because today we begin a mock flatting situation. I just need to make some income cards, expenses cards, dilemma cards and winning cards to really make this game work.

Hopefully... playing this game will give them an idea as to how to make their own financial literacy game.

Next things to do... print off tenancy agreements, rentals in Rotorua, budgets, and... figure out whether to let them figure out power, internet, etc companies or print these out too for them... insurance, kiwisaver too...