Many people dream of having enough money to do whatever they want without having to work all of their lives to earn a living. Representatives from Wells Fargo Bank told students they could turn that dream into reality if they start saving money now.

Wells Fargo employees visited Ashley Hare’s eighth grade business and computer science classes to round out the accounting unit they were studying. They taught the students about saving money, budgeting, and needs versus wants.

Wells Fargo encourages the average teenager to save $15 every two weeks, and when getting money back from a purchase, put the change in a jar instead of spending it.

Students were give a mini-lesson on how to develop a personal budget. They used a worksheet representing a hypothetical teenager’s budget complete with earned weekly income, expenses, savings. They were given different scenarios to gauge how the budget would need to be adjusted based on situations such as loss of income if sick, or unforeseen incidental purchases such as a computer repair.

“This was great information for the students to have so that they can get excited at an early age about learning skills that will help them be financially successful as adults,” says Hare.