A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching Children About Finance
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
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
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.