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Money IN/Money OUTINSTRUCTOR'S GUIDE |
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Session One: Where Does Your Money Go?
GOAL: To heighten participants' sense of control and to motivate them to set financial goals
Learner Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- distinguish between wants and needs
- recognize societal influences on wants and needs
- understand that individuals can gain control of their personal finances
- understand that goal setting and record keeping are essential
Materials Needed
- 1-a Cookies (any type), one per person
- 1-b Fortunes, (photocopied, cut apart, and folded as in fortune cookies)
- 1-c Money IN/Money OUT Overview handouts
- 1-d envelopes
- 1-e Sorting Out Economic Values Game
- 1-f Wants or Needs? (one list per small discussion group)
- 1-g My Goal handouts
- 1-h Managing Your Money handouts
- 1-i Receipt envelope for each participant
- Pens or Pencils
1. Getting Started.
Greet participants and introduce yourself. Pass cookies (1-a) and fortunes (1-b) and ask each person to take a fortune and a cookie as they introduce themselves. Have them read the fortune aloud and share their thoughts or reactions.Distribute copies of the Money IN/Money OUT series description (1-c) and explain expectations of the participants. Compliment them for coming today--it is the first step in getting the most from their money. Ask if they sometimes feel that money just slips away from them. Confirm that money coming in can easily slip through our fingers, but it IS possible to control the amount of money going out.
2. Play the Sorting Out Economic Values Game.
Give each person an envelope (1-d) that includes about 25 color-coded sentences (1-e). The colors reflect five different economic values. Follow the instructions in 1-e, asking participants to sort them into two piles: one pile for sentences they agree with and the other pile for sentences they disagree with or are undecided about. Allow about five minutes for sorting. A dominant color in the agree-stack is an indication of how an individual values money or how it is used.
Green: Money is valued for the status it
can provide.
Blue: Money is valued for indulging yourself.
White: Money is less important than the way it is used to
fulfill
your life.
Yellow: Money is not important to you.
Most participants will have a rainbow of colors in each of their
stacks. Ask whether they believe the value represented by the
dominant color in the "agree" stack is a true reflection of their
economic values.
Acknowledge that partners and family members may have different
values and must learn how to make decisions together.
Try
to have persons with at least two different dominant economic
values in each group.
Give each group a list of wants and needs (taken from 1-f)
and ask them, as
a group, to classify each item as a want or a need, allowing
about 5 minutes. (The group members may not agree on each item
classification. Differences in economic values and individual
circumstances will make some items impossible to agree upon.)
Pose the following questions to the
group and
encourage comments from differing viewpoints, being
non-judgmental in your responses:
Knowing how you feel about
money is a key
to understanding why you spend money the way you do. However, you
may not be getting what you want from your money if you are not
setting goals. Just like setting out on a trip, you need a map
or a plan, otherwise you may not get where or what you want!
Ask participants to think of something that costs $500 or less
that is a want or need which never seems attainable. On the
My
Goal handout (1-g), have them write down that want, its
total
cost, and in how many months or weeks they would like to have it.
Then, divide the total cost by the number of months or weeks
until they would like to have it. This is the amount of money
that must be saved or set aside each month or week in order to
pay for the item.
Then, have them think about how they can save that amount of
money. Is it hard to come up with ways to find that money?
Where Does It Go? It is very
difficult to
remember exactly how you spend money. It may be uncomfortable
to admit that you are spending on impulse! That is why you must
keep some records to see where your money goes and where you can
cut spending to save for a goal!
Distribute copies ofManaging Your Money (1-h) and ask
participants to keep track of their spending for the next week -
on pages 6-7. This is a personal record and no one else will see
it. Provide large manila envelopes (1-i)-one for each
participant-for keeping records and receipts. Ask them to keep
receipts for items bought during the next week in the envelope.
Next time, the topic will be credit.
Do you know
all you need to know about credit? Do you use what you know?
How can you find out more?
This page
(http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/plymouth/mimo/session1Net.html)
was
created by Jan Lloyd
(Extension Area Specialist, Family & Consumer Sciences), Michele
Simpson, (Program Assistant, Family & Consumer Sciences),
and
Bruce A. Emmons, (Area Specialized Agent, Information
Management).
Date Created April 17, 2000.
Distributed in furtherance of the Acts of Congress of May 8
and June
30, 1914. Employment and program opportunities are offered to all
people
regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or
disability. North
Carolina State University at Raleigh, North Carolina A&T
State University,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments
cooperating.
3. Divide participants into small groups of three to five.
4. Discussion.
5. Summarize discussion:
6. Setting a goal.
7. CHALLENGE:
8. Preview.
Other Resources
Return to Money IN/Money OUT Home Page
Last revised on June 27, 2001.
Published by North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Service