High School Financial Literacy Outline

Use the following outline to ensure that you have covered main points on introducing financial literacy to your students.

• Create their own financial plan
  • Planning for Life After High School
    • College vs. Working
      • College
        • Items to pay for
          • Books
          • Room and Board
          • Tuition
          • Fun Money
          • Car Payments
          • Gas, etc.
• Create their own budget
  • Job
    • Are you feasibly going to be able to work while going to school?
      • How many hours?
      • How much money do you anticipate you will make?
      • Research the reality of average current salaries in feasible jobs
• Propose a personal saving and investing plan
  • What do you want to do / spend money on
    • Create list of needs, with realistic costs
    • Create list of wants, with realistic costs
    • What wants needs to be sacrificed to achieve needs
    • Take stock of current financial status and options
      • Do you know if you have investments, life insurance, stock, etc?
      • How are these managed now?
      • What are your responsibilities for managing these in the future?
    • How do you plan to save?
      • Incorporate savings calculator
• Demonstrate how to use various financial services tools
  • How to apply for checking account
  • How to set up a savings account
  • Learning about online banking
    • Online banking
      • Make sure the system you are using is free and safe
    • Online bill pay services
      • Check reputation
      • Check fees
  • Specialty Products
    • Prepaid credit cards such as Visa Buxx
• Select strategies to use in handling credit and managing their debt after high school
  • Borrow from parents
  • Student loans
    • Terms
    • Deferments
  • Credit Cards / Debit Cards
    • Importance of Establishing Good Credit History
    • Dangers
      • Spending beyond your means
      • Not paying off in full every month or no plan for paying off big ticket items
      • Privacy
      • Buying a Wii vs. buying books
• Debt
  • Good Debt
    • Car Loan
    • Student Loan
  • Bad Debt
    • Reckless credit card expenditures
  • Unanticipated costs
    • Medical expenses
    • Car accidents
    • Emergency travel
• Establishing a good credit history
  • What is a FICO score and how is it formulated
    • How much does it cost to find out your FICO score?
    • How often should you check your FICO score?
    • How not to fall for sales scams that ruin your credit score

And finally,

• Examine how their choice of career and lifestyle will affect their financial plan
  • What are your career goals?
  • What sort of financial lifestyle will you lead?
  • How do your career goals fit this lifestyle?