I knew you had to pay a whole lot of bills, but I didn’t really know they were this expensive, and I had to make this much to break even.”

Damir Ilicic | Valley Vista High School senior

AP microeconomics and economics classes at Valley Vista High School recently completed an educational exercise where they participated in a real-world simulation of saving, spending and budgeting.

Nearly 300 students took part in Financial Fitness in Action, a program designed to provide students a strong foundation in financial literacy.

The Arizona Council on Economic Education provided educational materials and partnered with school staff and several community volunteers, including banking professionals, to put on the event.

Participants were given a worksheet with their assigned career, salary, credit score and family data. With that information, students visited a series of decision-making booths staffed by teachers, community volunteers and banking industry leaders.

Each booth focused on different expenses like housing, insurance, investing, groceries, entertainment and healthcare. Students would discuss the best way to use their budget for the given expense, then make their financial decision by filling out that portion of their worksheet.

To illustrate how unexpected events could impact their finances, students were required to visit the Wheel of Life booth. Here, they spun a virtual Wheel of Life that could result in anything from a flat tire to a generous inheritance. While some walked away with a little extra spending money, others found themselves re-evaluating their emergency savings goals.

Senior Liv Castro said it was a lesson that underscored the reality of being financially responsible.

“It prepares you for what your future could look like, and it gives you a dose of reality,” Castro said. “It’s not like when you’re an adult you get money and you just pay your rent and that’s it. You have a lot of things that go into living.”

Once the students had completed their worksheets, they met one-on-one with financial advisors who reviewed their budgeting decision to see if they had achieved financial solvency or needed some additional guidance on how to better live within their means.

For senior Damir Ilicic, FFA gave him more realistic expectations.

“I knew you had to pay a whole lot of bills, but I didn’t really know they were this expensive, and I had to make this much to break even,” Ilicic said.

Classmate Ryan Sims agreed.

“There were some bills that I thought would be a lot worse than what they were, but even then, they still add up,” Sims said.

While the exercise can start out feeling like a budgeting bombshell, the students said they ultimately came away feeling more prepared and confident about the future.

“I think that you have to make a lot of sacrifices,” AP microeconomics student Janisia Thurston said. “It’s kind of nice though, because now that I know, I’m not going to be shocked when I have to pay all these bills and all these expenses.”

She said she would recommend FFA to other students. It is one of the qualifying events to earn the Arizona Seal of Personal Finance for grades 9 to 12.

DUSD owns 748 AZ State Seals of Personal Finance in 2025, the most seals in the state.