Freedom at Last What Does That Mean?

Freedom at last — what does that mean?

Year level: Year 9 and 10

Duration: 60 minutes (lesson 1 of 2 connecting lessons)

Key learning area: English, Mathematics, *Economics and business

Enduring understanding/deep learnings:

There are costs and considerations related to moving out of home.
You can save money and avoid common 'rookie errors' if you consider rental leases and bonds, living expenses, household budgeting, share housemate compatibility, and tenancy rights and responsibilities before moving out of home.
You can access help from tenant unions, advocacy groups and government consumer agencies when lease and tenancy issues arise from moving out of home.

* Please note that this lesson plan has been aligned with the draft Economics and business curriculum. This mapping will be confirmed when the curriculum is endorsed.
Activity 1: MoneySmart Rookie – ‘Moving out’ video (12 minutes)
Task 1: Watch the MoneySmart Rookie – ‘’Moving out’ video (Duration 7 minutes).

*Teacher tip: This video has mild sexual references and you should view it and assess its suitability before showing students.

Task 2: Discussion of key messages from video (Duration 5 minutes)

Ask students, “What were the seven key messages of the MoneySmart Rookie – 'Moving out’ video?”

Answers should focus on:

Signing a rental agreement – if your name's on the lease, you’re legally required to pay rent, bond, any expenses for property damage and special requirements such as gardening
Bond – usually four weeks rent paid before taking up tenancy
Living expenses – food, gas/electricity, internet, furniture
Budgeting – you generally need twice your monthly rent costs to cover living expenses
Share house advantages/disadvantages
Basic tenancy rights and responsibilities
Where to seek advice if you struggle to pay your living expenses such as your rent.

Discuss responses as they are suggested.

Activity 2: Moving out of home considerations (10 minutes)

Task 1: Identifying considerations

Distribute Worksheet 1: Moving out of home considerations mind map. Ask students to write in the centre circle ‘Moving out of home considerations'. Ask students to write six main considerations related to moving out of home in each of the connecting circles:

Living arrangements
Rent
Food
Furniture
Gas/electricity/water/internet costs
Budgeting
Tenancy advice

Ask students to elaborate by writing three dot points for each main consideration (within each connecting circle). Points could include:

Lease – who signs? Legal liability, length of lease, lease terms, bond
Share house – sharing costs, tenants' responsibilities, housemate compatibility
Rent – monthly costs, bond payment, payment difficulties
Food: monthly costs, value for money and nutritional value, perishable items (for example, bread milk meat/vegetables) versus non-perishable items (for example, cleaning products, canned food, personal items such as toothpaste)
Furniture – essential item costs, e.g. bed, chair, fridge – versus non-essential items, e.g.PlayStation/computer, microwave). Buy new/second-hand/bring from home?
Gas/electricity/water/internet costs: monthly expenses – who pays? How are the costs shared? How to keep costs down.
Budgeting/tenancy advice – income stream. How are you going to pay the bills – job, parents? Budget planning, where to seek budget/tenancy advice?

Task 2: Advantages and disadvantages of sharing a rental property

Ask students to identify three advantages and three disadvantages of sharing a rental property with one or more people.

Example responses:

Advantages

Great way to meet new friends, develop social networks (particularly for rural students), and it may be safer.
Sharing the bills reduces living costs.
Each house member can bring various pieces of furniture/whitegoods to share, reducing costs.

Disadvantages

Squabbles and arguments over who pays what share of living expenses.
Arguments over lifestyle factors such as cleaning, entertaining and the use of the kitchen, bathroom or television.
Legal liability issues regarding property damage, bond repayments, failure to pay rent.

Make the observation that getting along with the people you plan to share a house with is an important factor in making the move out of home a success. Compatible lifestyles are important as well as a common understanding of shared financial obligations.

Activity 3: Share housemate compatibility case study (20 minutes)

Task 1: Case study

In this task students will read and discuss a case study based on Vicki from the 'Moving out' video. Vicki learnt some hard lessons about the costs of moving out of home as well as the importance of having reliable housemates in a share house. When the 'party animal' moves out she decides to make sure that the new housemate is compatible with the other people living there. First of all Vicki answers some questions about herself. She then asks the same questions of the people who apply to move in to work out if they are compatible.

Ask students to read the case study and then in small groups of three or four students discuss which person would make the best housemate for Vicki.
Ask the class if there are any other questions they would ask to check housemate compatibility.

*Teacher tip: If you have time, ask the students to develop responses to the ten questions for themselves reflecting on whether they would make a compatible housemate for Vicki.

The case study is based around the questions below.

1. How will you pay your share of the rent and household bills each week?

2. Have you ever lived in a share house before?

3. Can you bring any furniture or electrical appliances to the share house?

4. Will you have a job or be studying?

5. What do you think is important to think about when you share a house with other people?

6. Is it important to pay the bills, or would you just have fun with friends and catch up on bills with the next pay?

7. What would you enjoy doing on weekends if you had no money because bills and rent had to be paid?

8. Could you get money from your parents or someone else to help pay rent or bills if you needed to?

9. Do you just guess how much money you should put aside from each pay, or do you have some kind of budget to help you work it out?

10. Do you like the idea of having a 'share house meeting' every couple of weeks to bring up any problems and discuss expenses?

Extension activity

Have the students break up into groups of three or four. Have each group develop a set of questions that they think would be suitable to ask of a prospective new housemate. Remind them that financial compatibility is the main aim for this exercise. They will need to create at least four open ended questions that will give them the information they need to find someone suitable. One person from each group moves to another group as an 'applicant' to be 'interviewed' by the next group of students who are role playing as the current occupants of a share house who are looking for a new housemate. At the end of the exercise the interviewers will need to decide if the applicant is suitable or not. To give the interviewers more choices the applicant could move on to the next group and apply to be housemate with another group.

Reflection (5 minutes)

1. List three things that you learned today about moving out of home.

2. In your opinion, which of these components is the most important to you?

3. What else did you learn about moving out of home today?

Conclude Moving out Lesson 1 by flagging the next lesson's use of an online conversation tool. Students will participate in a simulated conversation with a real estate agent to learn about rental agreements. They will also explore:

MoneySmart Budget Planner
Reading the fine print on leases
Landlord/tenant rights and responsibilities.

Resources

1. MoneySmart Rookie 'Moving out' video

2. Data projector/TV and DVD player or computer

3. 'Moving out of home' convo

4. Activity worksheet/s

5. Computers with internet access

6. ASIC's MoneySmart and MoneySmart Teaching websites

Additional resources

This lesson plan is part of the MoneySmart Rookie suite of resources for educators which can be accessed at: http://teaching.moneysmart.gov.au/resource-centre/moneysmart-rookie-for-educators.