Connecticut Credit Unions in the Community
An important goal of credit unions is to provide financial education to their members in order to help them better manage their money on a day-to-day basis as well as direct funds to savings for the future. How to budget, how to look for the best prices, how to stay out of or at least manage debt—it’s a learning process that all of us have gone through. With the products and services that credit unions offer, members can take steps to control their financial lives not only for today, but also for tomorrow.
An excellent way to accomplish this is to help our youth understand the workings of earning and spending, budgeting, and saving. Developing financial understanding at an early age instills good financial habits to carry throughout a lifetime. For many young people, this can often begin by participating in a Financial Reality Fair.
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News! CT Financial Reality Fair Reaches YouTube
The Financial Reality Fair sponsored by Connecticut credit unions and held April 21, 2010 at the Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Conn., has presence on You Tube. Four short segments and a compilation (full) video are available for viewing any time.
The Housatonic Fair was one of 8 Fairs held during the 1009-2010 academic for high school students throughout Connecticut. Plans for additional Fairs across the state are in the works for the 2010-2011 school year.
Click below for access to the videos.
· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPn3yNBFL3Q
· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mxj1SoPABA
· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmP00kZJeU
· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUiVf5rH7sk
· http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kBoLSYSCBQ (full video)
Connecticut credit unions will hold 6 Fairs in 2010-2011 school year:
Date Location
October 20, 2010 New Haven Field House, New Haven
November 17, 2010 Rentschler Field, Hartford
March 15, 2011 Central Connecticut State University, New Britain
March 30, 2011 Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport
April 27, 2011 Killingly High School, Danielson
May 4, 2011 Torrington High School, Torrington (partnering with
the NorthWest CT Chamber of Commerce)
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The Financial Reality Fair is an approximately 2½-hour, hands-on experience in which students, after identifying their career choice and starting salaries, are provided a budget sheet requiring them to live within their monthly salary while paying for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing, and food. And some not-so-basics like entertainment and travel.
Along the way there are many temptations for additional spending, and students must learn to balance their wants and needs to potentially live on their own. After they have visited the various booths covering components of independent living, students will balance their budget, and then sit down with a financial counselor to review their standing.
The Fair is a unique opportunity for each student to experience some of the financial challenges they will face when they start life on their own.
An important feature of a responsible financial lifestyle is saving. In the Financial Reality Fair experience, students are encouraged to save a minimum of 10% of their income, placing 3% in a long-term retirement investment, and 7% in a shorter-term investment. The Financial Counselors explore the importance of planning for future needs and preparing for future financial challenges through savings. The Fair will tempt students to spend their income on “fun,” but the financial counselors will bring the focus back to saving and thrift practices.
Since last year, Connecticut credit unions have organized Financial Reality Fairs to help our youth realize the importance of understanding how personal finances work and how they affect not only money management for today, but also for the future. In 2009, approximately 1,000 students participated in Fairs throughout the state of Connecticut. In addition, more than 2,000 students are scheduled to participate in Fairs during the 2009-2010 school year.
While many schools provide personal finance classes to teach students how to balance a checkbook and manage savings and checking accounts, it wasn’t until the development of the Financial Reality Fair that students have had the practical opportunity to put what they have learned in the classroom to the test in the “real world.” And while the Reality Fair is essentially “rhetorical”—that is, it’s an exercise in a controlled environment for practical application of budgeting based on the real financial world—it provides a very clear picture of what is to come in the lives of our young people. And for many, it is a real eye-opener.
Credit unions that participate in Financial Reality Fairs come to appreciate the activity not only for how it helps young people—who are, after all, potential members—but also for how it helps them reassess what they are doing to help their own members, and how they can improve upon that service.
In our current financial environment, credit unions are getting increasingly positive attention in the media for being consumer-friendly as well as not having been part of the cause of the economic and banking crisis facing our country today. These Financial Reality Fairs are not only a more positive presence in the community, but also serve as solid testament to the international credit union philosophy of “people helping people” as a reality in itself. And while credit unions are not “heroes” per se, they are the helping hand so many people need today as they face the everyday challenges of balancing work and play and family finances.
A Glimpse of Participation in Financial Reality Fairs
Students spin the Wheel of Reality to see whether they gain or lose money for their projected monthly budget.
Making decisions about important life choices does not always come easily.
Balancing their budget is an integral part of the Reality Fair exercise.
