Financial Literacy Initiative SCRIPT (How to Buy a Car)

Intro = 10 minutes

“Hello, my name is _____ and I’m a (frosh/soph/junior/senior) at SFSU.  I’m from ________ and I study ______. 

[The Helpers (Bankers) introduce themselves to the class: (name, year at SFSU, home town, area of study)]

Facilitator: (points to Placard #1) “We’re here to teach you guys a little bit about Personal Finance, about how to manage your money.  To make this more fun, we’re going to teach you Personal Finance by showing you how to buy a car.  Everybody wants a car, right?  You’re going to learn how to buy a car by playing a game.  In this game I will be your boss, and the other students from SFSU will be your bankers.  To start the game you need to imagine that you have a job and you are living on your own.  You’ve got your own place and you can come and go as you please, you are master of your own life.  Furthermore, your job is to learn about Personal Finance, so you can live in the world independently.

In this game we are going to teach you 4 simple lessons, which will take about 5 minutes each.  But we want you to imagine that each lesson takes you 1 week to learn.  At the end of every lesson you will get your weekly pay and then we will go on to the next lesson.  So by the end of this game, you will have worked for 4 weeks, you will have gotten paid for each week, and you will have learned how to buy a car.”

“It’s time for a Quick Review:

You will learn how to buy a car in 4 lessons.

It will take you about 5 minutes to learn each lesson.

You will get paid for every lesson you learn.

Every lesson will represent one week of your life.

You will get paid $800 a week.  (points to Placard #2)

“Here’s the catch: You can win this game by saving up to buy a car and (holds up a mint) each of these = $200.”

Things to remember as a Facilitator:

YOU ARE WORKING AGAINST THE CLOCK; TIME IS LIMITED.

It’s OK to tell students to write their questions down on their worksheets, and that you will answer them at the end.