Minds On

Short-term goals

Student Success

Think-Pair-Share

A transit employee was ready to move into their first apartment. With a partner, if possible, explore the following question prompts:

  • What are some things they might want to save up for to buy?
  • What are some expenses that the employee will have with a new apartment?
  • How will they earn money and save?
  • What can impact their savings?
  • How will they determine the difference between their needs and wants?

Note to teachers: See your teacher guide for collaboration tools, ideas and suggestions.

Budget review

A bunch of piggy banks resting on stacks of coins, each stack with more coins than the last

Let’s review what we learned in the previous lesson.

  • Creating a budget means keeping track of how much money is coming in (earnings) and how much money is going out (expenses)
  • The goal of budgeting is to never spend more money than a person earns. That means earnings minus expenses should be zero or a positive number
  • If someone is spending more money than they earn, they will go into debt. If they spend less money than they earn, they can build up their savings. The more money they save, the closer they get to reaching a financial goal