Teaching, reinforcing, and supporting financial literacy

I currently substitute teach in the junior high-school, and also work in the teen center at the YMCA. The ages of the students I work with are 10-14 (5th through 8th grade).

This last summer I was able to teach a new class which we called Adulting 101. 4 Weeks of this class were geared towards financial literacy.

To start we wrote a list of the things we want and what we thought they cost, and then a list of things we need and what we though they cost. We had several discussions on if cable was necessary or if netflix would be enough. We talked about memberships and how much would need to be budgeted for groceries.
Then we looked at an example of a paystub, (one from a 16 year old so that they knew what to expect for themselves soon) And had discussions about why we pay taxes, social security, and how the deductions will grow bigger when we get a career job and add insurance and retirement.
Then we wrote out a vision of our own future. If we planned to attend college, what our occupation would be, if we would marry or have children, etc.
We discussed the importance of having an emergency fund and of setting both short term and long term goals. I emphasized that in only setting a long term goal they could easily get overwhelmed and stray from the course of obtaining that goal. We discussed that when we have some short term goals we get a sense of accomplishment and it helps us to stay focused on the long term goals.

In teaching financial literacy we made sure to emphasize that there are going to be reoccurring bills every month that are unavoidable as an adult. We also discussed that sometimes our wants are going to have to be set aside temporarily.

In reinforcing financial literacy we made sure that goals were discussed and we knew the path to take to reach these goals.

In showing support in their understanding of financial literacy we had them learn how to read their pay stubs, fill out their check registers, and they were able to simulate using their money as they will soon be doing out on their own with real money that they have earned. We also discussed and weighed the pros and cons of saving and investing when they are young as opposed to waiting until they have more money to do so.