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Investing in students

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Xavier Navarro
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
The Service Credit Union recently hosted two money management programs at Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle here.

The first event, "Money Mammals," was directed towards 55 kindergarten through second graders and taught kids how to share, save and spend with the help of John Lanza, the program's creator and chief "money mammal."

"The Money Mammals program helps children learn how to make smart money choices," said Lanza. "We have parting gifts that includes a tip sheet, information for parents about saving and a save jar."

The second event, "Credit Union 4 Reality," was concentrated toward older students focused on real life budgeting.

Sue Westerh, Service Credit Union Assistant Vice President for member services, helped teach students the concept of managing money.

"You have to start young to teach people how to manage their money and this is what the curriculum is about," said Westerh. "Middle school is a perfect age to understand this program."

The Money Mammals program was a one-day event which kids were able to learn the basics of financial literacy of differences between needs and wants. The CU4Reality was a two-day event where students experienced the concepts of one day moving out of their parents' house and living on their own.

The curriculum was taught by the teachers and by the end of the term, members of the Service Credit Union traveled to North Dakota to help create the fair which included six tables addressing such subjects as utilities, automobiles, electronics, food plan and part-time job.

Each table symbolized real-life decisions about what a person needs or don't need.

On the first day, students had a chance to look over their overall salary of what profession what they wanted to be. The next day, students had to make life decisions such as buying a pet versus having money to save or spend on essential needs in life.

Dylan Talmage, eighth grade, understands the importance and different avenues of money management. He chose to be a professional athlete which only made $25,000 at the lowest.

"The military provides a lot of benefits for their members," said Talmage. "If you're not in the military, it's really hard trying to stay under the spending limit."

"At the end of my paycheck I only had four dollars left, but my roommate had $109 because he chose to be in the military as his profession," said Talmage. This is an important curriculum; it was one of the hardest I think I have done in a while. The real world is tough!"