Financial Literacy Math Course Outline
I. Importance of financial literacy (1st day of class)
A. Show video on the importance of financial literacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laiuaq74Z0
B. Statistics
1. Financial Literacy Statistics (in relation to average Americans)
- 20% of American families have no savings
- The average American family has $5,900 in savings
- 32% of working Americans are not saving for retirement
- 48% of American families do not have three months of rainy day funds
- Two-thirds of Americans do not budget
2. Financial Literacy Statistics (in relation to students)
- Only 17% of students pay their credit cards off each month, average balance = $1600
- Three out of four teens are unable to decipher a pay stub
- Over half of teens/young adults overdrew their bank account last year
- 39% of college grads say they “would have done it differently” if they had known more about financial
literacy
- 86% of teens indicate they would rather learn about money management in a class before making mistakes in
the real world.
C. Discuss the game plan for the semester
II. Activities to be implement during the semester
A. Needs vs. wants
1. Discuss needs vs. wants
2. Have class work on needs vs. wants activity sheet
B. Budgeting and saving
1. Discuss the importance of budgeting and saving
2. Discuss checking, savings, and CD accounts
3. Discuss traditional banks vs. online banks (visit www.bankrate.com)
4. Budgeting
a. Things to note
i. First you need to save up for a $1,000 emergency fund.
ii. Then you need to save 3-6 months’ worth of living expenses
b. Budgeting activity- have students form groups and construct their own personal budgets using sample budget
sheet.
5. Differential analysis activity
C.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Investing
Discuss the topic of inflation and the importance of investing your money
Explore with class the website Yahoo Finance.com (http://finance.yahoo.com/)
Have class work on stock investment activity sheet
Explore with class the website http://www.howthemarketworks.com/
D. Other business activities- cost-volume-profit analysis activity