Jaela Poythress pulls down $53,748 a year as an insurance underwriter but struggles over the hard choices needed to balance the family budget for herself, her husband and their 7-year-old daughter.
That’s a heavy burden for an eighth-grader.
For four hours Monday, Jaela made grown-up decisions at the new JA Finance Park, hosted by Junior Achievement in the Wells Fargo Atrium downtown.
The 13-year-old student at Aurora Frontier K-8 learned how to manage a household budget, be a wise consumer and maybe, just maybe, appreciate her mother a bit more.
“She is always talking about bills,” said Jaela, who understands a little better why.
While nearly nine out of 10 parents in the U.S. think they are an important resource regarding money management for their kids, only 36 percent actually talk about it on a weekly basis, according to a recent survey from BMO Harris Bank.
The old thinking was that financial education should begin at home. But the housing crisis revealed, among other things, that many parents lacked the financial smarts to pass on.
Colorado has now made basic personal-finance lessons part of the school curriculum. The Aurora Frontier students in attendance Monday are taking a nine-week special course that is part of that, said their math teacher, Betsy Aker.
“The kids are all engaged,” she said. “They see parents with phone, house and car bills.”
Besides highlighting the practicality of math, Aker said she hopes the program helps students make a stronger connection between staying in school and having the future they desire.
Great West Life-Annuity Insurance Co. is the lead sponsor for the 5,500-square-foot community, which is loaded with netbook computers, flat-screen monitors and big graphic facades for nearly two-dozen storefronts.
The goal is to have 5,000 students visit the park this school year and 12,000 by 2014-15, said Julie Scott, a spokeswoman for Junior Achievement of Rocky Mountain Inc.
Sponsors also provide volunteers to staff the stations and to help the kids work through their choices.
Students start by exploring options they have on a variety of items, including homes, cars, furnishings, utilities and cable plans.
Rumaldo Cisneros, a volunteer from Wells Fargo, urges the students at his station to consider carefully the cost of putting young children on a cellphone plan.
“They need to learn the difference between a want and a need,” he says.
Jaela buys herself clothes but then realizes that to be fair she needs to get some items for her husband too. Entertainment expenses are running too high, so she cuts out a baseball game.
The program emphasizes budgeting so money can be put into savings and philanthropy. Jaela, short on cash, decides to volunteer time to her church and favorite charities instead.
As she carefully sums up each line on the budget, Jaela finds out her expenses exceed income by $46. She can have up to a $200 surplus but no shortfall.
Maybe the new Volvo she wants costs too much, but changing that out is going to take some work. She goes with a cheaper grocery basket. A few strokes of the eraser, and her budget is showing a surplus.
She and the other students then move quickly from station to station to pay their bills, hitting the bank to deposit savings.
“I feel like an adult,” Jaela exclaims after paying down her car loan.
The interactive exhibit will stay at the Wells Fargo Atrium until Nov. 19 and then move to American Furniture Warehouse in Thornton and eventually to other locations, Scott said.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
