For Immediate Release

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Rockland High School Students Experience Challenges of Real World Budgeting at Credit for Life Fair

ROCKLAND — Sophomores were taken a decade into their futures this morning at Rockland High School’s inaugural Credit for Life Fair, where they were challenged to manage month’s worth of mock expenses they’ll encounter as adults. 

Students were assigned an occupation and monthly salary — based on their personal interests — and then were tasked with budgeting their money across numerous real-life expenses, including career counseling, education, insurance, safety, transportation, clothing, furniture, luxuries, savings, retirement planning, health, wellness and credit counseling. 

“The fair was a huge success. Our students were very engaged and truly enjoyed learning about finances and budgeting their money,” event coordinator and RHS Guidance Counselor Jill Delaney said. “The volunteers were wonderful in helping our students navigate this process as well. I’m very proud of our students and how seriously they took this event.”

Students started the morning with an outline of their individual financial circumstances, including their job, salary and savings account balance, as well as a list of the expense booths they were expected to visit. Over the course of their morning, students completed a spending register that allowed them to keep track of their earnings and spending.

The event was meant to give Rockland students a hands-on understanding of how to handle complex budgets they’ll one day have to manage on their own. The exercise concluded at the Reality Check booth, where students underwent an in-depth evaluation of how successful they were in managing their finances for the mock month. 

“Each of our students left with a better understanding of the different expenses that factor into the cost of living, and the amount of work that goes into managing them all,” Principal John Harrison said. “I thought the students did a fabulous job, and our guidance department worked extremely hard coordinating this event with Harbor One Bank as well as the numerous volunteers who dedicated their time to such a valuable endeavor. Once again, this event serves to remind us how lucky Rockland is to have supportive community members and outstanding faculty members who make initiatives like these possible for our kids.”

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