EY Connect Day 2016

Right around when I started at EY they updated their branding. One of the things they changed was their tagline. It went from "Quality in Everything We Do" to "Building a Better Working World". EY does many things to give back and support this tagline. My favorite thing we do is called EY Connect day. 

EY Connect day happens once a year. We take a day where we would normally be working and spend the day working on a service project. There are always a variety of projects to choose from. This year I volunteered to participate in a project for Junior Achievement. 

I reported to the 4th floor of the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. The 4th floor is really impressive they have put together a miniature city made up of storefronts from prominent Utah businesses. This floor is exclusively for the use of a couple different Junior Achievement programs. The program we were participating in was focused on teaching 8th graders about budgeting and saving. 

Before we began there was a brief orientation where the Junior Achievement employees explained to use the structure and purpose of the program. The students arrived at about 9:00am. We were split into groups so that a couple of volunteers were assigned to each group of 6 students.

We split out into our groups and started with a get to know you activity. The kids got to tell us a little about themselves and then they interviewed us to learn about our career paths. They asked questions like, "What type of education and certifications does your job require?", "What is your favorite thing about your job?", and "What is the starting salary of someone who started with your company today?" It was fun to outline my career path and explain why I am passionate about what I do. 

After this activity, we handed each student an iPad that they would use to complete the rest of the activity. First, they took a survey asking about their plans for the future. One question was about their future education after high school. Out of our group of 6 students 3 wanted to go to vocational school, 1 wanted to work full time, and the other 2 wanted to attend college. They were also asked questions about how much they want to save for retirement and how much they think they would need to make to support a comfortable lifestyle. 

Once they had completed the survey the iPad randomly assigned them a life scenario. One kid in our group was assigned as a single dad making $24,000 a year with a 6-year-old son. Another kid was assigned the scenario of being an engineer making $110,000 a year with a wife who worked and 3 kids. Each student had a different scenario. 

We spent a while discussing saving. We discussed how to save and the types of things it is important to save for. The focus was on three main categories - retirement, emergency fund, and other. Discussing saving with these kids was really interesting. It became apparent that their parents didn't really talk to them much about saving. 

Next, they got to learn about bills. They went on a little scavenger hunt where they found codes to unlock 20 types of bills a typical family might have to pay. They included items like utilities, phone, clothing, auto insurance, food, etc. They also learned about and "applied" for home loans and car loans. Once they had unlocked all the categories they came back and set a budget based on how much they thought everything might cost. 

This part was really eye-opening for the kids. We walked through the budgets they set and right off the bat it became evident they were putting in numbers that worked but weren't really realistic. For example, most of our students allocated between $200 and $350 a month for housing. When we talked to them about what that would get they thought they would be buying a house or getting an apartment. We explained how difficult it would be to get an apartment without roommates for less than $700 a month in Salt Lake City they quickly realized they would need to adjust their budgets. One boy exclaimed, "If I have to pay that much my budget doesn't work." We responded and helped him understand he would need to budget less in other areas. 

After they set their budget they got to "buy" everything. For this activity, the iPad gave them options for houses or apartments, cars, groceries, clothing, health insurance, etc. They went through and made purchases with the money they were allocated from the scenario they were assigned. Many of them started off choosing a really expensive house or nice car only to find they didn't have money for food or insurance. Then they had to go take the car back so that they could pay for the other items they needed. The boy who was assigned to be a single dad of a 6-year old son told us he couldn't believe how expensive his son was and that he didn't couldn't see how he was going to make ends meet. 

Before we wrapped up we had a few more discussions, but what I have explained above was really the heart of the activity. I felt like it was an eye-opening experience for these kids and I was glad that I got to be a part of it. Throughout the day I could see them connecting the dots and developing a better understanding of how to intelligently manage money. I hope that they will be able to apply the lessons they learned and that we really did help build a better working world.