This course provides opportunities to learn. This personal financial literacy course is designed to alert, inform, and educate students in concepts of personal finance and money management. Students will begin to develop the skills and strategies that promote personal and financial responsibility related to financial planning, savings, investment, and effective money management. Topics covered in this course will include: college and career planning, money management, savings and investing, income, and spending. The course will teach students to search and assess college and career opportunities, identify and prioritize their personal money management goals, develop personal spending and savings plans, comprehend the impact of time on the value of money, understand the cost of using credit, and protect assets.
Unit | Timeframe | Big Ideas (Statements or Essential Questions) | Major Learning Experiences from Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
Emotional Part of Money Social Media and Money | September | Where does your money personality come from? Impact of society on spending money Needs/Wants/Choices with your money | This unit focuses on identifying your needs and wants when it comes to spending money. Also, who built your money feelings, how were they formed. We dive into the ways society and social media influence and impact on the way we then make money choices. |
Take Home Pay Checking Accounts and Banks | October | Develop an understanding of how you figure out take-home/net pay with paychecks Once the pay comes, where do you put the money to then easily access? | This unit focuses on establishing the difference between Gross and Net Pay, and how to read deductions. Allows students the chance to see how taxes impact your paycheck and what you end up with after these come out of the check. Once you have this, we then focus on where you put your money, so we discuss Checking and Savings accounts through the lens of different student checking accounts and banks. |
Budgeting | November | Budgeting Basics, Income v Expenses Real World decisions when it comes to how you budget your money | This unit focuses on how you now take your money and budget it out so understanding income v expenses. The unit was built into a PBL Real World Budgeting project. This project is lengthy and takes time to walk through making real life decisions to mock out how you’d have to budget your money to arrive at savings. |
Loans and Credit Cards | December | What are the main ways you can borrow money? Credit Cards as a way to borrow for a short term purchase | This unit covers the ways you can borrow money. Student Loan, Mortgages, Car Loans, and credit cards. We discuss in depth the various ways you can take principal and interest rates when in need. We cover Credit Cards in detail and compare using this versus your Debit Card as a way to understand the difference. |
Credit Scores and Reports | January | Identify Credit Scores and why they’re relevant for all citizens. In depth look at Credit Reports | Unti covers credit scores and we discuss the range and how to establish a good score young in life. Then how to sustain the score and the benefits of having a quality score for borrowing purposes. We then look at a real Credit Report so students can see the elements that make up the report. It gives students great insight on how to achieve a quality score. |
Investing v Savings | February | Difference between investing your money versus saving through a savings account. Stock/Bonds/Mutual Funds | Unit looks at the idea of just simply saving money with a bank versus investing into an investment option. We then look at those traditional options, stocks/bonds/mutual funds are discussed and we mock out the possibilities of earning income through investing in one or several of these options. |
401K Plan | March | Employer sponsored retirement planning through the 401K and the benefits of doing this at a young age | Unit covers the 401K and we discuss the benefits of retirement planning so you can have a comfortable retirement. In addition, we discuss the investment options for the 401K and compounding interest with the plan. |
Buying a Used Car Loan Refresher | April | Steps to buying a used card and all that’s included Refreshing loans with the specific concept of an auto loan | We walk students through the process of buying a used car. From identifying a budget to then executing a purchase and with this comes a refresher on auto loans. We do tie in the Credit Score to this lesson as well, so we cover several follow up lessons. |
Rent and Real Estate in America | May/June | Analyze the difference between renting and buying real estate in America | We spend time looking at real estate in America. |