Personal Finance Curriculum for High School Students Tackles Real-world Problems

Why should today’s young people learn how to manage money? Financial illiteracy has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., and lack of money skills causes a host of social and economic problems including lost productivity, crippling debt burdens, bankruptcy, and retirement shortages. The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) has adopted a pragmatic approach to addressing these problems. This independent organization has developed a personal finance curriculum for high school students where practical, hands-on activities prepare kids to handle real-life problems.

The NFEC’s social enterprise business model inspires them to develop money management lessons that effectively teach people how to live the fabled American Dream. The design of the NFEC curriculum illustrates its practical nature—the lessons are delivered via a series of activities and financial literacy worksheets that simulate problems people are likely to encounter in the real world. And because the NFEC cares about our children’s future, all their programs aim to motivate students toward positive action.

Many parents today prefer the homeschooling option over sending their children through the public school system. And some young people learn far better outside the classroom environment. The NFEC personal finance homeschool curriculum was crafted with those youth in mind. The worksheets and activities are shaped to be easily completed in the homeschool setting, whether presented by parents or consumed by the young people themselves.

Young people often lack confidence in their ability to make financial decisions and have trouble envisioning themselves reaching old age. That’s why the NFEC personal finance curriculum targets lessons to bolster teens’ confidence by helping them take small steps toward financial success. Once they make a few successful decisions, kids’ self-efficacy grows. When their successes are backed up with sound knowledge and skills they begin to associate money decisions with positive emotions instead of negative, building their confidence even more. This system forms the foundation of the NFEC high school program—setting kids up to discover successful real-world solutions to problems.