In today's world children are bombarded with an instant gratification mentality. With credit cards and "buy it now pay later" children can become unaware of this problematic premise within finances. Financial literacy statistics show that out of 4,000 students only 35.5% passed the Jump$tart finance survey. A K-12 teacher study in 2007 showed that teachers believe that students do not have efficient financial literacy skills.
A 2007 Schwab survey shows that over 50% of teens lack the knowledge to budget, pay bills, understand credit card interest, and what a 401 K plan is. By the time college starts many children have credit cards. These statistics are the very reason why parents and educators must combine efforts to educate and prepare children for a successful financial well-being. No matter how old a a child is, children of all ages can benefit and learn from the following resources.
Financial Lessons for Kids 5-12
- Math Tutorial: Tutorial for coin combination practice.
- Count Coins: A kindergarten lesson on counting coins to pay for an item.
- For Parents: Teaching children about money from infancy to teen years.
- Allowance Basics: The basics of allowances for kids.
- Allowances and Money: Great resource on allowances for parents and children.
- Developing a Budget: Four budget activities for kids.
- Kids Bank: A cool and fun interactive place for kids to discover money and banks.
- Teaching Kids About Money: Plenty of tips and a money game board to help children learn about money.
- The Mint: Kids learn about earning, saving, spending, giving, and checking accounts.
Financial Lessons for Teens 13-18
- Investing: A list of common types of investments and risk assessments.
- Teen Years: Investing lesson for teens.
- Mad Money: A reality test for teens to understand how much life outside of the parents home would cost
- Business & Money: A five part tutorial for establishing a budget.
- Compound Interest: Calculating Compound Interest and Annual Percentage Yield lesson.
- Kids Money: A list of moneymaking ideas from parents and ideas.
- Summer Jobs: Several types of summer jobs for kids such as traditional and high tech jobs,
- It's Just a Balancing Act: A newsletter just for teens with instructions for balancing a checkbook.
- Credit Cards: This article provides seven tips on credit cards.
Financial Lessons for College Students
- Know the Facts: 10 tips for credit cards and guidance for understanding where your money is going.
- Credit Score: A credit score organizer lesson.
- Credit Card Tips: College students can learn how to make credit cards work for them with this lesson.
- Student Loans: Great information for managing student loans.
- ABC's: Budgeting basics for college students.
- A secure Retirement: 10 modules for students to plan for retirement.
- Stock and Bonds: The basics of stocks and bonds over a lifetime.
- Beginner Investors: An in-depth page dedicated to beginner investors.
- Investing Lessons: 11 essential investing lesson units.
- Personal Finance: Advanced lessons on mutual fund, stocks and bonds, Roth's, and retirement.
Financial Activities and Lesson Plans for Teachers
- Mix Up: This student activity focuses on personal finance concepts.
- Creating a Budget: A 60-minute lesson on budgeting.
- Calculating Salary: Lesson plan that focuses on gross pay, net pay, and other aspects of salary.
- Money Smart Teens: Four money lesson curriculums for ninth through 12 graders.
- Entrepreneur: A lesson plan that lets kids be a entrepreneur
- Bank Comparison: This lesson helps students build knowledge to help find the bank that's most appropriate for them.
- Financial Lesson: An in-depth financial lesson focusing on computation, problem solving, careers, bills, taxes, and family expenses.
- Financial Literacy: A lesson plan for K-2 that teaches kids to develop positive spending and saving habits.