Rundlett Middle School students Kyle Hill and Bailey Moran have their sights set on professions in medicine, but to save on their bills, they’ll share a house on the lake.
Decisions like that will be what make or break the bank when they balance their checkbooks at the end of the day. They could have saved more with an apartment, but Kyle, who would be a physician, and Bailey, who would be a surgeon, had incomes that allowed them to go bigger and get their own house.
“An apartment might be too small,” Bailey said. “In a house, we can do what we want. You can’t be loud in an apartment. There’s a bunch of rules.”
The two were among some 260 middle schoolers at NHTI on Thursday for the 11th annual CU 4 Reality Financial Education Program, where students went through a simulation of life after school. They weighed choices of housing, student loans, cable and utilities, and dealt with some of the unforeseen costs that arise in daily life – a lost wallet or fixing the car.
It’s the second year NHTI has hosted the program sponsored by New Hampshire Federal Credit Union. Polly Saltmarsh, NHFCU vice president of marketing and business development, said moving the program from Manchester to NHTI in Concord gives the students a chance to experience a college campus as they think about the future.
“We want to show the students what is available to them locally,” Saltmarsh said.
The program includes a campus tour and lunch in the college’s dining hall. Later in the day, the students had an opportunity to ask a panel of current NHTI students about daily college life.
“It gives them a chance to see what a college campus is really like,” said Tom Warner, an NHTI admissions recruiter. “What kind of programs we have, the different buildings, what it’s like to live in an apartment.”
The students came to the program with their careers already picked out. That process took place over the weeks leading up to the event, and students were told to make their decisions carefully.
“They take it very seriously,” Saltmarsh said. “Can I do this and afford this? . . . Putting it into practice cinches it for them.”
When the students first arrived Thursday morning, she asked how many had ever heard their parents say they couldn’t afford something. Most of the students raised their hands.
“We hope they go home from this program with a better understanding of those choices their parents have to make,” Saltmarsh said.
Fifteen booths were set up around the gymnasium, facilitating landmark financial decisions the students will someday have to make in real life. But the station that attracted the most attention was the Wheel of Reality in the center of the gym.
Students lined up and each took a spin, hoping they would land on some newfound income like officiating a sports game ($300) or earning a scholarship ($500). But some weren’t so lucky, instead losing $200 for a lost iPod or $50 for bouncing a check, or worse: losing their job.
Josh Stanford, who will be 14 next week, wants to be a chef and open his own restaurant. But he took a $100 hit when he lost his wallet on the Wheel of Reality. A moment later, the student after him spun for a $500 inheritance.
Josh shrugged his shoulders and moved on to the next booth.
Sometimes, that’s life.
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3314, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)