Golden Valley High seniors get hands-on lesson in real-world budgeting.
Golden Valley High School seminar students took part in a financial literacy program on Thursday where students were given the opportunity to simulate real-life financial decisions. Questions they will soon have to answer like how much to spend on a car? What type of food to buy? Should they live in a house or rent an apartment? Volunteers from Farmers Insurance Credit Union teamed up with “Bite of Reality,” an interactive financial literacy simulation that gives students hands-on experience managing a real-world budget, to create the financial literacy program for the students.
Approximately 80 GVHS seniors were assigned a career, salary, and financial profile, and then went station to station in the gym, making decisions about housing, transportation, food, and other living expenses using the app. The exercise helps the students understand the cost of living, budgeting, and the impact of financial choices on their lifestyle. Livingston High seniors participated in the activity earlier this year.
"Hosting a financial literacy event at Golden Valley High School is an important step toward equipping students with practical money management skills they can use for life,” said GVHS associate principal Mark Melgoza. “By learning about budgeting, saving, credit, and investing early, students gain the confidence to make informed financial decisions as they enter adulthood. This kind of education helps reduce future financial stress and empowers young people to build stable, independent futures. Partnering with Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union further strengthens this effort by bringing trusted financial expertise and real-world insight directly to students."
Every student was randomly assigned a job, an imaginary spouse and one fictitious child. Kamaryn Agbulos was thrilled to find out she was making $4,000/month as a computer programer. She was less than thrilled to learn that her spouse only made $1,000/month. “The fact that my spouse only made $1,000 was horrible,” Agbulos said.
Agbulos said her friend made fun of her frugalness when it came time to purchase items for her house. “He said he would never come over because I’m a cheapskate,” she said. Armed with the information about their career, family and financial situation, students went to nine stations around the gym to determine how they could spend their budget.
At the clothing station students could choose whether they wanted to buy designer clothes, department store clothes or pick their outfits from sale or discount stores. They could choose to eat out at nice restaurants, or fast food and how often they wanted to purchase their drinks at places like Starbucks or Dutch Bros. Buying a house or renting an apartment were choices they had to make and what kind of vehicle to buy. Entertainment was also a station. They could choose to spend $1,200 per person for a trip to Hawaii or $54 on a rock concert or they could choose cheaper activities like going for a walk, a trip to the zoo or a picnic. “It’s rewarding to see these kids engaged,” said Daisy Aleman, Farmers Insurance Credit Union branch manager. “They are learning and having fun at the same time.”
“There are always some who are returning things,” said Ellie Harte, Farmers Insurance Credit Union Marketing Specialist. “They either spent on transportation or the cool things like I wanted a boat and they have to come back with their tail between their legs and say I have to return the boat.”
Golden Valley senior seminar teacher Jacqueline Wooding says her classes finished a financial literacy unit where they learned about opening a bank account, they made grocery spreadsheets, looked at how much it would cost to buy a house and the type of jobs you would need to have to buy a house in Merced.
“The child care station is really hitting some kids hard,” Wooding said. “A lot of students didn’t realize how much it costs for child care. They are also realizing they can’t have steak every night or go out to a nice restaurant. They have to make their own food.”
Elijah Contreras was given blogger as his job and together with his spouse they make about $5,000 per month. He took a used car and gave his wife a new pickup. The cost of kids surprised him. “They are not cheap at all,” Contreras said. “I probably spent $300 for daycare alone and that’s just one kid. I didn’t know that about kids and I want to have kids one day. You really have to start saving when you can.” Contreras decided to save at the food station. “I can survive on noodles and maybe some fast food here and there,” Contreras said.
Melgoza participated in the activity and was given a job as an EMT and together with his spouse they were making $4,900/month. He found himself overspending like some of the kids and had to return a truck.
“I went overboard with the car and we were over because it cost more than the house so I had to go back and do that one over,” Melgoza said. “Financial literacy for kids is super important. It’s not something that they see every day but going through this exercise, it shows them the stress of keeping things under budget and what that is like. We don’t have unlimited amounts of money so you have to spend within your limits. It would be nice to have your wants always there, and it would be nice to splurge on those things, but you have to put your needs first.”
Shawn Jansen is the MUSHD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.