Personal Financ
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Students learn the consequences
of mismanaging their money,
which leads to great classroom
discussions about avoiding
mistakes in the real world.
• When you are on your own, what
do you think you will have to pay
for?
Tailor your money discussions to their
interests. Play to their current priorities, such as part-time jobs, college
expenses, cell phone bills, and car
purchases.
Encourage students to log what they
spend. Often people don’t realize how
much they spend on the little things,
and those things add up. Have them
log everything—lattes, gasoline, vending machine purchases, and movie
tickets—for a week or a month. Then
have them analyze where their money
is going to help them determine spending habits they may want to adjust.
Establish a reward system. Give stu-
dents points for turning in homework
on time or scoring well on tests and
take away points for missing assign-
ments or talking in class. Offer tiered
prize levels or classroom perks stu-
dents can “buy” with their points. This
approach teaches kids about saving for
a bigger prize vs. spending on smaller
prizes now.
