Today was Day 9 of our Presonal Finance in 24 Hours course, Day 2 of Budgeting in College, and one of my favorite lessons. Go ahead and click if you want to see the whole plan, with all of the resources, but here are some of my favorite moments I’d like to highlight:

Discussion Prompt: Does Maxine, who’s just landed her first full-time job, working HR for a large company in Washington, DC, NEED an updated wardrobe? or does she WANT an updated wardrobe? It’s business professional attire, every day, and she’s only got a few pieces from college that will work. This one always generates great dialogue, and today was no different. As follow-up questions, if they say it’s a NEED, I recommend: How should she pay for those clothes? Should she go for a lot upfront or add pieces incrementally? Should she shop high quality so they’ll last? Name brand, so she is dressed to impress? Cheap, so she can have lots of outfits and variety? Someone today suggested she borrow clothes from a friend; innovative!

Create a Monthly College Budget: This is the in-college version of NGPF’s most popular activity, Create a Salary-Based Budget. The two activities follow the same format — a series of slides, with one budget line item decision per slide, correspond to a spreadsheet that students complete as they make each choice. So, are you saving by choosing a voice and text only plan? or are you springing for a data plan? As one student pointed out, “A college campus should have free wifi everywhere, so why pay for data?” Another countered with, “But you need a back up plan. A college professor isn’t going to care that you missed deadlines because you were relying on slow wifi…” Ah, these decisions and these discussions are music to my ears! This is a great activity to use even if you’re not teaching a full lesson or unit on budgeting during college — it’s totally appropriate for hard-to-fill classes like the day before a holiday, the morning of prom, etc.

College Students Struggle with Money Management: I love this video profiling two college budgets gone horribly awry. While Kekasha is completely clueless, spending money frivolously, waiting for someone to come along and help her manage her money, David knowingly overspends and digs himself into almost $200K (between student loans and consumer debt) because he’ll “pay it all off once he has a good job.” Spoiler: David ends up moving back in with his parents… The student activity packet (accessible through the lesson guide) has some questions for students to answer as they watch.

At the end of the lesson, when I solicited Key Takeaways, I got:

1. When you’re budgeting, every single dollar amount adds up. Every decision matters.
2. You have to make tradeoffs. You’re going to have to sacrifice some things, so you can prioritize others.
3. Whatever you do, do not overspend.
4. Do not purposely take on debt. If it’s necessary, OK, but not just to fund things you’d LIKE to do or have.

With those four Key Takeaways, and every single student engaged in the budgeting activity, I’ll consider the lesson a success.

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.