Best Practices
- Make it easy. If you don’t have the extra time, energy or budget to implement an entirely new class, it’s important to find a natural fit for financial education within the work you’re already doing. For instance, English class could feature financially themed essays, family and consumer science students can practice budgeting, or you could ask geography students to research world currencies and how different cultures view money. Money affects many aspects of our lives so it’s a natural fit to teach financial concepts in a variety of subjects.
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Choose the right words. Terminology can make or break a money lesson. If your students think talking about money is hard or boring, change the way you talk about it to gain more buy-in.
Get creative, especially with certain concepts that have a bad reputation. Give money terminology new life with some positive wordplay. For example, budgets often represent restriction, so call it a "spending plan." This takes advantage of the fact that most students love to spend. Instead of an emergency fund, try “relaxation fund” or "freedom fund." Instead of focusing on the negative reasons why you might need an emergency fund, focus instead on the benefits that come with being prepared.
- Get students involved. If you’re met with blank stares during certain lessons, let your students feed you concepts that make money management more relevant to them. Instead of providing an example of an emergency, ask students what would be a financial emergency for them and then explore the topic from there.
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Approach it from a different angle. Some concepts may be harder to grasp. When faced with a challenging money concept think in terms that aren’t financial. Opportunity cost is a good example. Opportunity cost is the next best thing you didn’t choose. Ask your students what their two favorite foods are. Then ask, if they could only eat one for a whole week, which they would choose. The option they didn’t pick is their opportunity cost.
By practicing financial concepts without using obvious money examples, it may allow students to look at the lesson more objectively. Once they’re comfortable thinking about money concepts in other terms, it will be easier to apply them to their finances. -
Make it personal. If students don’t think the subject is relevant to their situation, they’re less likely to pay attention and take it to heart. Finding ways to make money management relevant to students is the key to creating powerful and effective lessons.
When talking about issues that are necessary, but far in your student’s future (like retirement), ask them to picture someone close to them that’s nearing retirement age. Once they can put a face to the situation it may feel more important and interesting to them.
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