The Short-Term Effectiveness of a College-Based Financial Reality Simulation

摘要

Economic conditions facing recent college graduates include wage stagnation, significant student loan debt and high rates of unemployment and underemployment. These factors highlight the need to provide financial education in the college and university setting. This article examines the impact of college students' participation in a financial reality life skills simulation that measures financial knowledge and intended change in current and future financial behaviors. Using the Five-Tiered Approach as a guiding framework for the development of the financial simulation and evaluation, we found that participants experienced an improved (p<.001) change in financial understanding as a result of participating in the financial reality life skills simulation. Specifically, student knowledge of the costs to maintain a household and the costs to raise a child were greatly improved (p<.001).