By Alexa Faletra ‘25
11:30 AM on a random Thursday in May, I was tasked with the great conflict of deciding whether to use my credit card to bank roll my trip to Auruba, or pull from my already dwindling savings. Part of me wondered if I would still be able to afford to feed my new puppy after this impromptu getaway, but noticing, the budget review line was growing longer by the minute and I still had two more booths to visit, I opted for credit, received my stamp, and moved on. Of course, the trip to Auruba wasn’t real, the bank account balances I had opened on my phone weren’t real, and the plush dog I was holding in my hands definitely wasn’t a real puppy, but for the hour and a half I was in the Salem State gymnasium, I was going to act like they were.
The BHS Class of 2025 recently took a field trip to Salem State college to attend the Credit For Life event sponsored by the Institution for Savings Bank. Alongside 13 other school’s, we spent the day simulating a large scale game of Life where we were tasked to make all of the necessary purchases in life and still have money left to spend on the more frivolous wants like vacations and Netflix subscriptions.
After choosing our careers from the variety of options ranging from an actor to a forensic scientist, we were sent off into the gym floors to spend the next 90 minutes moving from booth to booth, trying to purchase everything we would need to live a successful life. Examples of these necessary purchases included a car, house, wardrobe, meal plan, health insurance, retirement plan and education. There was even a booth for charitable donations! The additional “bonus booths” were not mandatory, but offered insight on how to avoid being victim to cyber crimes, trivia about choosing your insurance plans, and tips on how to appear calm and collected after getting pulled over. If you wished to make a real profit off the day, you could enter the hula hoop contest to actually get money via Starbucks gift card. At the end of the fair, each student sat down with one of the fair workers to discuss our financial decisions and review our remaining budgets.
This field trip is offered each year to the Junior class and is free of cost. Other than the obvious benefit of missed class time, Credit For Life will give you the advantage of gaining a surface level understanding of how to manage your money and plan for the future. For the current underclassmen, to answer my question: yes this field trip is 100% worth your Thursday morning.
