The following story about John shows how the right financial literacy program changed his life.

Fresh out of high school, John decided to get some work experience and earn some money before heading off to college. After his first few paychecks came in, he felt rich. Getting his first credit card was easy and maxing it out on meaningless junk was even easier.

Now thousands of dollars in debt at a high interest rate, John set his mind to paying it off. He worked constantly, putting in as much overtime as he could. After a few months, he was stunned at how little debt he had actually paid off and how little money was left in his account. This was his first lesson in personal finance. He became very interested in learning more and he did not want to continue to learn the hard way.

The first step was to talk to his friends about money, he broke the established social conventions and pierced the silence about personal finances. He was shocked at how uptight his friends were when it came to talking about money, but after spilling his guts to them, they opened up to him in turn. They discovered that they all had similar results of their personal finance activities. Although each experience was a little different, the common theme was obvious. It was very easy to get into debt and very hard to get out of it.

They realized that none of them had any education in personal finance, and that no one ever talked about their money situation, even their families.

So far, their experiences in the real world left John and his friends with nothing but questions about money and they needed personal finance activity answers. They wanted to know how they got into debt in the first place and what they could have done differently to avoid it.

They were beginning to realize the lifelong importance of finding the right personal finance activity answers, so they wanted to start with a deep understanding of the basics and they were willing to put in the time it takes for extended thinking about the basics of personal finance. They wanted the ability to compare different personal financial activities and options and use what they learned in different areas of their financial lives. Then if they wanted to expand their financial literacy beyond the fundamentals, they could go further.

They decided to learn as a group but their work schedules allowed them to meet for personal finance instruction only on Sundays and they didn’t want to commit to the entire day. While their short-term time was limited, they could continue the program as far into the future as they wanted.

Since they were all friends in the same geographic location, they chose a program that combined online learning on their own with in-person group sessions. The self-paced online portion would allow them to learn on their own schedule during the week, while the in-person group sessions for a few hours on Sundays would hold them all accountable to each other and keep them on the same timeline. Combining group and personal finance activities would be ideal.

They already knew what they wanted to learn first. Since John and his friends were young adults, fresh out of high school and freshly in debt, that seemed like a natural place to focus their first efforts. They wanted to know more about the concepts of debt, budgeting, savings and planning for the future. They were also still interested in the possibility of college and had no idea how to pay for such a huge expense, so learning personal finance activities to facilitate that would be a huge bonus.

Specifically, they wanted a real world personal finance class that would help them learn how to get out of debt, save and plan for the future and possibly even put themselves thru college.

They knew what they wanted to learn. Now they needed to find a curriculum to fit their needs.

Since college was still an option for John and his friends, they wanted to follow a program that meets core educational standards. The curriculum had to meet all of their varied schedules and give lessons that are practical and action-based. The idea was to apply the new knowledge directly to their lives as quickly as possible.

Now they needed some direction from a professional facilitator who would guide them thru the program, answer their questions and fill in the blanks. Even though John and his friends were smart and did well in high school, they were young adults who had made a few bad financial decisions and they needed more than a self-taught program.

Since the NFEC was independent and didn’t even run ads, they decided to go with an NFEC personal finance certification holder. They chose an educator with a background in teaching personal finance activities to college students, a perfect fit.

John and 9 of his friends signed up for the personal finance activity course and 8 of them successfully completed it. After the course, they each finalized their own personal financial plan which included the option of college.

At the suggestion of the instructor, John sorted thru the data which proved the success of the program. He then put it into a report which he could add to his college application and resume.

They all agreed that the program would change their lives. They had found the personal finance activity answers they were looking for.