Recent years of tough economic times have increased awareness of the need for financial literacy; however, Americans still have a long way to go toward making improvements. In 2014, the Jump$tart Coalition compiled a series of statistics that state that even though youth intend to work and save dollars, more students have increased 36% from the previous years of student and credit card debt. The It's Your Reality Program is designed to teach youth in late middle school to early high school real life skills related to money management. 

In this edited version of the program, I have students either randomly draw or personally pic a career of their choice. The students will then research their career and find information relating to salary and education requirements and any other information their teachers may request. After they have completed their research, the students will convert their gross yearly salary into their estimated net monthly salary. Once they complete their conversions the students will select a family type and proceed through the program where they are asked to live off of their monthly salary while taking care of many real-life expenses. The students are tasked with making it through a whole month's worth of expenses with money to spare.

During this program year I have had two schools participate in this program totaling 274 youth participants. After the completion of both programs, I took a sample survey of two classes: 39 students in all. The survey questions asked the students to rate their level of understand in topics related to money management, lifestyles and expenses. Every student surveyed expressed an increase in understanding in at least one area of focus for the program. It is my hope to expand this program in the years to come and recruit more schools to participate.