Phoenix (STN) – A spouse, two kids, a car payment, and a surprise medical bill. That’s what high school students faced at Bite of Reality, a recurring, interactive workshop from Arizona Financial Credit Union
On a recent Saturday, the STN production team went inside the event, where each participant gets a personal tablet listing their job, spouse, and kids. Students then visit tables to buy everything from a smartphone to a car, getting a hands-on lesson in what life actually costs and how fast the bills come.
“Bite of Reality is a fun, interactive workshop where we teach high school students about financial literacy,” said Nika Gueci, vice president of community development at Arizona Financial Credit Union.
After students get a sense of the cost of everyday items, they are offered the chance to splurge on extras like a jet ski. Then, Gueci said, “the fickle finger of fate comes along,” and they face a medical expense or a late rent payment. That sends them to the credit union table, where they can take out a line of credit or learn about savings.
“It’s really important to give the students a reality check at this stage in their lives because they are in high school, they’re learning about the world, they’re bombarded on social media, on television about everything that they could buy,” Gueci said.
For student Leilanni, the experience changed how she thinks about spending. “Learning that I had to go everywhere and spend at least one or two things for everything kind of took me aback,” she said. “I never really thought of it that way. It’s a little more realistic with fixed prices for, say, apartments, houses, daycare, childcare. It teaches a little bit more on budgeting and how a person can do it better.”
Student Cypress said caregiving costs caught him off guard. “I didn’t know grandma would charge $360 for watching your own grandchildren,” he said. He also thanked the credit union “for coming out and supporting and helping us in building our future and just making sure we spend our money rightly and smart.”
For Gueci, the most meaningful part was seeing her colleagues give up a Saturday to teach. “To see my teammates at Arizona Financial show up on a Saturday when they could easily be doing anything else, to show up and teach the community, to teach these young people about making smarter choices, that’s an incredible thing for me to see because it shows how much we really care.”
