Insurance! Investing! Bankruptcy! It's Our Second Financial Literacy Morning of the Year!

Earlier this month, our Middle School students welcomed a group from PricewaterhouseCoopers for their second Financial Literacy morning! Our students explored saving and investing, insurance and risk, the implications of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy…and much, much more!

Our eighth graders tackled everything about budgets! They discussed where clothing, electronics, and eating out would fit in their monthly budgets as well as how to cut the cost of raising kids. While some noted how privileged they felt living in NYC, others analyzed which foreign country would have a lower cost of living...and at least one student was willing to move to Carling, TX to enjoy the lowest cost of living! And yes, another student decided not to adopt Fido the dog due to the expense in the budget.

As they learned about credit scores and bankruptcy, our seventh graders pondered what happens to your real estate assets in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy as well as what happens to debts when someone passes away. They also examined if a college loan impacts your credit score, and one Dragon shared they had been studying the hierarchy of liquidation and which creditors are more secure.

Our Sixth Grade wrestled with the pros and cons of insurance, potential insurance scams and frauds, and the concept of spreading risk, with one student noting, "If you think about the law of large numbers and spread the cost across a wide group, there may be no financial impact to society." Several calculated payback periods (in their heads) on how quickly an insurance cost would outpace the purchase price of an item.

The fifth graders explored the ins and outs of investing. Some felt having a trusted, loving family would enhance their investing strategy so "you can truly have it all". Another shared "our family is using OpenAI to select a 529 plan," while still another "is already using Acorn to plan my investment strategy."

Again, this is just a little peek into the latest studies in our Financial Literacy curriculum! Huge thank you to Greg Peterson P'20, Nisha Sheth P'29, and all of the professionals from PwC who came to guide the lessons, as well as to Head of MS Ms. Meyer and the entire Middle School faculty for their support!