Needs and wants
A need is something you really need to live healthy, warm and safe and to go to school. A want is nice, but you can do without.
You can start right here: nothing needed first.
Why
You get €40 for your birthday. Do you buy that new hoodie, or do you actually need new shoes for PE?
Money always runs out at some point. That is why everyone has to choose: you, your parents, a company and even a country. If you know first what is really needed, you choose more calmly and have fewer regrets afterwards.
Economics starts right here. People want more than they can pay for. That is called scarcity. Because you cannot have everything, you put things in order: first what you need, then what you would like.
See it
Tap a card to put it under need or under want. Watch the counters change and read the note: for some cards it depends on your situation.
Description of the picture
Ten cards with things a teenager spends money on: food, a winter coat, school supplies, a bus pass, a bicycle repair, a second pair of sneakers, a streaming subscription, a new phone while the old one still works, sweets and the cinema with friends. Each card can go under need or under want. A note says that some cards depend on your situation. A text counts how many cards are under need, how many under want and how many are not sorted yet.
Get it
A need is something you need to live healthy and safe and to keep up at school: food and drink, a roof over your head, clothes that fit, care when you are ill, a way to get to school. Without these things you are in real trouble.
A want is something that makes your life nicer or easier, but you can do without it: a second pair of sneakers, a streaming subscription, sweets, a night at the cinema. Wants are not bad. It is nice if you can afford a few. But they come after the needs.
Sometimes it depends on your situation. A bicycle repair is a need if you cycle to school every day, but a want if your bike only comes out at the weekend. A phone is needed for many young people, but a new phone while the old one still works fine is a want. The most expensive version of something you need is often partly a want: you need a warm winter coat, you do not need a winter coat of €250.
Because money is scarce, every choice costs something. If you spend €15 on the cinema, you can no longer save that €15 for a new bicycle tyre. What you give up is called the opportunity cost: the best other choice you leave behind.
A good habit: when you get money, first put aside what you need. What is left can go to wants or into your piggy bank. That way you are not left without money for your bus pass at the end of the month.
First the needs, then the wants: leftforwants=
Worked example
Fien gets €60 pocket money a month. She pays her own bus pass of €15 a month and her school lunch, €28 a month in total. How much is left for wants?
First add up the needs.
€15.00+
€28.00= €43.00 Subtract the needs from the pocket money.
€60.00−
€43.00= €17.00 Fien can spend that €17 on a want or save it.
- Answer
There is €17.00 left for wants.
Do it
Pick a level. You get a new exercise every time, checked straight away. Amounts to the cent.
Pitfalls
Wrong: Everything I want very badly is something I need.
A strong feeling does not turn a want into a need. Adverts and friends can make a want feel very urgent.
Right: Ask yourself what happens if you do not buy it. If you would be in real trouble, it is a need.
Wrong: Wants are bad, I may only buy needs.
A life without a single want is not healthy either. Having fun with friends is part of it.
Right: Wants are fine, but only once the needs are paid and within what you have.
Wrong: A thing is always a need or always a want.
The same bike is a need for one person and a want for another. The price matters too.
Right: Look at your own situation and at the cheapest version that will do.
In real life
- In the January and July sales everything looks like a bargain. But a discount on something you do not need is still money gone.
- The leaders of a youth movement or the scouts plan a camp with a fixed amount. First the food and the campsite, only then the extra trip.
- Students with a student job sometimes pay part of their phone plan or bus pass themselves. You put that amount aside first every month.
- Many families first buy the regular groceries at the supermarket and only then see whether there is room for a tasty extra in the trolley.
History
The word economy comes from the Greek oikonomia: running a household. Oikos means house. The ancient Greeks meant how to run a house well, with its supplies, its money and its people. Choosing what comes first was already part of it.
At the table
Which three things in our home are real needs, and which want could we most easily do without?
A question to talk about together, for parents and young people. There is no wrong answer.