MSU Extension 4-H Youth Money Management

Hello. My name is Deb Barrett and I work for Michigan State University Extension and the Michigan 4 H Youth Development Program. Today I'm going to talk with you about a lesson called Fun Funds and it has to do with building a budget. This slide represents our civil rights justice for all poster. And it is Michigan State University's commitment to being open to all for our programs, resources, and materials. I want to mention that the materials I am using for this lesson come from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The supplies that you are going to need for this lesson include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Building Blocks Student Worksheet for Budgeting for a fun day with a friend. You are also going to need a pen or a pencil. And you may want to have a calculator with you because we are going to do some very basic and simple math. Fun funds. Is it about planning and budgeting. Why do we do this? And why does it matter? Planning and budgeting helps you make sure that you have enough money for fun things while still paying all of your bills. They are important tools for managing your money. And when you have a written plan, it makes something more achievable. The goals of the Fun Funds lesson include practice making spending decisions, and to create a very simple, basic budget. As we begin the lesson, there are three words or terms that you need to be familiar with. The first one is a budget. Budgets are a written plan for money you expect to earn or receive, which is considered income and how you will save or spend it. Those are called expenses for a specific period of time. You also need to be familiar with the term savings, which has to do with the money you set aside in a secure place for emergencies or specific purchases that might be saving for a house or a car or something special that you want someday. The third word is spend. Spend has to do with the use of your money to buy goods and services that you either need or want. So with that, let's get started. You should have the student worksheet in front of you, which is the three-page document. On the first page, you will see that there is a scenario, sort of a set the stage, kind of explanation of what we're gonna do today. So here it is. In a nutshell. You have earned $80 over the summer, mowing lawns and babysitting. Congratulations. You are in the process of planning a fun day with a friend to help celebrate their birthday. You already know that it is important to stick to a budget and you want to and save part of the money that you earned over the summer. How much should you save? This slide gives you a couple of examples. I'm going to suggest to you that you might target saving as much as 20 percent of your $80. But let's say for today that you are at least able to save 10 percent. I have made some example calculations on the slide to give you an idea of how much of your $80 you need to set aside. The first calculation is that 10 percent, that would be equal to $80 times ten divided by 100 equals $8 that you would set aside. The second example is at 15 percent. Same type of math, $80 times 15 divided by 100 equals $12, that would be saved. And then the third example would be at the 20 percent that I suggested. And that calculation would look like $80 times 20 divided by 100 equals $16 to be saved. So if you're going to save one of those amounts, how much can you spend? This slide indicates that you subtract the amount you want to save from the $80. And then the amount left over is your potential budget for this fun day that you are planning. Here is an example. You take your $80 minus $16 that you want to save. That equals a remainder of $64 for you to use to spend on you and your friend for the day. This slide shows you a picture of page two in the student worksheet. I encourage you to turn to that. Now, this is a list of activity costs, of example things that you and your friend might want to do together. In order to do this, I want you to pause to plan. I want you to in a moment, pause the video, look through the list, make some decisions about what you would like to do with your friend and what you can afford to do with your friend based on how much you decide to take of your $80 and save versus what you have for your budget that is leftover. And then you can do some simple calculations following the activity costs worksheet on page 2. Pause the video, work through your list and plan your day. Start the video back up when you're ready. How did that go? I hope that you have a wonderful day planned for you and your friend. And that you've had a little bit of practice of making decisions about what to spend your money on for fun. The next thing that we're gonna do is we're going to talk about some reflection questions. Page 3 of your worksheet has three example questions for you to answer. They are great questions and I encourage you to potentially look those over and write some thoughts for yourself, when you are finished with this video. At the same time, I have sort of tweaked that list a little bit and I have four items that I think you should answer. And here they are on this slide. The first one is: Are there other costs that you thought of that are not on that activity list? The next item would be: What are some fun free things that you could do with your friend? The third item is: How did you decide what to do and what not to do with your fun day? And then the last one: How much money did you save? You should capture some notes and think about those things for a few minutes. As we wrap up today's lesson about Fun Funds, It is important to remember that keeping track of your income, the money coming in, and your expenses, the money that goes out, It is an important way to plan, track, and budget your money. Budgeting is a skill that we can use for a lifetime. It is also important to practice making decisions about where you're going to spend money. When is it a need and necessary versus when are you spending funds on just something that you want or would like to have? That is some of the take away from today's lesson. If you have any questions about Fun Funds, you are welcome to e-mail me with my contact information at the beginning of this PowerPoint. Or you are also welcome to submit questions to the email address indicated here on the final slide, which is 4-HCareerPrep@anr.msu.edu I hope you enjoyed today's Fun Funds lesson, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.