On April 15, I, alongside CCHS English teacher, Mrs. Melea Ray, was fortunate to be invited as a guest to attend a Credit For Life Fair at Andover High School. Last year, Mrs. Ray organized a Reality Fair for seniors at CCHS, and it was a major success. Here, we hoped to learn how to improve the Reality Fair with the help from the Credit For Life Fair, an organization we hope to collaborate with at CCHS in the future.
At the beginning, we were told to go onto the Credit For Life website (https://www.creditforlife.org/en/) and register as a student. There, we got to choose an occupation and access our bank accounts, which included savings, checking, credit card, and retirement accounts. I chose to be a hedge fund manager, which earned an annual salary of around $63,000.
We were then given a “Fair Passport,” with different stops we had to visit in order to complete our budget, such as “Food & Nutrition” and “Transportation.” As I visited each stop, people sitting at the table chatted with me about the topic and gave me advice on what I should purchase. For instance, at the “Lifestyle” stop, the man sitting there recommended that I opt for the professional hair salon, despite it being the most expensive option, as he took into consideration that I would need to look presentable as a hedge fund manager, as many would be regularly meeting with investors in the real world. At the end of each stop, we received a sticker to show proof of completion.
Aside from the normal budgeting stops, there were also two bonus stops: “Safety & Security” and “Money Smarts.” At “Safety & Security,” there were firefighters handing out pamphlets about how to deal with emergency situations. There was also an adorable firefighter dog named Maggie, and I even got her photo on a cute trading card! At the “Money Smarts” station, you could learn how to write a check, which was extremely helpful as I have never done one before.
When I was done going through all of the stations, the last stop was “Budget Review.” There, a volunteer looked over my spending decisions and gave me his approval. He also reminded me that although a hedge fund manager makes a decent amount of money, it can also be a very stressful job, so I should take care of myself and have some fun regularly. At the end of the budget review, he gave me a raffle ticket, as every student who completes the budget gets a chance to be entered into a raffle, and there were 25 winners in total.
Guess what––I won! I received a $20 gift card to Perfecto’s Cafe. (I went there right after for lunch, and I can contend that it was delicious!)
Overall, attending the Credit For Life Fair was an amazing experience and one that every high school student should have the opportunity to do. Even though I thought that I already knew a lot about personal finance, I still discovered new things through this fair, such as how to write a check. Because Massachusetts does not have a financial literacy requirement to graduate high school, most students are left financially unprepared as they step off into adulthood. I believe that a Credit For Life Fair would be a great way to expose students to the real world so that they feel more ready for the future. Although Concord-Carlisle High School has never held Credit For Life Fairs before, Mrs. Ray and I are excited to try and organize one in the coming years!
