Introduction
Money is a common source of stress and it can sometimes feel as though your bank account is always running on empty. Starting at UVic means you’ll need to be paying for tuition and textbooks and you may also be paying for expenses such as rent, food and utilities for the first time. Having a plan that will help you make it to the end of the term with money left in your bank account is important. – From the course home page
Finances is a topic that we had never explored as part of our orientation programming before, but the Pre-Arrival Program seemed like the perfect opportunity. Managing money is often a new responsibility for undergraduate students, and we wanted to ensure that students went into the term with a plan for how they were going to pay for all their expenses, and with some strategies for sticking to that plan.
This topic contains four activities:
What financial decisions will I encounter?
How do I navigate financial systems?
What are my costs?
Think Forward | My budget
By completing these activities, we hope that students will:
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- Learn to interact with banks and credit card companies
- Estimate the cost of living and studying in Victoria
- Identify existing and potential sources of income
- Create a realistic budget for their first year at UVic
- Select appropriate strategies to follow their budget
What financial decisions will I encounter?
What financial decisions will I encounter? is our introduction to the Finances topic. The content is a short, written paragraph that encourages conversations about finances, and encourages students to plan for, prepare for, and manage their expenses.
Learning outcomes: Students who complete this activity will begin to:
- Estimate the cost of living and studying in Victoria
- Create a realistic budget for their first year at UVic
- Select appropriate strategies to follow their budget
>> View the full What financial decisions will I encounter? activity
This activity also contains a video, in which two pairs of students play a budget game. They are each given $1500 that has to last them a month, and then presented with a number of budget related choices, including choices about rent, food, travel, entertainment, and more. The students share their reasons for making the choices they do, and share some of their best tips for managing their finances.
How do I navigate financial systems?
This activity introduces to various aspects of our financial system, including how to set up a bank account, banking fees, and credit cards and interest. It also warns students about financial scams, and informs them of campus resources that can help them through times of financial difficulty. This is a scenario-based activity, where they have to help a friend navigate through financial situations and make the best choices.
Learning outcomes: Students who complete this activity will begin to:
- Learn to interact with banks and credit card companies
Complete the scenario-based How do I navigate financial systems? activity. The activity will open in a new window. This activity works best on a laptop, desktop or tablet.
What are my costs?
It can be hard to make a budget when you have no idea how much things cost. Do 12 rolls of toilet paper cost $5, or more like $20? Can you buy all your textbooks for $100, or do you need to add an extra zero to that cost? In this activity, students play a number of Price is Right games (although we call it Guess the Cost, because copyright) to test their knowledge of grocery prices, toiletry items, technology and textbooks, and rent in Victoria. Our goal is not to ensure they know the costs of the specific items shown in the activity (because are you buying the fancy three-ply toilet paper, or the uncomfortable one-ply toilet paper?), but to encourage reflection on their knowledge of the costs of living.
Learning outcomes: Students who complete this activity will begin to:
- Estimate the cost of living and studying in Victoria
Complete the Price is Right-style What are my costs? activity. The activity will open in a new window. This activity works best on a laptop, desktop or tablet.
Think Forward | My Budget
In this Think Forward activity, we begin to tie all the pieces together, and provide students with a template they can use to create their own budget for the year. We start by sharing some budget examples- real budgets from real students. These students also share some of their tips, tricks, and experiences with money management. We then provide students with a few guiding principles for making a budget, before providing them with a template and encouraging them to create their own.
Learning outcomes: Students who complete this activity will begin to:
- Identify existing and potential sources of income
- Create a realistic budget for their first year at UVic
- Select appropriate strategies to follow their budget
> View the full Think Forward | My budget activity