Modeling Your Future

Objectives

Although "Modeling Your Future" can in many ways seem like a game, (how much money can I make? How much money can I spend? Look at the cool graphs!) the goals of this excercise are not. Ultimately, the objective of "Modeling your Future" is to be able to give a concrete desciption of the effects of decisions that students make in their lives. These decisions can include education, career, and lifestyle choices.

The specific goals of "Modeling Your Future" are:

Running the Model
- Provide a concrete way for students to identify their educational goals
- Cause students to establish a connection between educational goals, job opportunity, and ultimately lifestyle choices
- Recognize that life choices can be made in a way which affects job opportunity, income, and lifestyle
Interpreting Data
- Identify income growth patterns through use of graphs and tables
  - "Type 1" income growth
  - "Type 2" income growth
  - "Type 3" income growth
- Interpret income growth patterns
  - why does graph take on the shape that it does?
  - what does this shape mean for my lifestyle?
- Compare income graphs from various jobs
  - How are they different?
  - Why are they different?
  - Identify and understand the concept of "earning potentials"
- Develop an understanding of budget management
  - What expenses is the student willing to have?
  - How do these expenses affect bank account balance?
- Understand debt
  - How does it happen?
  - How can it be avoided?
  - What are the consequences of debt (i.e. high interest rates)?

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