Ley shows

BHS students the ropes

For his students, teacher Terry Ley said the most surprising part of the class is the month they spend running the finances of their own homes, paying the bills and so on.

“It’s always a real eye opener and shocker to the students to find out how much it takes to keep a roof over your own head: the cost of food, the mortgage or the rent, the insurance and everything else,” Ley said.

Ley teaches a personal-finance class at Bothell High, an elective course he believes should be a requirement, especially given the current state of the national economy. He even argues many of the country’s current problems might have been avoided if the average consumer was a bit more financially savvy. Still, he said Northshore’s finance classes are some of only a few of their type taught in the Puget Sound area.

Besides asking kids to take over their household budgets for a while, students also create a simulated budget for a teen who is kicked out of his home.

“They find out there are a lot of decisions that have to be made quickly,” Ley said.

“We were taught the skills to manage a checkbook, rent an apartment, buy a car and much more,” said Bothell High student Taylor Cothran, 17.

Students like Taylor also take part in an online stock-market simulation, given a fictional $100,000 to invest as they see fit.

“The simulation is about as real life as you can get,” Ley noted. “They make trades online, pay broker commission fees and pay the current price for stocks.”

Ley stated students must make at least three trades a week, a requirement that forces them to do continual research into stocks and market conditions.

Students involved in the stock simulation are entered into a nationwide stock trading competition. Obviously, the goal is to make as many positive trades and earn as much as possible.

Ley began teaching the finance class at Woodinville High about nine years ago. He transferred to Bothell High two years ago. During that time, Ley’s students have taken prizes in the national contest, including a $500 cash award for a first-place portfolio and $300 in cash for a third-place prize.

“That’s pretty impressive when you think that it is a nationwide competition,” Ley noted.

His students also have competed, and again done well, in a financial literacy challenge sponsored by the U.S. Treasury.

According to Ley, adults taking the test score only about an average of 58 percent. Typical high-school students score slightly lower, about 52 percent.

For students taking Ley’s class, the numbers are decidedly different. Last year, 35 Bothell High students scored in the top 25 percent among the 75,000 students from around the country who took the test. One student won special recognition for missing a grand total of one question.

Ley has three pieces of advice he gives all his students, advice that is posted on the wall in front of his classroom.

First, treat compound interest as the Eighth Wonder of the World, seeking it out as much as possible. Also, keep in mind that deadlines matter. Pay things on time and, if you can, pay more than the minimum on such items as credit cards. And perhaps most importantly, Ley says to pay yourself first. In other words, make saving a priority, ideally setting aside 10 percent of your income on a regular basis.

“I would definitely recommend this class to other students,” Taylor said, “because it teaches basic but very important financial knowledge that every teenage student should know.”

Personal finance classes are taught at all Northshore School District high schools.