In this final unit we learned more about budgeting and salaries. In this unit we created a made up life where we had a job and could live in any city we wanted. I chose to be an astronomer living in Juneau which gave me enough money to live off of, even with all the expenses we had to pay.
Payments
In our third unit of Consumer Math we learned about banking. We looked at how to operate an online bank account and what a checking account is. Our forth unit was about saving and savings accounts. This unit was interesting to me because we learned about inflation and how our money is losing value each year. In our 6th unit we learned about credit and loans. I have always been confused about what credit is and how a credit card works, so this unit was informational and helpful to me. I learned about how a credit card is like a promise to pay someone back and that you are taking a loan from the bank to get this credit. The bank can then charge interest on the money and you need to pay it back at the end of the month. We learned about credit scores as well and how not paying your loans back will lower your credit score and make you look less trust worthy to future loaners.
Life
For our fist unit we learned about life expenses and Budgets (which we continued to learn about for the rest of the semester). We looked at what we would need to have/buy in our lives in comparison to how much it costs and how much we made. In the beginning of the year we played the bean game. In this game we had a certain number of beans that we could use to buy certain things for life. It had two levels, level one was easy and there was little to sacrifice, but level two was harder and required a lot more thought and strategy. This is what a budget is all about, taking the amount of money you make and distributing it out across what you need and want. In our second unit we looked at taxes and where tax money goes. It was interesting to look at our national budget and how much money is spent on things like the military.