Financial Literacy Project for Consumer Ed or Personal Money Management

Financial literacy is extremely important, but many students graduate high school without the skills they need to be effective money managers as adults. This resource allows students to choose the projects that most suit their personal strengths and post-secondary hopes and dreams.

This resource functions as a multi-page choice board with 18 detailed project ideas. Each project component requires varying effort and time commitment, and therefore each one is assigned a point value ranging from 5 to 30 points. Students are instructed to choose a combination of project components that add up to 50 points. This could require as few as 2 projects (20 points + 30 points) or as many as 7 (four 5-point components + three 10-point components), based on the student's choices.

This resource includes:

• 18 project ideas. These project ideas include four 5-point ideas, four 10-point ideas, five 15-point ideas, three 20-point ideas, and two 30-point ideas. Students choose a combination of ideas to make up their 50-point project.
• External links to recommended resources. Several of the project ideas suggest using an online calculator, such as a mortgage calculator or a paycheck calculator. When these outside resources are required for completing the component, links to external websites are provided. If you plan to distribute this resource digitally, students will be able to click the links right on the PDF. If you plan to print it, you may wish to share the links with your students another way.
• A project planning page. This page lists all of the projects in one place, allowing students to plan which components they will complete in order to reach 50 points.
• A simple rubric. This page provides room for the student to list up to seven project components they have completed, as well as how many points each one is worth. It also provides space for the teacher to list points earned and any comments.

The topics covered in this project include:

• saving money
• gross pay, net pay, and payroll deductions
• budgeting for a home
• buying vs. renting
• buying a new vehicle, a used vehicle, or leasing a vehicle
• identity theft protection
• credit cards and interest
• down payments and monthly payments
• automobile maintenance
• cost of owning a pet
• entrepreneurship
• health insurance and healthcare costs
• comparison shopping
• planning a trip
• budgeting
• paying for post-secondary education
• and more!

Please note: I am located in the United States, and therefore many of these components are U.S.-centric. However, I think you will still find that this resource provides much value due to the ability of students to choose their projects.