By                    Sam DiSalvo

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Budgeting 

The survey reported 53% of Americans wishing they’d learned more about budgeting in high school, and 22% of respondents still don’t feel like they know enough about budgeting in 2022. Knowing how to budget is the foundation of all financial literacy. Any big decision around money comes down to budgeting, so it’s worth being taught in schools early on. 

Luckily, working budgeting into existing lesson plans can be done pretty seamlessly. Students can be taught a few different budgeting techniques to start. To make things equal among students, they can all be given fake money to redeem for classroom “rent” and rewards like snacks, free passes on assignments, or extra points on a test. One budgeting rule they can be taught is the 50/30/20 rule. That dictates that 50% of a monthly income goes toward needs, 30% goes to wants and 20% goes to savings or paying off debt. Giving students a simulated life where they can apply real world budgeting techniques can teach big lessons that they’ll take with them when they have real income. 

Investing

Many Americans still feel like they’re in the dark when it comes to investing. In fact, 44% of those surveyed said they’ve avoided investing all together simply because they don’t understand it. It’s a topic that 52% of Americans wish they learned more about in high school, and 51% feel they need to learn more about still. Because so many Americans don’t feel like they fully understand investing, they also don’t realize how much money they lose out on by not doing it, which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially when it comes to retirement.

Investing might seem like a lofty topic to teach to teens, but it can really pay off in the long run. Students can check the stock of brands they’re interested in to get a feel for how they do in the stock market, then track them over time to get a feel for how the market fluctuates. 

As a parent, you can invest some money in the stock market and say that your child gets to keep whatever the sum is after five years. This way, your child has a stake in what’s happening to the money and can watch as the amount changes day to day. 

Managing Debt

Expanding on the classroom budget trial from above, teachers could also provide assistance when students went into debt with their fake money. This way, students could learn about loans and interest. Student loans should also be built into curriculum so that when teens go away to college, they aren’t blindsided by the bill they’re left with when they graduate. Student loan education is especially critical for students to know when choosing a school. Knowing ahead of time how the loan works and how much it might cost to pay back after a few years could greatly influence where a student decides to enroll in college. 

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