MSU Extension 4-H Youth Money Management

Hello, welcome to Clover Cents lesson called Paying for a Pet. My name is Deb Barrett and I am a Senior Extension Educator with Michigan State University Extension. I work with the 4-H Youth Development Program. The justice for all civil rights image that you see on this slide is a reminder that MSU and all of its programs, materials, and resources are open to all and everyone. Today's lesson is a resource that is available through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It has a link to join the website for consumer finance and to bring up these materials and many others that they have available. Let's set the stage for Paying for a Pet lesson. Do you have a pet? Have you ever wanted to get a pet? I have two horses that require being taken care of every day. Pets are fun, they are rewarding. They make us smile, they make us laugh. They are very enjoyable and usually very therapeutic, but they do also come with a cost. They are a responsibility and much more. The supplies that you will need for today's lesson include Consumer Financial Protection Bureau building blocks, student worksheet called Paying for a Pet and also their Owning and Caring for a Pet handout. You're going to want a pen or pencil. And you may also want a calculator. So the big ideas of Paying for a Pet include research before making a significant or important purchase. Another word for this is called comparison shopping. That is, one of the takeaways today, is that when you are going to make a significant, large, meaningful purchase, that you do some research first. Next, This lesson is going to provide some practice in making spending decisions. Deciding where your money is going to go and how you're going to use the funds you have. And then third is a budget or a plan for where your money is coming from, which is the income and where it is going, which is called expense, is important and helps people monitor their money. On the student worksheet, there is a rather large paragraph which is the scenario, sort of the "set the stage" kind of thing for today's lesson. And I'm going to recapture the important details of that scenario for you. You're going to help Caleb choose a pet. Caleb has always wanted a pet. And finally, his mom gave him permission to get one of the pets listed on the Choosing for a Pet table. But she told Caleb that he has to pay all the costs for the first year. He will also be the one taking care of the pet. So he has to balance that new responsibility with his homework, his after-school activities, and his other household chores. Caleb got a job helping his neighbor so that he could make money to pay for his pet. He makes $20 a week. He's already saved $500 from his job and from money he received as gifts. Now you need to do some research. How much is each pet going to cost and how much can Caleb afford? Can he choose and purchase any one of these pets at this time? Or does he need to save money first? That is our mission for today. The image on the screen is the Owning and Caring for a Pet handout. This handout includes all of the costs involved in getting one of five different pets. A fish, a hamster, a parakeet, a cat, or a dog. You are going to use this handout to calculate total costs and to think about what is involved with each type of pet and you're going to use that information as we go to the next slide to complete the Choosing a Pet worksheet, which is page two out of the student worksheet packet. The difference between these two sheets is that the worksheet has an empty table that you have to fill in with the total costs for each of the five different pets. And then it's going to ask you to answer some questions. Can Caleb afford this particular pet? It's going to ask you about the amount of care that each pet needs because Caleb has other things going on, so he has to fit this into what he's doing. And then yes or no. Is this a good pet for Caleb? As we proceed to the next piece of this lesson, I want to remind you of what the steps are that you need to do. So when you are ready, I would encourage you to pause the video. You're going to review the Owning and Caring for a Pet handout. You're going to make some recommendations for Caleb by completing page 2 in your student worksheet. And when you're ready, then you turn the video back on to continue. Welcome back. I'm going to hope that you were successful in learning a bit about five different types of pets and the types of costs that are involved. If we were doing that for ourselves today, right now, we would also take the time to not only look at that written piece of information on the handout, but we would also track down what the current costs are for each of those pets to make sure that our written prediction was still accurate with the actual market as we prepared to buy a pet. So you should have some ideas in mind of what you would like to recommend to Caleb. That is now the point where we're going to do some reflection. You're going to think about what you've learned and we're going to summarize this lesson. There are lots of questions and insights that you could complete on page three of the student worksheet. But for now, I would suggest that you make some notes for yourself to the questions, the five questions that I have here on the screen. And that would be to start with which pet costs the most and which pet costs the least. As you looked at the five different options of pets, which one was most economical or costs the least, and which one was the most expensive pet to invest in? Which pets can Caleb afford to buy now? And is the amount of care needed reasonable for Caleb? And is the pet or pets that Caleb could purchase, are they a good fit? Are they a good pet for Caleb? Does it work with his situation and with what he needs? What are the benefits of owning a pet you picked for Caleb? Each one of those pets, the fish, the hamster, the parakeet, the cat, and the dog. They each have their own pros and cons to the benefits of owning them. Were you surprised by how much each pet costs per year? Why? And then the other thing I would like you to think about is what other types of purchases as you think about your future, could doing research like this be useful? It might be that first car. It might be a musical instrument. It might be way down the road as a house. There are many things as you work through life that you will want to do some research on before you purchase. So with that, we're going to wrap up today's lesson. The overall message of Paying for a Pet had to do with when you're going to make a significant purchase, take time to do some research first. And I told you that research is also referred to as doing some comparison shopping. Practice making spending decisions. Don't rush in to big purchases. Think about them first. Think about the pros and the cons and what is right for you. Those are called spending decisions. And then remember the importance of having a budget, knowing what income and funds you have to be able to spend. And then knowing that you have a plan for what you are spending your funds on and that you keep those in balance that we always want you to have some funds left over or at least to come to a zero balance but not to go in the red or not to spend too much. That concludes today's Clover Cents lesson on Paying for a Pet. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.