High school seniors scare me.

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

This morning I volunteered at the local high school for a "reality check" program. The students come into the gym and are assigned a job with a realistic salary and are told whether they are married or single and how many kids they may have. They then take their first paycheck and walk around to different tables getting set up with a car, bank account, house, loans, further education, etc. They write fake checks to pay for things and get paid/pay bills every 20 minutes or so throughout the simulation.

I got the fabulously fun job of being fate and handing out, "That's life!" cards. They said things like "you get a tax refund of ___" or "you got a DUI, pay this, sell your car" and so on. It was so. much. fun.

Well, not only did most of the "single parents" ask if they could just put their kids up for adoption, but the married students whose spouse didn't work wanted divorces.

Then, several checks were written so horribly it scared me. Two of my favorites were for amounts of:

Three hundred and three-teen dollers

For hunder and too thirty dollors

These students are graduating in a few weeks and entering the work force/college. WHAT?!?! Indifferent

--halo-- · April 2012

My current opinion of teenagers:

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

--halo--:
My current opinion of teenagers:

For real. A lot of them were nice and polite and not complete morons, but I'm pretty sure I knew how to fill out a check -- or at least write numbers properly -- by 17 years old. Haha

TMNTgirl · April 2012

My roommate from my sophomore year in college (actually a guy I had known since I was like 6 years old) didn't even have checks or know how to write one when it came to putting down the deposit for our apartment Indifferent .

Apparently when he got a checking account sometime around the age of 16-17 he just got a debit card and never even ordered checks or needed to write one.

It made me really grateful that my mom taught me so much about practical money things at a young age. When I got my first checking account (co-signed in her name too) at 16 when I got a job she would make me write a $50 check each month and put it into my college fund. It got me in the habit if having a small monthly bill to remember to set money aside for, practice writing checks and actually made me feel like I had an interest in how/where I was going to spend that college fund in a few years.

jarebearsmom · April 2012

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

TMNTgirl:
My roommate from my sophomore year in college (actually a guy I had known since I was like 6 years old) didn't even have checks or know how to write one when it came to putting down the deposit for our apartment .

Apparently when he got a checking account sometime around the age of 16-17 he just got a debit card and never even ordered checks or needed to write one.

It made me really grateful that my mom taught me so much about practical money things at a young age. When I got my first checking account (co-signed in her name too) at 16 when I got a job she would make me write a $50 check each month and put it into my college fund. It got me in the habit if having a small monthly bill to remember to set money aside for, practice writing checks and actually made me feel like I had an interest in how/where I was going to spend that college fund in a few years.

I wish more parents would do things like this. So many (not all, but many) of my college students have little idea of money or what things actually cost. In conversation recently, I told my students how much we pay in bills (insurance, car, daycare, phone, etc.) and they were absolutely floored.

jillybean800 · April 2012

Um, I had to teach my husband how to write a check. 4 years ago. It was sooo sad!

I really like that program. I wish they did that at my school.

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

jillybean800:
Um, I had to teach my husband how to write a check. 4 years ago. It was sooo sad!
I really like that program. I wish they did that at my school.

The hardest part is finding the volunteers. If you can do that, it was really easy to set up.

MommaEA · April 2012

--halo--:

My current opinion of teenagers:

LOL

My mom did this game for her job not too long ago. It sounds like fun and like it is needed for some of these kids.

Nicole0012 · April 2012

Yep. I get to work with gems like that on a daily basis

Cool program, though!

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

Nicole0012:
Yep. I get to work with gems like that on a daily basis
Cool program, though!

Bahahahaha!

janneann1127 · April 2012

OhSewCrafty:
This morning I volunteered at the local high school for a "reality check" program. The students come into the gym and are assigned a job with a realistic salary and are told whether they are married or single and how many kids they may have. They then take their first paycheck and walk around to different tables getting set up with a car, bank account, house, loans, further education, etc. They write fake checks to pay for things and get paid/pay bills every 20 minutes or so throughout the simulation.
I got the fabulously fun job of being fate and handing out, "That's life!" cards. They said things like "you get a tax refund of ___" or "you got a DUI, pay this, sell your car" and so on. It was so. much. fun.
Well, not only did most of the "single parents" ask if they could just put their kids up for adoption, but the married students whose spouse didn't work wanted divorces.
Then, several checks were written so horribly it scared me. Two of my favorites were for amounts of:
Three hundred and three-teen dollers
For hunder and too thirty dollors

These students are graduating in a few weeks and entering the work force/college. WHAT?!?!

OMG this made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that!

OhSewCrafty · April 2012

janneann1127:
OhSewCrafty:
This morning I volunteered at the local high school for a "reality check" program. The students come into the gym and are assigned a job with a realistic salary and are told whether they are married or single and how many kids they may have. They then take their first paycheck and walk around to different tables getting set up with a car, bank account, house, loans, further education, etc. They write fake checks to pay for things and get paid/pay bills every 20 minutes or so throughout the simulation.
I got the fabulously fun job of being fate and handing out, "That's life!" cards. They said things like "you get a tax refund of ___" or "you got a DUI, pay this, sell your car" and so on. It was so. much. fun.
Well, not only did most of the "single parents" ask if they could just put their kids up for adoption, but the married students whose spouse didn't work wanted divorces.
Then, several checks were written so horribly it scared me. Two of my favorites were for amounts of:
Three hundred and three-teen dollers
For hunder and too thirty dollors

These students are graduating in a few weeks and entering the work force/college. WHAT?!?!
OMG this made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that!

Hahaha You're welcome. Do you know how hard it was not to laugh my butt off when I saw that?! I'm here to teach you about money management, not spelling and grammar.

LilyRose28 · April 2012

jillybean800:
Um, I had to teach my husband how to write a check. 4 years ago. It was sooo sad!

Me, too. I feel my ILs really slacked off on teaching their kids the basics in life. My BIL is almost 28 and had to ask his mom how to mail a package to us at the post office (what kind of box, what postage, etc). And we still haven't gotten the package so who knows if he even was able to find the post office.

bumpuser260585 · April 2012

That is horrible. I had a roommate in college that had a sample check written out that she leroy in her check book to reference. On the pay to line it said "PERSON/BUISINESS NAME" "SIGN HERE" on the endorsement line, etc. How do parents not teach these things to thier kids?

Rink08 · April 2012

That's definitely a great thing to know how to do.

I had one of my dad's credit cards all through highschool and then had a debit card for my accounts. The first time that I got a checkbook was when I switched from getting a paper paycheck to having it direct deposited because they needed a voided check to switch it. I've had a checkbook for 5 years now and haven't needed to reorder checks yet. I just don't use them.

jnicolen1 · April 2012

i blame it all on the debit card. its like checks are considered ancient these days. the same kids probably dont know how to address envelopes because they are so used to email!

--halo-- · April 2012

jnicolen1:
i blame it all on the debit card. its like checks are considered ancient these days. the same kids probably dont know how to address envelopes because they are so used to email!

Old. I feel old.

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