Tyler ISD students get trained in financial literacy

Published 6:34 pm Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Many Tyler ISD students are getting a dose of financial reality and what it will be like to one day earn a salary and pay for housing, transportation, car insurance, utilities, food, clothing and other expenses.

Lessons in financial literacy came for Moore MST Middle School seventh-graders during a Reality Fair on Wednesday. Reality fairs are planned later at two other Tyler ISD schools.

For Moore students, the fair, which was put on by East Texas Professional Credit Union, started with students selecting careers and finding out what their salaries likely would be, then going from booth to booth to select how much they might spend on expenses in various categories.

Liam Broone, 13, who plans a career as a mobile app developer, decided as he made his way from booth to booth that he would plan on spending $835 monthly of his expected $99,000 annual income on housing and $405 on transportation.

He went to other booths to figure out how much he might spend on utilities, nutrition, clothing, cell phone, cable TV, Internet service, health club memberships and other items.

Students had to decide whether to buy a new or used car, whether to rent or buy a home, whether to work out free at home or join a health club and make other financial decisions.

“(The experience) will help me to budget how much I spend on stuff I don’t even need and to keep my money in balance and not overspend, Liam said.

Mattie Young, 13, who wants to be a nurse, walked among the 10 booths manned by 18 East Texas Professional Credit Union employees who helped students develop a spending plan for how they would budget their finances with the salary they are likely to make in their chosen career.

“It’s helping me know what I have to prepare for in the future,” she said, saying the Reality Fair was “absolutely” making her better prepared to manage her finances as an adult.

Cooperative Teacher’s Credit Union plans reality fairs on Friday at John Tyler High School and at Robert E. Lee High School on April 14 about basic money management skills and how and why to save money.

“Financial Reality Fairs are, more often than not, a very eye-opening experience,” Tim Miller, CEO for Cooperative Teacher’s Credit Union, said. “One of our missions is to provide financial education to our youth.”

“It’s important for students to have financial education as well as the rest of the academics,” Sarah Parlett, Tyler branch coordinator for East Texas Professional Credit Union, said.

“This (the Moore fair) kind of gets them prepared for what’s going to happen in life. I don’t think they have an idea of how much their parents spend (on living expenses). This gives them a head start in the real world,” Ms. Partlett said.

She staffed the financial counseling station, the last station on the Reality Fair tour, where counselors added up money allocated by students as they went through the fair to figure out if they had over budgeted, under budgeted or come out about right.

At the transportation booth, Sandy Krell, vice president of branch operations for East Texas Professional Credit Union, helped students budget for the monthly costs for buying a vehicle, car insurance, gasoline and maintenance.

There was even a station where students flipped over cards to find unexpected developments, such as a bonus or medical expense or car repairs and had to incorporate those into their monthly expenses.

“I think for this age child, it’s a small taste of what their parents or caregivers go through. You have to make choices wisely and decide between needs and wants,” Teresa Easterling, a Moore department chair and one of four facilitators for the Moore fair, said.

The counseling at each table provided relevance to why students learn some of the things they learn in school, Moore Principal Claude Lane said.

“The initial objective is to teach financial literacy,” he said, but it ends up being ways to manage your money and could become career counseling if students learned a career did not pay enough to cover their anticipated expenses, the principal said.

Students might realize they could make good money in a career and might realize there is an option for a career other than one that requires a four-year degree, Ms. Easterling said. “It (the fair) certainly gives them something to take about.”

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