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Tuesday, July 23, 2024

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Secret Service director steps down amid resignation calls after Trump assassination attempt; Harris donations top $100m after Biden's exit from presidential race; Politics take center stage at national convention for educators; EV industry praises federal investments in Michigan; Farm waste ups dangers of climate change-related weather events.

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Democrats consolidate support behind Vice President Harris, Republicans threaten legal action over changes to the presidential ticket, and a possible bipartisan consensus forms on the failure of the Secret Service to protect former President Trump.

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It's grass-cutting season and with it, rural lawn mower races, Montana's drive-thru blood project is easing shortages, rural Americans spend more on food when transportation costs are tallied, and a lack of good childcare is thwarting rural business owners.

Financial Planning Month: students get 'bite of reality'

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Tuesday, October 24, 2023   

October is Financial Planning Month and an engaging event is helping high schoolers think about their money managing futures. More than 90 "Bite of Reality" fairs have reached 9,000 students across the west, including in Washington state.

Sarae Bay, manager with the GoWest Foundation, an organization that works with credit unions in the region and sponsors the fairs, said during the events, each student is assigned a persona.

"That persona includes an occupation, income, family description, any possible debt that they might have, including student loans for example, and students visit nine different merchant booths to make financial decisions about housing, transportation, groceries, child care, dining and so forth," she said.

Bay added students complete a 90 minute budgeting exercise to give them a realistic look at how to adjust their finances, and said students have provided feedback on how thankful they are to get this kind of experience, which is hard to find in the real world.

"Another said, 'It's very difficult to budget when you don't try to plan it out. Just winging it doesn't work,'" she continued.

Bay explained this experience can have lasting impacts and noted money management is a useful tool for people of any age.

"Financial planning and capability skills are really muscles that we have to use. We can read about the information but until we apply it and have real life experience with it, it's challenging to fully understand how it works," she said.

Disclosure: GoWest Credit Union Association contributes to our fund for reporting on Community Issues and Volunteering, Consumer Issues, Housing/Homelessness, Livable Wages/Working Families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


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