Financial Literacy (Making it Real)

I believe that part of teaching math is making it real.  Numbers and concepts can get lofty and lose meaning very quickly.  We are always saying that we need to make the learning authentic, but I have to wonder how much we truly follow that idea beyond our first year in the classroom.

As we have been working with equations, I found my students enjoying and finding success in the ones that were related to money: how much could you make if, or how much was earned, and so on.  I decided to take it a step further.



I put my personal monthly expenses on the board.  As in, I put my ACTUAL monthly payments on the board.  Rather than just some random numbers, I wanted the kids to see how much an adult spends, without the fun.  If I've learned anything from financial guru Gail Vaz Oxlade, then it's that to be financially successful you need to be honest, share your finances with people, and learn early.  I don't know many professionals who would put it all out there, but I like to live wild, so I did.





The job of the students was to find out how much I spent in a month, and how much I spent in a year.  The operations were fairly simple, but the take-home pay would be anything but.  The kids jaws were literally (not literally) on the floor when they got through adding it all up.  Then, the discussions started on how to find the total for the year.  After some debating over how to get there (aka, multiply by 12) in some of the groups, and the kids feeling the need to recheck because the outgoing expenses for a year were SO HIGH that they couldn't fathom the numbers, they came up with their totals, wrote the equation to represent the work, and explained how they knew they had come out with a logical answer.

This was incredibly eye-opening for all of the kids.  Most had no idea that adults spent so much.  But I wasn't finished.  They couldn't believe it when I projected my last paycheck up onto the board (note: there's some media literacy ... reading a complicated check like that!) and showed them how much I make in a year.
Their jaws dropped!  They were amazed to see such a large number.  "So, I'm rich, right?!"  But that's when my critical thinkers piped in, "No, you're not.  Your bills for the year are XXXX and you only make (insert "large" number here)."


To which I replied, "Why yes!  You're correct.  And let's look at my take-home pay for this 2-week period."  So we went through it all, including ALL of the deductions (nearly half the check) and eventually got to the amount that was deposited into my account.

We had the richest discussions after this.  One boy, who had for weeks earlier this year complained about how much teachers make, said passionately, "I always thought you made so much BUT I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU PAY EVERY MONTH!"  He was in shock!  Another girl asked, "If you were to buy a bigger, newer house, and your mortgage went up, would your house insurance go up, too?" Why yes, yes it would.  They all gasped.  Then I said, "Oh, I didn't include the amount I pay on my credit card."  We discussed credit cards and interest, student loans and debt, and at the end of the period, it would be hard to describe the general air.  The kids were intrigued, but troubled.  They were feeling ... I don't ... at the thought that their teacher had showed them his pay check and shared his monthly expenses with them.  They were talking amongst themselves about needing to save money.



I think that this was a great introduction into financial literacy.  The idea that at ten years old, they can think independently about money and how to use it wisely is inspiring to me, but I think it takes authentic, real connections.  It's not enough to say "What if you made X and bought X?" or "In your babysitting job you make X, so how much can you make in X # of months?"  That may be something interesting to get them find patterns and equations, but it's not going to make them critical thinkers.  I'm not saying don't do that - I do it all the time.  But in this case, it was about teaching them to think critically about money ... even if they are ten.  It's never too early to start making good choices when it comes to money, especially in today's gotta-have-it-and-pay-with-credit world.