I’m teaching personal finance at a high school level for the first time this coming semester. Any advice for a life simulation project?

Hello!

I am a first year teacher in Colorado, USA. I’m teaching an 11th grade Personal Finance class this coming semester. My degrees are in ancient history and anthropology so I’m a little behind on my economics knowledge. In any case, I’m trying to put together a fun semester long project for the kids. My idea so far is that I’ll have them use a program they’re used to from the school to find the median salary for their dream job, and then they’ll have to find an apartment in the city within their budget and sign up for things like health insurance, car insurance/loans, student loans, and the like. Then, once a week I’ll provide them with a scenario they have to navigate within their budget and they’ll have to write a brief paragraph on how they’d handle the situation and what it did to their savings or credit or what have you.

Now, a secondary idea I’ve had is that I could make little playing cards with life events on them that they’ll have to navigate within their economic situation. For example, at the beginning of class I could shuffle the deck and pass out cards with things like “Surprise inheritance: Gain $1500” or “you broke your leg (non surgical): Spend $2500”. Basically, kind of like life tokens from the Game of Life. I have a few ideas so far, but I thought I’d ask the internet what other interesting positive and negative economic challenges I could have the kids interact with.

Here’s what I have so far:

Positive

– Inheritance!

– Win a contest

– Raise

– Promotion

– Free vacation

– Help from mom

– Help from dad

– Help from grandma & grandpa

– Student loans forgiven!

– Rent credit!

– Utilities credit!

– Friend couch surfs (pays a little rent)

– Bull Market!

Negative

– Break a leg

– Break an arm

– Car trouble

– Broken phone

– Demotion

– Layoffs

– Fired!

– Robbed

– Rent increase

– Friend couch surfs (can’t pay, needs food)

– Bear Market!

What other things could I include in this project to give the kids a good idea about what life is like? What other things could I include on the Life Event Cards?