Many juniors, including Elise Pariseau and Barbara Hawes, got a taste of financial reality at school Thursday, April 27.

Kearsley’s juniors attended the third annual financial fair, hosted by ELGA credit union, to help students become more prepared for their futures.

Hawes said the fair shows many juniors, for the first time, how much it costs to live on their own.

“I think it’s important because I think a lot of people really need a wake-up call to how much it’s really going to cost to live when we’re older,” Hawes said.

To prepare for the fair, students listed the jobs they hoped to have after college and the average amount they will get paid each year. The credit union then looked over the jobs and salaries and calculated how much each student would have monthly after they paid their bills.

With this money, as well as a random amount already in a checking account and a $5,000 credit card, the students had to go from station to station and make financial choices. These choices included what type of transportation to buy, like a bus pass or a new or used car, if they were going to stay at home or live in an apartment, and other lifestyle decisions.

Students had to learn how to budget their money between big things such as car payments and rent, to smaller, but equally important things, including the expense of clothes and leisure activities.

Pariseau believes that the financial fair is a helpful and important activity students should take part of.

“It really gave me a sense of reality to the whole budgeting thing,” Pariseau said. “Now I know what I need and I don’t need.”

Ms. Kathy Beard, a member of the Flint Chapter of Credit Unions, believes that this fair may benefit students’ lives in the present and the future.

“What we’d like students to take away from events such as this is what their parents are currently doing so they can help to understand what’s going on in their own household,” Beard said. “Also, to give them a little bit of insight into what the future could hold for them and the decision making that goes behind that.”

Beard also believes that it could impact students’ decisions on their classes.

“(We do it) to help them if they need to change a few things that they’re looking at career wise or make some adjustments in the studies that they’re already doing to better prepare themselves for what’s going to happen in four to six years,” Beard said.

Beard hopes that the students who participated see the value in the event and hopes that the partnership with Kearsley High School will continue for years to come.