LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — April is Financial Literacy Month, and Delta Academy is taking full advantage of the month's responsible spending message in the classroom.
Richard Shipin has spent the last three years teaching mathematics and financial literacy to Las Vegas's future leaders.
Shipin said the education has been important because it has real world applications including budgeting, saving, spending responsibly, and going into debt.
The class recently completed a major project in which students were assigned an income level and then had to balance their budget including all real world expenditures.
Shipin said the students quickly learned how far they could stretch a dollar.
"You take home three thousand dollars in a month, that sounds pretty good," he said. "I mean, you can make it, but they look at the expenses in the month, the rent, the car, you know, everything that goes into living. At the end of the month you barely have enough for a savings."
Shipin said the big hit with students has been the career and college planning lessons teaching them how to deal with debt and loans.
His advice was for young men and women to understand their debt and shop around as not all loans are built the same.
Adults and kids alike can find advice on financial literacy on the USA.gov website.
