North Mason students get help budgeting

A Financial Reality Fair for North Mason High students is today in two sessions from 8 to 10:30 a.m.

Before the event, students will download an app on their phone or borrow a device that has the program.

"Teens are given a fictional occupation, salary, credit score, spouse and a child, student loan debt, credit card debt and medical insurance payments. The teens then walk around to various table-top stations to 'purchase' housing, transportation, food, clothing and other needs. Fortunately, the game also includes a 'credit union' to help with their financial needs," Julie Barfield, M.Ed., Financial Math 1 & 2 and Career Choices at North Mason High School, told the Herald in an email.

The event is for grades nine through 12, she said.

"It's teaching the kids good budgeting," Amber Trail, the director of marketing at Our Community Credit Union, one of the sponsors of the event, told the Herald.

Other sponsors include The North Mason Chamber Education Committee, Kitsap Credit Union and Peninsula Credit Union.

Trail said the credit union helps with the fair several times a year in different locations. She said they like to get the kids to go through the simulation twice, "once when they're freshmen and again when they're seniors."

OURCU employees and other community members volunteer at the booths, Trail said.

"We love doing it," she said.

Students will visit nine stations and make purchases at each one, according to a training video for volunteers.

The volunteers will staff booths addressing housing, transportation, household needs, groceries and dining, clothing and personal care, entertainment, shopping and kid care, and a credit union booth that students must visit when they run out of money.

People learn by failing, according to the training video.

"Your entire goal is to get them to buy the most expensive thing," the video says.

When students fail by running out of money, "that's the best way for them to be prepared for dealing with real money and a real budget," according to the video.

A video of past fairs shows interactions with the students, including a volunteer at the entertainment booth trying to sell computers, a sound system and flat screen TVs for every room.

"Once you've got them to buy much more than they can afford, they're going to realize they need help," the video says.

The credit union table is there to help.

The app directs students to the credit union station for financial counseling.

Volunteers there look over the teens' purchases and suggest items they may want to take back and exchange for something within their budget.

"The new truck is probably not the best option since we're out of cash," a credit union booth volunteer advises a broke student at a past event.

"Why don't you do an old car or a used car?" the volunteer suggests.

One student asks whether he can put up his kids for adoption because they are too expensive.

The volunteer says that's not an option.