MONROE - When seventh- and eighth-graders at Monroe Middle School stepped into the gymnasium Thursday, they came face to face with the Reality Store.
Part of the school's annual Hobby and Career Day, the Reality Store is a pseudo-microcosm of adult life responsibilities and costs. Call it a class, Reality 101, or a game, "Survivor: Adult World," the Reality Store is definitely meant to be experiential.
Eighth-grader Max Waller, 13, son of Beth Shebesta and Dave Waller, did not enter that daunting world alone on Thursday - he came armed with five friends: Bailey Gruber, 13; Ethan Kallas, 14; Liam Mulligan, 13; Hunter Pehl, 13; and Kyle Tanis, 14. Their idea was to combine forces and share living costs.
Waller also came prepared with a promising career choice, an architect making $55,000 annually, with about $3,355 a month to spend. Gruber chose to be a dentist, earning the most in the group at $119,000 annually and taking home $7,300 a month. On the low-income side, Pehl wanted to be a chef, partly so that he could always eat well, on an annual salary of about $26,000. Each had chosen a career and calculated his take-home pay in an earlier math class.
Waller walked away from the hour-long experience with $13 left in his virtual checking account, after the first month of sharing a six-bedroom house, utilities, two vehicles and a cell phone plan with the other five guys.
The biggest exasperation was at the gasoline pump, he said. At that booth, by a roll of the dice times the current price of gasoline, he was paying $452 a month. Mulligan, as a computer animator making $37,000 annually, took on $358 per month for gasoline, while the dentist, Gruber, was spending $124 a month.
Waller said the gas budget felt "pretty hard." Mulligan said it felt "horrible."
Pehl was the most perturbed in the group about the fuel costs. He didn't even want a vehicle, preferring to ride a bicycle, but the game required him to roll the dice for gasoline anyway, eating up about $400 a month of his meager chef's salary. To soothe the injustice, he promptly went out and bought a dog.
Waller could have minimized his first monthly clothing allowance, by spreading out the cost of three $400 suits, plus credit card interest, over the year, but instead choose to take the bite for one set now. He figured he could afford it, with about $660 left in his checking account at the time; then the cell phone plan took another $76.
The problem growing under his balance sheet was that he hadn't figured in his school loan payment yet.
Waller approached the student loan payment booth tentatively just as the session was ending. A four-year degree, based on his chosen career, costs $170 per month, he was told.
Waller quickly did the math and sighed; $13 remained. He had made it.
Except that he chose to skip the government/police booth, where he could have been picked up for speeding or DUI, or charged a tax for something he had no idea he even owned yet.
With a choice of being a good citizen or paying a fine, Waller saw no reason to tempt another fate. Paying hundreds of dollars would have put a "big dent" in his budget, he decided.
Fate, with its own booth in the Reality Store, had already given him a broken wrist and a tidy $294 medical bill for the next six months. Fate gave Gruber two concert tickets for $90, and Mulligan, a set of car stereo speakers for $150. Fate just didn't seem to play fair.
Members of Waller's group agreed that the $155 for utilities, gas, water, electric, and trash, for their big house seemed a little unrealistic -too low. In addition to $208 for rent, each had to pay $26 a month for utilities.
"That doesn't sound right," Gruber told the others. In reality, "it's not," he added.
"It's just to give us the gist," Waller said. "It's just an average, because everybody would get a different house."
They all took a different grocery plan. Waller decided to stick with Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese a lot on $149 a month. Pehl, the chef, stayed true to his ambition to eat well. On $308 a month, he figured he could have steak.
Gruber insisted they buy a "cheap, cheap, old" vehicle; Mulligan wanted it "big" to maximize carpooling.
The group bought the cheapest vehicle on the dealership's lot, a 2006, 5-passenger Pontiac Vibe, getting 29/34 miles per gallon. Nobody asked what color it was. With superb credit ratings, they qualified for a loan at 3.9 percent interest.
Splitting the costs, they, including the reluctant Pehl, got two of the Vibes for $48 a month each. Their good student discounts afforded each to purchase car and renter's insurance at $28 per month.
"Living with six guys, I didn't have to pay too much," Waller said.
"Splitting, that's how we live," Gruber said. "I couldn't survive without these guys."
Part of the school's annual Hobby and Career Day, the Reality Store is a pseudo-microcosm of adult life responsibilities and costs. Call it a class, Reality 101, or a game, "Survivor: Adult World," the Reality Store is definitely meant to be experiential.
Eighth-grader Max Waller, 13, son of Beth Shebesta and Dave Waller, did not enter that daunting world alone on Thursday - he came armed with five friends: Bailey Gruber, 13; Ethan Kallas, 14; Liam Mulligan, 13; Hunter Pehl, 13; and Kyle Tanis, 14. Their idea was to combine forces and share living costs.
Waller also came prepared with a promising career choice, an architect making $55,000 annually, with about $3,355 a month to spend. Gruber chose to be a dentist, earning the most in the group at $119,000 annually and taking home $7,300 a month. On the low-income side, Pehl wanted to be a chef, partly so that he could always eat well, on an annual salary of about $26,000. Each had chosen a career and calculated his take-home pay in an earlier math class.
Waller walked away from the hour-long experience with $13 left in his virtual checking account, after the first month of sharing a six-bedroom house, utilities, two vehicles and a cell phone plan with the other five guys.
The biggest exasperation was at the gasoline pump, he said. At that booth, by a roll of the dice times the current price of gasoline, he was paying $452 a month. Mulligan, as a computer animator making $37,000 annually, took on $358 per month for gasoline, while the dentist, Gruber, was spending $124 a month.
Waller said the gas budget felt "pretty hard." Mulligan said it felt "horrible."
Pehl was the most perturbed in the group about the fuel costs. He didn't even want a vehicle, preferring to ride a bicycle, but the game required him to roll the dice for gasoline anyway, eating up about $400 a month of his meager chef's salary. To soothe the injustice, he promptly went out and bought a dog.
Waller could have minimized his first monthly clothing allowance, by spreading out the cost of three $400 suits, plus credit card interest, over the year, but instead choose to take the bite for one set now. He figured he could afford it, with about $660 left in his checking account at the time; then the cell phone plan took another $76.
The problem growing under his balance sheet was that he hadn't figured in his school loan payment yet.
Waller approached the student loan payment booth tentatively just as the session was ending. A four-year degree, based on his chosen career, costs $170 per month, he was told.
Waller quickly did the math and sighed; $13 remained. He had made it.
Except that he chose to skip the government/police booth, where he could have been picked up for speeding or DUI, or charged a tax for something he had no idea he even owned yet.
With a choice of being a good citizen or paying a fine, Waller saw no reason to tempt another fate. Paying hundreds of dollars would have put a "big dent" in his budget, he decided.
Fate, with its own booth in the Reality Store, had already given him a broken wrist and a tidy $294 medical bill for the next six months. Fate gave Gruber two concert tickets for $90, and Mulligan, a set of car stereo speakers for $150. Fate just didn't seem to play fair.
Members of Waller's group agreed that the $155 for utilities, gas, water, electric, and trash, for their big house seemed a little unrealistic -too low. In addition to $208 for rent, each had to pay $26 a month for utilities.
"That doesn't sound right," Gruber told the others. In reality, "it's not," he added.
"It's just to give us the gist," Waller said. "It's just an average, because everybody would get a different house."
They all took a different grocery plan. Waller decided to stick with Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese a lot on $149 a month. Pehl, the chef, stayed true to his ambition to eat well. On $308 a month, he figured he could have steak.
Gruber insisted they buy a "cheap, cheap, old" vehicle; Mulligan wanted it "big" to maximize carpooling.
The group bought the cheapest vehicle on the dealership's lot, a 2006, 5-passenger Pontiac Vibe, getting 29/34 miles per gallon. Nobody asked what color it was. With superb credit ratings, they qualified for a loan at 3.9 percent interest.
Splitting the costs, they, including the reluctant Pehl, got two of the Vibes for $48 a month each. Their good student discounts afforded each to purchase car and renter's insurance at $28 per month.
"Living with six guys, I didn't have to pay too much," Waller said.
"Splitting, that's how we live," Gruber said. "I couldn't survive without these guys."