MSU Extension 4-H Youth Money Management

Hello. My name is Sara Keinath. I work for MSU Extension. And today we're going to do an activity where we build a bank together and we're going to talk about how we use our money. Gather your supplies together, and we'll get started. So as I'm gathering my materials together, one of the first things I'm going to think about is the container that I'm going to put this into. The template is sized so that it fits into a 16 ounce deli container. As you can see here, this is what we're going to be making. As you can see, if you wanted to find something else in your house that might work, you could probably make that work. If you have an eight ounce deli container, you can see that you would have to modify the insides of that a little bit. And it would be harder to fit in there, but that's an option. If you had something that was bigger, it would be a little bit harder to make that template fit in there. It's not going to fit nicely. But again, if you are creative and modify the template, that might work. And another option honestly is to find maybe just four containers. I've got four here that are the same size. But you could find just four different containers and you can just end up putting labels on the outsides of the containers instead of having everything in one container. So you've got a couple of different options, but the template is written so that it would fit into a 16 ounce deli container. I got this one when I've got some coleslaw at the store and then I just cleaned it out. You can see here that I've printed off my template on to a colored green card stock. I like the thickness of the green card stock. And so that helps to kind of make it a little bit sturdier, but you can print this off onto white paper as well. And if you don't have colored paper, that's fine because you can always decorate it later. And you can see here that there's some darker lines. I'm going to cut around these darker lines on the rectangles and then on the outside of the 4-H clover that is in this circle, I'm going to cut around outside of that one. A regular piggy bank has just one section. The slot in the top where you put in the money. This bank that we're making today is going to have four different sections. We have these four different, these are going to end up being our dividers. Being told to save money instead of being allowed to spend it can feel like an unreasonable rule. But if you are making the decisions about how to use your money, you can practice some life skills and gain confidence in your money management abilities. There are four ways to use money; save it, spend it, share it, or invest it. Everyone has different values and these will guide our money decisions. Learning to think through values ahead of time can make financial choices easier for you. So you can see now I've got my four rectangles and I've got my circle with the clover in the middle. And now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to get my marker and I'm going to label my four rectangles. So you'll notice that the rectangles have a dotted line down the middle and then they've got some symbols up in the upper corners. We're going to pay attention to those in just a second. First, we're going to label each of these. So I'm going to label these with the four ways that we can use money. The first way is to save. So this will be my save section. Saving is putting away money to use later. This can be most relevant when associated with a specific goal, such as a larger cost item that will take some time to earn enough money to purchase. What might be an example of something you'd like to save money for? And then I will have a spend section. Spending money is using money to purchase items or services. This involves making choices based on needs and wants. Creating a spending plan can help you make wise decisions and avoid surprises. What is the last thing you decided to spend money on? I'm going to have a share section. Sharing or donating money is a way to use our money in a way that helps someone else. We can choose to share our money with an organization, help with a fundraiser, or raise money for a specific cause. Using money to help others can warm our hearts and strengthen our decision-making skills. Do you have a favorite cause or organization that you like to donate money to? Lastly we are going to have an Invest section. Investing money is a way to use money with the intent to make more money in the end. Investing money is similar to saving money, but is generally considered more long-term and also comes with more risk. Learning about investments early in life can pay off. Money in interest bearing accounts grows through compound interest, which means that the longer the money is in that account, the more it can grow. So now that I have my four sections cut out and labeled, now we're going to take a look at these symbols up in the corners here. You'll see there's, there's four different symbols in the upper corners and we're going to match these up. So we're going to fold along this middle line here. And then we're going to find the two sections that match. So see here this money bag symbol here, and here's my other money bag symbol here. So I'm going to fold this one. And then I'm going to glue the two together that have the matching symbol just up until that middle fold. Then we're going to glue these two sides together here with my glue sticks. You can also use tape for this if that's what you have. So now I've got those two glued. And so now I'm going to look at my next symbol. And so on this one, This one and the next symbol that I see is the paper money there. So I'm going to look down here and find, here's the other one with my paper money over here. Fold this in half along that middle dotted line. And then I'm going to glue this side with the paper money, to this side with the paper money. Glue those two together. Next you're going to make the dividers for our bank so that we can have four different sections. So if you're using glue stick you have a little bit of time that you can change things if you didn't get it lined up just right. When I'm done to have these four sections, I'm going to bring in my deli container here. And I can put this in my deli container and this is going to give me my four sections in my deli container. And now with my circle, I've got two options here. I could put it in the bottom of my bank if I would like to. Or I like to put it on top. Because then I can I can maybe label this with my name or put some more decorations up here, put some stickers on here or something. I might put some goals on the outside. I could write some things down here and outside if I would like to. So you've got some options as to how you want to, how it is that you want to put that on there? I use tape for this part. And then when I have some money, then I can make some decisions about how it is that I'm going to use my money and look at my different sections and make a decision about which section I want to put my money in. Then everything can stay right in there just like that. What decisions would you like to make with your money today?