For students in Utah, this month marks the return back to school. It also marks the one year anniversary of a youth program set-up to help youth better manage their finances.
Dave Francis is a member of the Utah State University Extension 4-H and professional team. For the past year he has been working on the Teens Reaching Youth project to help middle school and high school students across Utah understand the basic skills they need to create budgets, understand the importance of saving money, gain interest on their income, and build personal capital.
“One of the best concepts I felt that we taught was the step down principle,” Francis said. "The idea is that you could go see a movie on opening night or you could wait until it is at the cheaper theater. Or, you could actually wait until it becomes available on Redbox or Netflix. So understanding that concept{they realize} if you go it’s going to cost this much. How might you step down the expenses, get a similar experience, but save a little bit of money in the process?”
The program required older youth participants to apply what they were learning by having them teach financial tips to younger children.
“I think the teen service learning opportunity is what made it successful,” Francis said. “The kids, once they understand these concepts, go back to their hometowns and then teach other kids in the community the topics. In this case, they had six hours of content about financial literacy and just some basic understanding of financial literacy to make kids a little more prepared to make decisions when it comes to finances.”
Now, a year later, organizers have learned the program is being recognized nationally by other 4-H leaders. As a way of helping parents and educators better train youth the Fidelity Investments’ Money Mentors Financial Literacy 4-H program can also be accessed by anyone online.