Focus on Manatee: Financial literacy important at all ages

Personal finances are important, budgeting can be hard and education matters.

Those were the messages more than 300 Bayshore High School students recently heard – and this time it wasn’t their parents or teachers talking.

The Manatee Chamber of Commerce sent more than 60 business volunteers to work with seniors at Bayshore through a program called “The Big Bank Theory.”

The Big Bank Theory is a hands-on activity that assigns every student the profile of a 25-year-old working adult. Each profile includes different scenarios related to education level, occupation, monthly income and family demographics.

A student may find themselves as a 25-year-old high school dropout trying to make it on $1,200 per month with a young child, or as an engineer with a masters degree with a monthly income after taxes of more than $5,000 per month.

After receiving their profile, each student must work with the business volunteers to make spending decisions at 13 different stations. They’re required to find housing, transportation, insurance and child care.

They choose how much to spend on entertainment, groceries and clothing. They also can choose to invest in additional education for the future return of a better-paying career.

It is an eye-opening experience for many students.

Comments shared by the Bayshore students included observations such as:

• “Life can throw good things and bad things at you and you need to be prepared.”
• “Childcare and insurance are expensive.”
• “If I don’t pay my credit card on time, they will charge me more money.”

One student shared with us that she never realized her mom had to make so many budget decisions every month.

During the next two months, the Manatee Chamber will send more business volunteers to other Manatee County public high schools.

I think our business leaders get as much out of the activity as the students – many remark about how seriously the students take the decisions they must make during the Big Bank Theory program.

Our goal is to educate these teens about personal finances while stressing the importance of a good education.

It’s an investment in today’s students and our workforce of tomorrow.

This story was originally published February 4, 2018 at 8:35 AM with the headline "Focus on Manatee: Financial literacy important at all ages."