Nearly 10,000 secondary school students throughout West Virginia
have stretched budgets to purchase cars and buy homes. The
students actually spent fictional money and pretended to buy
these big-ticket items through "Get A Life," a game that teaches
financial planning. The game was launched in 2009 by West
Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue's office as part of a
broader financial education initiative known as NetWorth, a
program that includes financial education for grades
kindergarten through 12. "A few years back, John Perdue realized
we needed to get financial education into the schools," said Tom
Vogel, director of financial education for the state Treasurer's
Office. NetWorth came first as teachers around the state
developed lesson plans. It was later discovered that a game
called "Get A Life" had been developed as a student project at
Fairmont State University. It seemed a perfect fit for teaching
financial responsibility, Vogel said. "Get A Life" was first
introduced to students at Elkview Middle Sch