Once the excitement of graduating high school fades, young adults often are hit with a major reality check, that “adulting” is not as fun or as easy as it looks.
But the Real Money, Real World program, offered through the Putnam County OSU Extension Office, is hoping to help area students avoid that eye-opening scenario, by teaching them about budgeting and finance, before they enter the real world.
According to Jason Hedrick, a part of the OSU Extension, "We explore that what you make is not really what you take home you have to pay taxes and put things aside for retirement and savings and all those types of things."
As part of the program, every student is assigned a career, a family situation, and an equivalent monthly salary to their occupation.
Ottoville High School senior, Madicyn Schnipke, can say first hand, the scenario was not exactly her dream life. "It's not good, I only make two grand a month and I have two very small kids so it was hard to afford a good car for them. I didn’t think I would run out of money so quickly and have to get a second job, I’m about to go get a third one so... that's not great.
Students then work through the experience of opening a checking and savings account; paying bills, balancing their checkbooks and saving for the future. All while spending their salaries on the necessities and luxuries they envision as part of their adult life.
Ottawa-Glandorf junior, Lindsey Schneeg, even learned a few eye-opening lessons. "Children are expensive that's what I’ve learned, definitely have to take the cheapest option for everything if you can do it. It's really important to manage your money and you need to take really good records for your books and whatnot. You definitely need that in life or you're going to go into debt really quickly."
With over 400 area students in attendance, the Real World, Real Money program hopes every single student left with a better understanding of money management and the cost of living.
