As a society we have not been very successful in teaching our youth the value of money or passing along the concept of "saving for a rainy day". Because of this, many citizens were unable to handle the economic havoc created by the COVID shutdowns.  Our school system recognizes this trend but has little or no time to spend on money management due to core content obligations. To help them with this need, The Boone County Cooperative Extension Service held a Reality Store at one of our middle schools.  300 eighth grade students received a taste of the real world and financial management.  Students were assigned an occupation, monthly income, and family situation (married/single/divorced, children, smoker/non, and low/high risk driver). The students were then given the task of making necessary purchases and payments associated with living for a month in the "real" world. For many, this was this first encounter with living on a budget and seeing the hidden costs (insurance, utilities, taxes, etc.) that adults must deal with every day. At the end of the program a written evaluation was given to all students. 95% said they learned a lot about how much it cost to maintain a household, 65% said they would definitely seek education beyond high school, and 60% said they would start now saving money.