The Dais · StorySeed · Lesson Zero — The Full Picture
Three Numbers.
One Lesson.
Everything you worked out across Parts A, B, and C — side by side, in one place. This is what financial literacy looks like when it's about your actual life.
Part A
What You Spend on Yourself
—
per month
Complete Part A to see your total.
Phone, clothes, food, transportation, school, health — every dollar you tracked about yourself.
← Edit Part A
Part B
What Others Have Spent on You
—
total tracked
Complete Part B to see the income percentage.
Gifts, money, and things paid for by someone outside your family — and whether it made financial sense for them.
← Edit Part B
Part C
What Your Family Spends to Raise You
—
per month
Complete Part C to see your annual total.
Housing, food, health, education, clothing, transportation — the full cost of one person living a full year.
← Edit Part C
Your spending
$—
+
Family covers
$—
=
Total monthly
$—
The Hours Question
At Colorado minimum wage ($14.42/hour), here is what your numbers mean in terms of actual work time.
| What you're calculating | Result |
|---|---|
| Hours to cover Part A (your personal spending) per month | — |
| Hours to cover Part C (family expenses) per month | — |
| Total hours per month to sustain your life | — |
| Weeks of full-time work (40 hrs/wk) to cover one month | — |
| Annual hours needed at minimum wage | — |
What this means
If you had to earn your entire cost of living at minimum wage starting today, you would need to work essentially full-time just to break even — before saving anything, before emergencies, before building toward anything.
This is why preparation matters. And this is why the skills in Lessons 1 and 2 — knowing how funding decisions get made, how to show up prepared, how to write the email — translate directly into economic mobility. The people who understand these systems earn more, navigate them better, and build more stable lives.
From Your Budget to Your City's Budget
The Same Three Lines. A Different Scale.
You have now mapped the finances of one life — yours. Housing, food, health, education, movement, the things people spend on you and why.
Your city runs the same calculation. Money coming in (taxes, grants, fees). Money going out (services, salaries, infrastructure). And a gap when the second is larger than the first.
Every week, El Paso County holds public meetings where funding decisions get made for organizations serving the most vulnerable people in this city. You do not have to research it. You do not have to build a case. You just have to know the room exists — and be willing to sit in it.
The gap is already in the agenda. Whatever it is that week, it belongs to your community. Go to bocc.elpasoco.com and find the most recent CDAC meeting minutes. Look at one line item for a social services organization. The difference between what they requested and what they received — that is the number.
Your city's gapFound in the public record — the agenda is always open
That is financial literacy applied to civic life. That is the whole lesson.
What Comes Next
You understand your own costs. You know what to look for when someone else is spending money on you. You can read a budget — yours, or your city's.
The next question is: what do you do with that?
Sample Documents →
Jordan's Worksheets
A filled-in sample budget, a role-play worksheet on college and savings, a gratitude letter template, and three versions of a letter to city council.
Lesson 1 →
Does Your City Tell the Truth?
Compare what Colorado Springs shows the world to what the data actually says. Three datasets, one paragraph, one question.
Lesson 2 →
How to Walk Into a Room Prepared
Five questions. One email. How to show up to a public meeting with something specific to say — and why it matters that you do.
Take Action →
Volunteer for a County Board
The Community Development Advisory Committee meets the 3rd Wednesday at 12:30pm. These are the people who decide which organizations get funded.
Go Back →
Update Your Numbers
Your entries are saved on this device. Return to any part to update your figures — your totals here will recalculate automatically.
The one-sentence version of this whole lesson
"Find the gap in your city's budget. Translate it into the language your brain uses best. Write to the person who can close it. Come back next month and see what happened."
Four steps. Repeatable. Scalable. Works in Colorado Springs, works in any city, works in any institution you will ever encounter.
