Financial Reality Fairs
What is a Financial Reality Fair?
A Financial Reality Fair is an interactive financial literacy tool for young adults in high school, technical school, Job Corp or college. The Financial Reality Fair concept is a unique opportunity for students to experience some of the financial challenges they will face when they start life on their own. It’s a hands-on experience in which students identify their career choice and starting salaries then complete a budget sheet requiring them to live within their monthly salary while paying for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing, and food. Additional expenditures such as entertainment and travel are factored in as well. To get a complete rundown of the program, please read the introduction packet here.
Financial Reality Fair Orientation Video
Berks County credit union volunteers joined together to produce an Orientation Video for Students who will be participating in a Financial Reality Fair. Thank you to Belco FCU, Diamond CU, Discovery FCU, Riverfront FCU, Sun FCU, Utilities Employees FCU, and Visions FCU for their collaboration on this great video. Please consider using this to help prepare students for your Fair.
Where’s A Fair?
HERE is a map showing where Fairs have been held.
Financial Reality Fairs for Schools: An Introduction
A Financial Reality Fair provides students with a ‘hands-on’ budgeting experience to gain practical knowledge about personal financial management in a “real world” environment. The Financial Reality Fair is designed to teach students the value of using money responsibly. This experiential learning exercise has each student choose a career and salary, and then budget their money wisely to make ends meet by role-playing real-life events for one month. Click here to download the introduction packet.
Ready to Get Started?
Click below for the steps you should take to host a Financial Reality Fair.
Find a Fair Kit
Click here for a map and contact information of the credit unions and their branches with Financial Reality Fair kits to SHARE! All kits must be reserved in advance, and the borrower is responsible for the pick up, care, neat repacking, and returning of the kit. Click on the red bullet for contact details.
See more about Financial Reality Fairs:
Financial Reality Fairs are a great way for credit unions to bring financial education to students and to connect with their communities. In this two-part video series, you will hear from credit union staff, teachers, students and volunteers about their experience with Financial Reality Fairs.
Correlations of Financial Reality Fair to PA SAS and NBEA Standards
The Financial Reality Fair program has been correlated to the National Business Education Association Standards for Personal Financial Literacy and the Pennsylvania Standards Aligned Systems by Douglas J. Aftanas, Department of Business, Computers & Information Technology, Norwin Highway School, and Amy Lichwa, CEO, Norwin Teachers Federal Credit Union. Click here to view the Correlations.