Savings and Spending

This Monday, I went to the Kiddie Academy in Lewisville, Texas and taught 3 groups of 20 kids about the importance of maintaining a balanced saving and spending regimen. Additionally, we discussed how necessary it is to have a stable job and paycheck in order to effectively budget and manage finances. While defining spending, I also taught them about the two categories for purchases: wants and needs. To reinforce their understanding, we played a game where I asked them to identify whether an item was a want or a need. Then, to explain the concept of saving, I described a story of a person who had an emergency and needed money for his bills. After explaining both terms, we began playing a different game. In this game, I gave each kid 10 fake dollars and told them to sort the money into two piles of saving and spending. Following this, I took up the money and introduced the concept of the 50-30-20 rule where 50% of the paycheck goes toward needs, 30% goes toward wants, and 20% goes toward savings. Finally, at the end of the lesson, I quizzed the class on the topics we covered, and offered rewards to those who had answered the questions.