‘Reality Store’ Helps Pequot Lakes Students Prepare for Life After High School

Seniors at Pequot Lakes High School are a little over a month away from graduating. But before they go, the school put on an event to help prepare them for life after high school.

According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, one in five teenagers are financially illiterate. At Pequot Lakes High School, staff are trying to change that.

“This is called the Reality Store, and it’s for our seniors,” explained Pequot Lakes High School Principal Aaron Nelson. “We do it the second half of the senior year, and the goal is—it’s all personal finance driven. And the goal is to help kids sort of understand the realities of personal finance. It’s sort of The Game of Life on steroids.”

The students are randomly assigned a job, marital status, and even an amount of children. They have to build and balance a budget.

“It’s eye opening because it’s scary, because we’re all running out of money really fast,” said senior Lainey O’Reilly on the simulation. “Childcare has been super expensive. For me, I have one kid who is five so I didn’t have to pay, but a couple of my friends, they paid a lot. And then one of our other friends, she has five kids. So she had to spend $1,000 on groceries, which is insane.”

While most people nowadays are managing their finances online or on their phone, students at the Reality Store are expected to balance their budgets with a checkbook.

“We get our own little checkbooks that we have to write and balance our checks,” explained senior Eddie Super-Peterson. “It’s been a learning curve, definitely, having to fill out and track every little aspect of your money and all that.”

The students visit different stations during the event, where they have to complete tasks like picking an insurance policy and paying for daycare for their children.

“What’s great about it is it makes it feel like it’s really happening,” said Nelson. “And so as they move from station to station, they have to be able to understand the economics of their current situation. They’re forced to make decisions and they get to see the immediate consequence of—good or bad, of those decisions.

To help the students gain real-world knowledge on the subject, the school brings in businesses from around the community to help with the simulation.

“So I’m a part of the Coldwell Banker booth,” said volunteer Payton Scott. “We’re here helping the kids buy homes or helping them rent their first home. This really opens their eyes to see everything: you know, fees, taxes, insurance. It really just gives you a better understanding.”

For the seniors of Pequot Lakes High School, the event is truly an eye-opening experience.

“I think it kind of gives us a little perspective. It just gives us some real-life experience on how we’re going to be treating things in the real life, you know?” added Super-Peterson. “Maybe you don’t want to get that new Honda Civic Sport. Instead, maybe go for a little used car and start to save some money.”

Pequot Lakes High School has been putting on the Reality Store for nearly two decades.