Welcome, Parents!
Welcome to It’s Worth ItSM: Thinking Smart About Your
Money. After each session, you’ll receive a brief summary
of the session’s topics, your student’s homework reminders
and some tips on how you can help expand your child’s
knowledge in financial matters.
Having a clear understanding of money and finances is a
key component to success throughout life. Money may not
buy happiness, but it sure does have a big impact on it.
The earlier the next generation begins learning about
money, the more likely it is society will change from being
debt-dependent to financially fit.
During the first session, your student discussed evaluating
needs vs. wants when considering how and when to spend
money. Understanding the difference between needing
something and wanting something is the first step in
creating good spending habits. In class, students
discussed needs as being necessary for survival, such as
food and shelter. A want is something you could live
without, like concert tickets.
To help cement the ideas and concepts each session,
please continue the classroom discussion at home. As
homework for this session, your student has a list of items
to classify and an additional section for their own ideas.
Have a discussion with your student about how your family
identifies needs vs. wants, and then add some family items
to the list for discussion in the next session.
Homework Reminders
Think About It
Session 1
Welcome to the first session of “It’s
Worth It: Thinking Smart About Your
Money.” This 12-session program is
designed to teach students about what it
takes to be financially responsible and
successful.
As your student becomes a young adult,
he or she will begin to explore the
financial world. Your student may earn
money, pay for items or use credit for
the first time within the next few years.
Now is the time for your student to learn
financial fundamentals and begin to
understand how monetary decisions can
affect the future.
During this course, students will look at
basic concepts and explore important
ideas, including budgeting, savings and
bank accounts, spending, college
financing, credit cards and career
preparation.
Financial Literacy
Word of the Day
Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is the understanding
of how to budget, save and make smart
decisions about your money.
For Session 2:
• Complete the “Create Good
Spending Habits” work sheet —
Categorize items and discuss with
your parents.
• Complete the “Avoid Budget
Killers” work sheet.
Differentiating Between Spending on
Needs vs. Wants
Think About It
Session 2
Understanding the difference between needs and wants is
the first step to creating good spending habits, but it’s only
the first step. In today’s session, students discussed how
this determination impacts overall spending habits, as well
as goal setting and planning for the future.
Students learned today that it is
important to set goals, especially when it
comes to money. Without a plan about
how to meet your goals, you may never
accomplish what you want to achieve.
For the rest of the program, students are
going to work on a group project in
which they come up with savings tips.
As a class, students set a goal of how
many savings tips to create by Session
12. Students know they will need to
work together, and that they also need
to tell others about the goal. Those
people can hold the class accountable
and help students reach the overall
savings tips goal.
Your student worked as part of a team to prioritize
spending by reviewing their homework list and determining
which item was the most important and which they could
live without. Following the prioritization activity, the class
discussed goal setting.
Understanding the importance of goal setting is an
important part of life, both within and outside of money
management. Setting goals and creating a plan to achieve
them will build confidence and help your student develop
strategy skills.
Do you set goals as a family? Is your student part of the
planning process to achieve your family goals? Involving
your student in some of your family planning will help him
or her see the process in action and provide a feeling of
ownership over part of the outcome. Talk to your student
about goals you’ve set in your life and how you were able
to achieve them. If you have set goals that you haven’t yet
achieved, share these as well. Ask your student to share
the list of goals they created in class.
In the next session, the class will go deeper into financial
planning and start discussing how to build a budget — this
session’s homework focuses on family spending and goal
setting. To help prepare, your student has a family
spending worksheet to complete. Review your family
spending plan with your student and help them identify a
few items they can share in the next session.
Homework Reminders
For Session 3:
• Start gathering savings tips to add to
the class list.
• Complete the “What Does Your Family
Spend Money On?” work sheet.
• Share your goals and get people you
shared them with to initial them.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Needs and Wants
A need is something that you cannot
live without — people’s basic needs are
food, shelter and clothing. When making
a budget, a need usually has to do with
the cost of housing, utilities (electricity,
gas and water), food and other basic
necessities. A want is something you
can live without. People can live without
cable television and other entertainment.
A budget can help you assess what you
can afford when it comes to your wants.
Creating a Spending Plan I
Budgeting and savings were the themes of today’s lesson.
In the last two sessions, students have discussed needs
vs. wants and how to prioritize their choices. This session,
they took the next step and started identifying the means to
spending money: income.
The class looked at an example of a family budgeting work
sheet. Students were surprised at how many different
expenses a single family has each month. Ask your child
about some of the categories he or she did not realize
needed to be accounted for in a family’s budget, such as
pet supplies, school lunch money and insurance.
Following the discussion on budgets, students reviewed a
sample pay stub to understand all the deductions that
come out of a paycheck. One of the main purposes of this
exercise was to get students to understand that they do not
take home their entire salary each pay period.
Following the discussion on income, your student was
given a budget outline and an income of $300. As
homework, your student is to identify how they plan to use
$300 by developing a spending plan. It may be helpful to
discuss how your family uses budgeting techniques in your
spending plan.
At the next session, the class will have a guest speaker
from a local bank, who will share a little bit about banking
and credit unions. The class will have the opportunity to
ask questions, so as part of this session’s homework, your
student needs to brainstorm at least three questions to ask
the guest speaker at the next session.
Homework Reminders
For Session 4:
• Complete the three questions for our
guest speaker — You will need to
turn in the questions.
• Begin the “Learn to Live on a Budget”
work sheet.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 3
Things that families need on a day-today basis can be expensive. Your
student may not even realize all the
things that you as parents have to pay
for. Keeping homes cool in the summer
or warm in the winter or being able to
turn on the faucet and get running water
may be some things that students take
for granted — but those take money. If
you have not already done so, talk to
your students about ways that you can
save money in your own home. Can you
cut back on things such as eating out or
turning up/down the thermostat?
Everyone in the household should try to
conserve no matter who is the one
paying the bills.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Gross Pay and Net Pay
Gross pay is the amount of salary paid
to an employee; it includes regular pay,
overtime pay and any other
compensation included with an
employee’s salary. If a person has an
annual salary of $24,000 and is paid
monthly, their gross pay is $2,000 per
month.
Net pay is the amount of money that is
actually paid to the employee in each
pay period after all deductions (such as
insurance premiums, federal and state
taxes, and 401(k) contributions) are
taken from the gross pay. Net pay is
always less than gross pay.
Creating a Spending Plan II
Today, the class had a guest speaker from [INSERT BANK
OR CREDIT UNION NAME], who discussed the different
opportunities and programs banks and credit unions have
to help individuals achieve their financial goals. A big focus
of today was on the importance of savings.
The guest explained to students what a bank or credit
union does, why it is important to open a savings account
and how to open a savings account.
Savings should be a permanent line in the development of
any budget or spending plan, and the class discussed the
idea of paying yourself first as the best way to prepare for
the future and unplanned expenses. As a class, the
students have been compiling a savings tip list at the
beginning of each session and have set a goal for 100 tips
by the end of the program. This list is a great discussion
topic for you and your student — think about how you
personally save a few bucks here and there, and have your
student add them to the list for our next session.
Today’s homework assignment is due at Session 7 and
involves a field trip. After hearing the guest speaker’s
discussion about different bank programs, each student
should visit a local bank and briefly talk to a personal
banker about free savings accounts. Learning what
programs exist locally to help students begin saving for the
future is an important part of building good money
management habits. Each student was given a list of
possible locations, as well as an outline of the assignment.
Think About It
Session 4
Starting and maintaining a savings
account does not take a great deal of
money. Through compound interest, the
amount of money in a savings account
grows after an initial deposit. Everyone
should be encouraged to have a
mechanism for saving for the future.
Sometimes, people save to reach a
goal, to make a desired purchase or to
have money in case of an emergency.
Some banks offer special accounts for
children under 18 — help your child
explore the options and start saving!
Saving money can be difficult. What is
the easiest way to save money? Would
it be beneficial to save money in a
bank? Now that students have had the
opportunity to speak to someone who
works at a bank, this is a good
opportunity to talk with your student
about the benefits of having a savings
account.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Compound Interest
Homework Reminders
For Session 5:
• Begin the “Visit a Bank or Credit
Union Activity” work sheet —
Remember you have until Session 7
to complete this assignment.
• Finish the “Learn to Live on a
Budget” work sheet.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
When money in a savings account earns
interest (money paid to you by the bank
for the privilege of using your money to
fund their business), you benefit. One
nice feature of most savings accounts is
that they allow interest to compound.
This means that the interest is added to
the balance in your account, and the
amount in your account grows even if
you don’t add more money to it. And, the
next time interest is calculated, it is
calculated on the increased balance, so
you actually make interest on your
interest!
Creating a Spending Plan III
The focus of today’s class was how to earn money. In
order to live in the world, students need some money so
they can purchase things they need. If they budget wisely
and save, they will also be able to purchase items that they
want.
Students brainstormed about ideas for jobs that they could
do as teenagers. Some ideas included a pet-sitting service,
mowing lawns or removing snow, and painting houses.
Students were directed to several job search websites for
ideas. Jobs that might interest the students after they
graduate high school or college were also discussed.
Students were shown how to use a job search site to
narrow down the list of possibilities to jobs that fall into their
interests or expertise and are located in their area.
Homework Reminders
For Session 6:
• Continue working on the “Visit a
Bank or Credit Union Activity” work
sheet — Remember you have until
Session 7 to complete this
assignment.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 5
There are many ways to find a job.
While students are in school, they can
start their own business. Students can
offer babysitting services (be sure to get
trained in CPR), car washing services,
lawn care services, or even services to
help adults understand how to use a
computer for accessing the Internet,
email or social media sites such as
Facebook.
It is never too early to start thinking
about the career that may be in a
student’s future. Encourage your student
to take interest and career placement
tests to get some ideas if he or she does
not already have some. School
counselors can help you locate these
tests and help you interpret the results.
Another great idea for students is to do
some job shadowing of family members
or friends and to find internships to help
them get a variety of experiences.
Financial Literacy
Word of the Day
Budget
A budget is an estimate, often itemized,
of expected income and expenses for a
given period in the future.
Life Store
After five sessions of discussing needs vs. wants,
savings and budgeting, today your student walked
through a typical month of bill paying. He or she had to
evaluate spending choices from owning or renting a
home to day care and insurance expenses.
Your student participated in Life Store, a budgeting
exercise that assigns each student a career, monthly
income, credit score and family status and then asks him or
her to go through the process of organizing a month’s
worth of financial decisions without going into debt at the
end of the month. Different life circumstances were
reviewed, some of which are controlled by the student’s
choices and others that are controlled by life itself, such as
taxes. Life circumstances also included marriage and
children and how each life choice impacts an individual’s
monthly responsibilities.
Review your student’s budget work sheet and choices and
have a discussion on how this compares to your own
monthly work sheet. In addition, help your student prepare
for the next session’s continued discussion of the banking
world and discuss how you use banking or credit union
services as part of your budgeting strategy.
Homework Reminders
For Session 7:
• Complete the “How Do Your Parents
Bank?” work sheet. (Please do not
include personal information.)
• The “Visit a Bank or Credit Union
Activity” work sheet is due next
session.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 6
Whew! Who knew that adulthood could
be so expensive? Hopefully, your
student walked away from the Life Store
experience with a little more
appreciation of the financial
responsibility that you as parents have
on a monthly basis. Life can be costly,
but it really comes down to daily
choices. It is easy to want to live beyond
your means, but hopefully this activity
made your student aware of the concept
of actual needs versus wants. This
activity is also a good reminder that
budgets can be adjusted for unexpected
expenses and to help people keep track
of where their money is going.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Certificate of Deposit
A certificate of deposit, commonly
referred to as a CD, is a type of longterm savings account available to
depositors at banks and other financial
institutions. In exchange for depositing
funds for a specified length of time, the
depositor will receive interest rates that
are typically higher than standard
savings account rates. Certificates of
deposit are commonly available in threemonth, six-month, nine-month, one-year
and multiple-year lengths of time. Quite
often, the longer the deposit term, the
higher the interest rate.
Checking, Savings and Debit Cards I
Practice makes perfect was the idea behind today’s class
activity. Your student was introduced to different forms of
banking and finance items such as check writing, debit
cards and an account register. Students were given sample
bills to pay and learned the difference between a savings
account and a checking account. The class also looked at
some real bills to help students understand how to read
them and what they need to do to pay them with a check.
Since every family and individual is different, there are, of
course, many different ways to use banking, checking and
savings accounts. Discussing how you use these items
with your student will help him or her better grasp and form
financial habits before reaching this step as an adult. Try to
involve your child in some of your financial habits by letting
him or her see you paying bills or using a check or debit
card at the store. See if he or she has questions about the
process and consider setting up a savings account for your
child.
The next session is going to take today’s lesson a bit
further by showing students how to fill in and balance a
checkbook register. Review your student’s homework
assignment from today and talk about the different types of
debt you’ve encountered in your life and lessons or habits
you think are important.
Think About It
Session 7
Everyone has bills to pay. It is important
that students learn what a bill looks like
and what their responsibilities are when
paying them. They should be able to
locate the due date on a bill, understand
which portion of the bill they should
return with their payment and what they
are being charged for.
Some students do not understand the
difference between a checking account
and a savings account. After today’s
lesson, they should know the difference.
Not only can you not lose money in
savings accounts (like checking
accounts, they are insured by the
federal government up to $250,000),
you also earn money — through interest
— by keeping it in the bank. The more
you save, the more you earn.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Direct Deposit
Homework Reminders
For Session 8:
• Fill out a check for the BGE bill in your
binder.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Direct deposit is a process where your
employer automatically sends funds
electronically into a bank account of
your choice. Direct deposit replaces the
process of receiving your wages via
paycheck and manually depositing at
the bank.
Checking, Savings and Debit Cards II
Although online banking is popular, it is good for students
to be able to use and maintain a checkbook. Today,
students learned what a checkbook register is and how to
use one to make sure that they are always aware of how
much money they have to spend. That old joke about the
person who overdrew his checking account and was
confused because he still had checks in the checkbook is a
well-worn but valuable story. Students worked through the
process of writing out checks and recording the
transactions into a check register.
While many families have gone away from using a physical
check register, opting now for online checking and tracking
options, many stores still accept checks and it’s often a
good way to start a young person out in the world of
finance. Physically writing a check creates more of a
memory for the transaction than simply swiping a debit
card. Recording the transaction into a register is an
additional reminder as it’s often hard to remember to log on
to the computer to check things out later in the day.
The class also spent some time talking about debit cards
and paying bills using online banking and electronic funds
transfers (EFT). These are easy and convenient ways to
pay bills.
During the next lesson, students will begin to look at what it
means to borrow money. Review your student’s homework
assignment from today and talk about the different types of
debt you’ve encountered in your life and lessons or habits
you think are important.
Homework Reminders
For Session 9:
• Complete the “A Loan Is Money You
Have to Pay Back” work sheet.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 8
Many people practically live their lives
online. They get information, pay bills,
get entertainment and more from the
Internet. So why is it important for your
child to know how to write a check or
balance a checkbook? There are going
to be times when your student wants a
record of payment and cannot make that
payment electronically. Also, no one
should rely solely on the bank to do the
math correctly. Your student needs to
take the responsibility to track all
payments (by check, debit card or
online) to make sure they are
appropriately recorded.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
Electronic funds transfer (or EFT) is
the process of moving money from one
bank account to another without the use
of paper — everything is completed
using computers. An EFT may be used
when you have your paycheck direct
deposited to your checking account,
when you pay a bill using a debit card or
you pay a bill using online bill payment
software.
Borrowing and Credit Cards
Debt is a huge problem for Americans today — both as a
nation and as a society. National debt continues to grow,
and advertisements continue to bombard the public with
ways to reduce or pay off debt. While the nation struggles
to overcome today’s debt problems, the next generation
must be better educated so they can prevent future
problems.
In today’s lesson, the class talked about different ways to
borrow money, including loans and credit cards, and the
responsibilities that come along with each type of debt.
Understanding that a loan is money that must be repaid,
with interest, is an important concept for everyone to grasp
as early as possible.
In addition to the list you helped your student with on “A
Loan Is Money You Have to Pay Back,” the students
worked together in groups to discuss how and why credit
cards are used. Your student helped a team brainstorm
different reasons a credit card could be used and then
discussed whether this was a good or bad use of a credit
card.
As the class discussed loans, student loans became a part
of the conversation, which brings the discussion right into
the next session — Financial Aid for College. This
session’s homework assignment is to pick out a college in
Iowa and find out how much it costs to go there for one
year. If your student isn’t familiar with colleges in Iowa, help
him or her pick one out and find the information needed to
complete the “Find College Costs” work sheet. The results
will be discussed in the last session.
Homework Reminders
For Session 10:
• Complete the “Find College Costs”
work sheet.
• Begin work on the “Discover Iowa
Colleges” work sheet.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 9
Many people believe that credit cards
are bad. Credit cards can be beneficial if
and when they are used responsibly.
Just like any other borrowed money,
credit cards have to be treated like the
loans they are. Why do people use
credit cards? If it is to buy things they
couldn’t otherwise afford, that’s not a
very responsible reason. There are
always going to be things your student
wants but cannot afford at the time, but
the key word is “want” — does he or she
need these things? Too often credit
cards (loans) are used to buy things that
people don’t really need and can’t really
afford. They end up paying a lot of
money after it is all said and done.
Remember: The higher the interest rate,
the longer it will take to pay back the
debt.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Minimum Payment
A credit card bill always shows a
minimum payment that is due with
each billing cycle. This amount is the
monthly payment you must make, based
on the outstanding balance, to avoid any
penalties. Unfortunately, if you do not
pay the entire balance each month and
only make the minimum payment,
interest will accrue on your balance.
This means that you will pay a great
deal more for an item than its actual
price if you only make the minimum
payment. For example, if you purchase
an item for $500 with a credit card that
charges 10% interest and make only the
minimum payment each month, it may
take 44 months to pay off the purchase
and you may have paid $650.87 for that
$500 item because of interest charges.
Financial Aid for College
Studies by Lumina Foundation on Education show that the
future workforce will need education and training beyond
high school for more than 60% of the jobs in the
marketplace. The big question these days isn’t so much
should your student go to college, but rather, how can you
pay for college?
Many factors feed into the cost of college and how to cover
the expenses of a college education. The good news is
financial aid is available and in today’s lesson, your student
began learning about those options.
Your student worked in a group with other students and
compared the different costs of different colleges from
around the state of Iowa. Each group was given a sample
chart that detailed the cost of a college for one year and
then offered different types of financial aid to help cover
those costs. One important point was that aid is available
to help pay for college, but you have to seek it out and
apply for it. Too often, families think they won’t qualify for
aid so they don’t apply, and they end up missing out on
many opportunities for grant or scholarship money. Talk to
your student and review the materials covered in this
lesson.
In the next session, the class will have another guest
speaker — a former [SCHOOL NAME] student who
completed a postsecondary education and is coming back
to tell students about the experience. Your student once
again has an assignment to come up with questions to ask
the guest speaker. Now is a good time to talk to your
student about college and discuss questions you both may
have so your child can ask our guest.
Homework Reminders
For Session 11:
• Continue working on the “Discover
Iowa Colleges” work sheet.
• Complete questions for the guest
speaker — You will need to turn the
questions in.
• Remember to keep adding to your
savings tips!
Think About It
Session 10
College can cost a lot of money. Most of
you probably already knew this. It is
important that you also know there are
many ways to make college affordable
no matter where your student chooses
to go. While attending college seems far
in the future for your student, you should
start saving now if you haven’t already.
Just putting away a little bit at a time can
really start to add up. If you started
saving $1 a day right now, you could
potentially have more than $2,000 when
your child starts college. Any money that
you can save and pay out of pocket will
decrease the amount that your student
will have to borrow and pay back with
interest. Also, you can talk to your bank
about a savings account that earns
interest, which has the potential for even
more saved money.
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
Gift Aid
Gift aid is a form of financial aid that
comes in the form of scholarships and
grants. This is a type of aid that does not
need to be repaid (assuming that the
recipient meets all of the qualifications).
Students who want to qualify for
scholarships and grants need to fill out
the appropriate applications. Colleges
can offer scholarships and grants known
as institutional aid, and students can
apply for private scholarships offered by
such groups as community
organizations, places of employment,
religious organizations and many others.
College and Career Planning I
Today, a guest speaker talked to the students about
college. [NAME OF GUEST SPEAKER] is a graduate of
[SCHOOL NAME] and went to college at [COLLEGE
NAME].
It was good for students to hear someone, who not too
many years ago sat in the same room they are in now, talk
about success in college. It helped bring a personal
connection to the idea of going to college.
Our guest speaker discussed the challenges of getting
through college (including how to pay for college) and also
touched on the benefits of going to college.
Remind your student that the college admission visit
assignment is due at the next class session.
Also for the next session, help your student complete the
personal assessment worksheet, evaluating their abilities,
interests and values. This assessment can also be taken
online at http://www.ihaveaplaniowa.gov. After your
student completes the assessment, talk to your student
about three possible careers he or she is interested in and
research the education required to work in that field.
Homework Reminders
Think About It
Session 11
Many opportunities are available for
postsecondary education — that is,
education beyond high school. This can
mean different things for different people
— some will go to a four-year college
and study to be an accountant or a
doctor, while others will go to a
community college to get a certificate in
an area they want to pursue.
Many students start at a community
college and then transfer to a four-year
college to help save money — classes
are cheaper at a community college,
and many core classes can be taken
there for less money. Be sure your
student works with an academic adviser
on campus if he or she plans to take this
route. Your student should be sure that
all credits will transfer and, if he or she
can get an associate degree on top of
the transferring credits, that is all the
better.
Financial Literacy
Word of the Day
FAFSA
For Session 12:
• Bring in your completed “Discover
Iowa Colleges” work sheet.
• Complete the “Find the Right Fit for
You” work sheet.
The Free Application for Federal
Student Aid, or FAFSA, is a form that
every person attending college should
complete. This form is the gateway to
many federal and other financial aid
opportunities. In addition to determining
how much a family is expected to
contribute to the costs of college, the
results of the FAFSA calculations help
determine grant and federal loan types
and amounts, as well as work-study
eligibility.
College and Career Planning II
College means many things to many different people. For
some, college is a four-year experience — they move away
from home, live on campus and take classes in many
different areas, as well as classes for their major, before
obtaining a four-year degree that starts them on a
particular career path. For others, college is a training
program for nine months that focuses solely on specific
and detailed information needed for a particular
occupation.
In middle school, students don’t necessarily need to know
what career path they want to pursue or what college they
want to attend. What’s important is for the conversation to
happen. A good place to start learning about various
careers is at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’
Occupational Outlook Handbook website at
http://bls.gov/ooh.
Students need to know that their education should be a
priority. Their education, especially once they start high
school, impacts their future decisions. Everything from
college and job opportunities and scholarships can depend
on how seriously students take their education and how
much effort they put into it from the first day of their
freshman year.
This session’s handout and class discussion centered on
the different training and education options after high
school. Review this handout with your student and see how
it fits into the personal assessments he or she completed
last session. For students to really believe they can
achieve, the most important support can be their parents.
The class also received a list of [NUMBER] savings tips
that they gathered over the 12 class sessions. Talk to your
student about the list and see how many items from it you
can implement at your house.
Think About It
Session 12
The class has discussed a lot of topics
over the 12 class sessions on financial
literacy. Hopefully, you were able
discuss some of these things at home,
not only to become knowledgeable
about financial literacy but to also put
what your student has learned into
action (just like his or her goals). What
changes will your student make? Do you
think your family will make any changes
based on what your child learned?
Financial Literacy
Words of the Day
529 Plan
529 plans are state-sponsored college
savings accounts for those looking to
contribute tax-deferred savings toward
their children’s college expenses. Each
state has slightly different rules and
benefits for its 529 plan, prompting
many parents to open plans in states
where they are not a resident. You can
learn more about Iowa’s 529 plan at
www.collegesavingsiowa.com.