Credit for Life Fair prepares students for a future of financial wellness

Courtesy photos Members of the business community volunteer at this year’s Credit for Life Fair to teach high-schoolers the basics of financial management.

By Ellen Small Davis Impact contributor

How do you pay your portion of the rent and utilities, purchase a monthly train pass, make a payment on student loans, buy a gym membership and still have enough money to treat yourself to that morning mocha latte with oat milk?

Nearly 1,000 juniors from 13 high schools across the North Shore discovered the answer to that question at the 12th annual Credit for Life Fair this May at Masconomet Regional High School in Boxford.

The free Credit for Life program is an interactive experience organized and underwritten by the Institution for Savings.

Its goal is to help the region’s high school students develop lifelong personal budgeting skills to survive financially in the everyday world, according to Mary Anne Clancy, the bank’s senior vice president of marketing and communications and the architect of the program.

“We were seeing young customers who didn’t know how to manage their money, apply for a loan or understand the costs associated with applying for a mortgage,” Clancy says. “This was a good role for the bank to play. We are creating a better bank customer.”

The program was first created in partnership with Ipswich, Triton Regional and Newburyport high schools.

In recent years, they have been joined by Beverly, Swampscott, Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester Essex, Hamilton-Wenham, Masconomet, Amesbury, Pentucket Regional and Georgetown high schools.

Massachusetts may be at the top of nationwide rankings for education, but

surprisingly, it is one of only a handful of states that does not require financial education to graduate from high school.

In fact, according to the Massachusetts Financial Literacy Fitness Report, the state has failed to ensure all students have access to critical financial knowledge needed to succeed in life.

Clancy, who sits on The Chamber’s Board of Directors, has been working with elected officials in hopes of making financial literacy mandatory in the Bay State.

Credit for Life was designed and developed because the reality is that poor personal financial decisions have real life consequences, like crippling debt.

The Institution for Savings’ program has garnered believers with each passing academic year. It has earned high praise from FDIC field supervisor Rodi Adema, a recurring volunteer at the fair.

“The level to which this bank has taken this event is outstanding and unequaled by any other event I have attended,” Adema says.

When the Institution for Savings was forced to cancel the 2020 Credit for Life Fair because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it pooled resources with seven other banks to create a virtual experience using an interactive website.

High school juniors clearly embraced the idea as more than 2,200 tapped into creditforlife.org in the spring of 2021.

This year, Credit for Life organizers further expanded the program to include a mobile app for students to use at in-person events.

Financial literacy: Yup, now there’s an app for that.

Here’s how the program works.

In preparation for the Credit for Life Fair, every student attends an orientation session and downloads the free Credit for Life app.

The students then assume the persona of a fictional 25-year-old — complete with a career, salary, savings account and credit score. They must then decide how to live life while living within a budget.

At the fair, each student selects a profession and avatar for their profile and receives a “passport” they carry as they navigate life.

They are then sent on their way to booths that require them to make choices in such areas as education and training, food and nutrition, health and wellness, housing, furniture and utilities, transportation, charitable giving, lifestyle, recreation, part-time jobs and future plans.

Using their salaries, savings and credit card, the students purchase everything they need to live. They employ the app to calculate all their purchases and

Business leaders prepare to distribute water bottles to students who “invest” in their health and wellness as part of their spending during this year’s Credit for Life Fair. track their spending.

Moving from booth to booth, they are quizzed and counseled by volunteers who then stamp their passport.

This year, a new Money Smarts booth taught students how to write checks, manage mobile payment apps like Venmo and PayPal, utilize credit, and navigate the possible risks of Buy Now, Pay Later offers.

Throughout the fair, the students faced real-life budget busters, like a car needing repairs or a pet requiring a veterinarian visit. They were forced to incorporate the unexpected expenses into their budgets — always with the mindset of living within their means.

More than 100 volunteers from the community, including bankers, teachers, insurance agents and physicians, were on hand this to assist the students in making sound financial decisions.

Among the volunteers were Karen Andreas, The Chamber’s president and CEO, and Darren Ambler, immediate past president of The Chamber’s Board of Directors and principal at One Digital Health and Benefits.

The fair culminated with the students passing in their completed passports for review.

Clancy says participating students garner an eye-opening experience of what it takes to manage money.

“It’s empowering for them to make good financial choices,” she says. “I like to think they all walk away with just one thing they didn’t know before.”

Michael J. Jones, Institution for Savings president and CEO, says the fair is designed to give students the tools to be proactive about their financial futures

While the event takes a significant amount of staff time and funds, Jones believes it is well worth it.

“Recent statistics indicating that students are leaving high school with severely limited financial knowledge and skills are concerning, and this event is one way that we can help change that,” he says. “As a mutual savings bank, a key component of our mission is to focus on the long-term future not just of the bank, but also of the communities we serve and to improve the quality of life for all those within those communities. “This event has been overwhelmingly successful here and in other regions at helping high school students navigate the myriad of financial decisions they will need to make as they go off into the world of work or college.” I  More than half of American families can’t cover a $1,000 emergency expense with savings.  The average consumer debt in Massachusetts, at $115,671, is the highest among New England states.  Less than 5 percent of students in Massachusetts are guaranteed to take a personal finance course.  Despite the fact spending habits form as early as 7 years of age, barely one-quarter of the school districts in Massachusetts teach financial literacy in middle/elementary schools.  One in five American 15-year-olds don’t understand basic financial concepts, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.  Young adults who receive financial education are less likely to carry credit card debt and are more likely to apply to and receive college grants and financial aid.

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