Financing My Dreams

Have you ever wondered what your life will be like when you are 20 or 30? What will your job be? Where will you live? The Financing My Dreams badge lets you explore, practice thinking about your future, and learn how much that future might cost. In this activity, you will explore your hobbies, interests, skills, and talents; learn about jobs related to your interests; and discover what those jobs pay.

Activity Details

Time needed: 45-60 minutes

Materials needed:

• Piece of cardboard, poster board or cover stock paper

• Magazines and newspapers

• Scissors

• Glue or tape

Activity: First you will create a vision board about your future. Cut out pictures and words from a magazine that represents you and your dreams. If you don’t have any magazines, you can draw your vision, search online for images or your vision board could be a mixture of drawing, writing, and collage. As you create your vision board, make sure you include some of your current hobbies, interests, skills, and talents.

Now it’s time to dig into your dream jobs. Do you have any interests, hobbies, skills, or talents that you could turn into a career? Make a list of possible jobs—see if you can get at least 25 possibilities written down. You might need some help in making your list. Look to books, TV, web sites, news, and other outlets for inspiration, or have your friends and family help you brainstorm a list of ideas. With the help of an adult, you can also connect with adults in your network to learn about their job history.

Once you have your list, pick your top five choices. Finally, search the internet to find a rough estimate of the salary and take-home pay for each job. Salary refers to how much money you will bring home each year and take-home pay is your salary minus taxes and other benefits like health insurance that you may pay for before getting paid yourself. Note: Girls, volunteers, and families are encouraged to take the time and space they need to adjust to this period of rapid change and uncertainty. When they’re ready, we’re here to support Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts to safely take action in their communities—whether it’s helping ensure kids are still getting the nourishment and enrichment they need out of school, responding to the possible ramifications of isolation during social distancing, adapting an existing project to positively impact local communities today, or something else entirely!