SALEM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Local high school students attended the 14th annual Credit for Life Fair on Thursday at Salem State University.
State banking officials and members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were among the volunteers teaching students how to develop personal budgeting skills they will use throughout their lives.
Hundreds of students attended this year's fair from 14 schools in the area, including Newburyport, Pentucket Regional, Masconomet Regional, Salem, Beverly, and Gloucester.
One student said he quickly learned that developing and sticking to a budget is not easy. "Saving for the future I thought was kind of hard."
Another student explained that "it's a lot different to have grown-up money than high-school-kid money, so a lot more responsibility."
Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications at the Institute of Savings Mary Anne Clancy said that students used the Credit for Life website to create profiles on their phones and choose professions.
"We do this because Massachusetts is one of the handful of states that doesn't require personal finance as a graduation requirement. So we have sort of tried to pick up the slack," said Clancy.
She added that they visited 12 booths and bought everything they would need as 25-year-olds using their monthly paycheck, savings account, and credit card. "We build in choices for them to make about housing and nutrition and food and insurance. But we also included those rainy-day type of unexpected expenses."
"My budget is a little low, but I just realized that things are a little bit more expensive than I thought," shared a high school junior about the financial simulation.
Clancy added "we think it's really important for high school students to learn how to budget their money and live within their means before they go out into the world of work and college."
WBZ NewsRadio's Emma Friedman (@EmmaFriedmanWBZ) reports.
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