Needs, Wants and Work Hours Activity
A 40–50 minute financial literacy activity comparing a nonessential purchase with an emergency savings goal in dollars and work hours.
Figur Editorial · Reusable financial literacy activities for educators · 2026-09-13
Audience and learning objective
Audience: adult basic education, workforce preparation, high school personal finance, or community financial-literacy learners who can multiply decimals and interpret percentages.
Objective: calculate work hours represented by a purchase, build an emergency-fund target, compare alternatives, and defend a choice with numbers. Allow 40–50 minutes.
Activity steps
Scenario: Sam estimates $16 take-home pay per work hour and is considering a $720 phone. Sam has $1,200 in emergency savings, $2,100 in essential monthly expenses, and wants three months of expenses saved.
- Decide whether the phone seems affordable and name one missing fact.
- Use Should I Buy It with $720 and $16 per hour. Convert the result to eight-hour workdays.
- Use Emergency Fund with $2,100 monthly expenses, three months, and $1,200 saved.
- Compare buying now, saving $120 monthly for six months before buying, and adding $720 to the emergency fund.
- Recommend one option in two sentences using at least two calculated numbers. Evidence-based answers may differ.
- Extension: change take-home value to $12 or $24, or the target to one or six months.
Discussion questions
Does a price feel different in work hours? Which expenses are essential in an emergency? What are the risks and benefits of using savings? How do income stability, dependents, insurance, debt, and support affect a target? What else would you verify?
Accessibility and teaching notes
The activity supports keyboard and screen-reader use. Provide selectable text, read amounts aloud, and accept spoken, typed, handwritten, or calculator-supported responses.
Do not require disclosure of wages, savings, debt, benefits, expenses, or past emergencies. Use fictional numbers and do not frame one savings target or purchase decision as morally correct.
Calculator assumptions and answer check
Should I Buy It divides price by take-home hourly value and excludes tax, financing, upkeep, resale, and benefits. Emergency Fund multiplies essential monthly expenses by target months and subtracts current savings; it does not predict emergencies or returns.
Answer check: $720 represents 45 hours or 5.625 eight-hour days. The target is $6,300, with a $5,100 gap. Adding $720 creates $1,920 saved and a $4,380 gap. Saving $120 for six months also totals $720.
Results are educational estimates, not financial, tax, credit, or investment advice.
Reuse rights
The text of this activity is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Educators and directories may copy, print, adapt, translate, and redistribute it, including commercially, with credit to “Figur, figureitout4me.com” and a link when practical.
Suggested attribution: “Activity by Figur, licensed CC BY 4.0.” The license applies to the activity text, not the Figur name, logo, site design, calculator software, or third-party material. The linked calculators are free to use online without an account but are not granted under this license.