Financial Literacy is Key to Effective Money Management for Teens
It’s time for a new school year and Community State Bank is ready to bring back our award winning financial literacy program, MyLIFE, to area schools!
At Community State Bank we understand the importance of helping our community’s youth build a strong financial foundation so that they better understand basic concepts like budgeting, simple interest, and establishing and maintaining good credit.
We believe that financial capability education, improves the financial health outlook for our youth and better prepares them to tackle unexpected financial situations or prepare for significant life milestones like paying for college, purchasing a home, opening a business, or building a nest egg.
It’s the main reason we created MyLIFE (My Local Interactive Financial Education), a comprehensive interactive financial literacy program for high school students designed to demonstrate the importance of sound money management skills.
Early in the school year, each participating MyLIFE student has the opportunity to choose a career path that determines his or her starting salary for the event. Students are then randomly assigned a “life” – single, married or divorced, kids or not, a credit score, level of education, and student debt – all potential real-life situations. Once their “life” is assigned, students are directed to the gym, where high school staff, local business leaders, community and student volunteers help guide them through essential life decisions.
The participating MyLIFE students are then required to manage a complete monthly budget including: housing, insurance (health, life, auto, homeowner’s), groceries, transportation, gas and repairs for their cars, even health emergencies and other unexpected expenses.
Since the program was launched in 2013 over 7000 students and 6 local schools (Lake Geneva Badger High School, Shoreland Lutheran High School, Shepherds College, Union Grove High School, Waterford Union High School and Westosha Central High School) have been able to experience the program.
To learn more about MyLIFE or watch our MyLIFE video, please visit our Financial Literacy Page.