“But, I NEEEEED It!” Discovering Needs vs. Wants

Financial Literacy Month is an ideal time to help young people become more aware of financial responsibility. Do you often hear the words, “But I need it!” from your children, students, or even your partner? What distinguishes a want from a need? Food and housing, of course, are both needs. But food can be a want as well—think candy or junk food. Is ice cream a want or a need? After a long, stressful day, it certainly might feel like a need. How much housing is a need, and at what point does it become a want?

Check out this game, adapted from a classroom lesson on Wants and Needs from FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™. Download the PDF. Share it on an iPad or print out a copy for each player.

Players will sort the images into needs vs. wants, circling needs and drawing a box around wants. Even early learners who can’t yet read can participate by looking at the pictures. It’s never too early to raise awareness of the importance of understanding wants vs. needs. In fact, we can probably all use a reminder. After all, companies shell out billions of dollars each year to make us “need our wants,” and it’s easy to get caught up believing we need far more than we really do—or can realistically afford.

Determine Your Own Wants and Needs

A great way to extend this game activity is to have kids continue the discussion with examples from their own lives. Depending on the circumstances, plenty of things can fall into either category—or both. Use the topics below to spark discussion—and have fun coming up with your own ideas.

• Is summer camp a want or a need?

• What about pizza?

• A day in the city?

• Going to visit cousins?

• A new backpack?

• Shoes?

• Donating to a charity?

• What else might be a need for one family and a want for another?

For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.

Budgeting for Beginners: What Does It Cost to Run a Family?

On this second day of Financial Literacy Month, the FUTURES™ Financial Literacy Program is excited to present this fun, family-focused activity to help kids understand the budget it takes to “run a family” for a month.

Look at the list below and customize it for your family, class, or small group. As the game facilitator, you’ll guide kids in determining how much money is required to keep a family clothed, fed, housed, and busy for a month.

For families, this is a great after-dinner, road trip, or weekend activity. Jot down your family’s average or last month’s spending in each category and tuck it in your pocket to compare everyone’s predictions with actual expenses. In the classroom, this can serve as an engaging introduction to a personal finance curriculum. Teachers, you can use a hypothetical family’s expenses to discuss results as a class—or ask students to go home and talk with family members and caregivers to gain an understanding of their household’s real monthly budget.

Invite one family member or student to serve as recorder, either by taking notes, making a table, list, or chart, or recording the answers on a smart board or digital device. Kids can work in teams or independently, whatever is best for the group.

From Doctor Bills to Doughnut Thrills: Determine Your Monthly Expenses  

Ask everyone to decide how much they think it costs to pay for each of the following for a month:

• Rent or mortgage

• Groceries

• Electricity

• Heat

• Water bill

• Cable or internet bill

• Medical expenses

• Clothing

• Restaurants/ ordering out

• School and after-school expenses

• Commuting expenses

• Extracurricular activities

Now have the students compare the estimates with a real family budget. Ask kids: What do you think about the results? Does it cost more or less than you expected to run a household? What areas take up most of the monthly budget? Are there any areas where you can cut back on expenses?

For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.

Introducing FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™

Kindergarten is NOT too early to get ready for college! How can students be college or career ready without an understanding of finances or money management? The answer is, they can’t.

Ariel Education Initiative (AEI), the nonprofit arm of Ariel Investments, believes that financial literacy is a critical 21st-century skill and is vital to our kids, our society, and our future. That’s why AEI developed FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, a vibrant financial literacy program for kids. This proven educational program is FREE and readily available to districts, schools, teachers, coaches, counselors, and families, too!

Created by teachers for teachers, the easy-to-use program provides a comprehensive platform for teaching students how to make sound financial decisions and construct strong success-building goals. The FUTURES™ program guides students from kindergarten through eighth grade, starting with a basic and progressing up to an advanced understanding of four main finance-related instructional content strands: Personal Finance, Economics, Entrepreneurship, and Investing, each rich with important financial education topics. The stand-alone nature of each topic makes it easy to weave these important skills into any ongoing curriculum.

Each strand is made up of sections, 29 sections in all across the four strands. Each section begins with a detailed ready-to-use planning guide and is brimming with handouts and resources—including projectables, worksheets, charts, and other student materials. Because each section is divided into five color-coded sections, moving up in difficulty level, teachers can use their knowledge of student strengths and challenges to adapt and modify each section to meet their students’ needs. Throughout the program, students will develop knowledge of finance and investing using real-world examples and connections while honing critical-thinking skills, applying math skills, considering social studies and other real-world topics.

With an agile and flexible scope and sequence for instruction, lesson plans and assessments align to the national JumpStart Personal Finance Standards and National Council of Economic Education (NCEE) economics standards. In addition, Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts that relate to the sections are also provided where applicable.

This program also “travels” smoothly far beyond the typical classroom, making it easy to introduce and weave in financial education topics in after school programs, home-school settings, and even around the family dinner table. When sports teams are ready to fund-raise, coaches can choose targeted sections from FUTURES™ to get the team off to a winning beginning.

Follow this Blog Each Day in April

Please join us for the next 30 days during Financial Literacy Month and get a taste of the program as we share games, activities, and other resources designed to help kids become more financially aware—the first step.

For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ for students in kindergarten through eighth grade or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.