PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria-area teenagers learned first-hand how financial decisions they make can have a wide impact on their lives.
The 9th annual “Reality Check” took place Tuesday at the Goodwill Commons, with more than 100 kids attending.
The hands-on event gives the teenagers a chance to manage a monthly budget with situations they are randomly assigned. Each teen is given a career, salary base, and family situation to work with. They then visit booths to make decisions, such as living accommodations, transportation options that range from buying a car to using public transit, to even the quality and quantity of groceries to buy; all while trying to stay under budget.
Pam Tomka is a Goodwill board member who has volunteered to help with “Reality Check” for the past few years. She says one lesson the teenagers take away is that there’s a cost to everything.
“Internet costs them 40 or 50 bucks and their phone costs them so much a month, and all the other pieces they think are necessities anymore are not part of what they’re accustomed to spending in a day-to-day operation. A child, they don’t realize that costs a lot,” Tomka said.
Lyndsie Gravemier is Goodwill’s Youth Program Manager and the organizer of “Reality Check.” Gravemier first heard of the idea being done in Indiana and brought the idea to central Illinois.
One of the event’s goals is to show how intertwined each financial decision impacts a person’s budget.
“Often they’ll come in and be like ‘Well I know I’m going to get a bus pass and I’m going to save money.’ Well if they get a bus pass, they can’t take on a second job because the routes don’t run at the time they need,” Gravemier said.
Gravemier says the overall goal of “Reality Check” is to imprint good financial habits early in children, so they are less likely to make poor decisions as adults.
