Money plays an important role in students’ lives — and an increasing number of schools are mandating personal finance classes — and financial skills learned early pay dividends for a lifetime. Classroom teachers and those working with teens in afterschool programs and camps use Money Habitudes cards because they:
- Are easy to learn and to teach as a facilitator; almost runs itself as an activity.
- Make talking about and learning about money fun and personally relevant. As an interactive, hands-on activity, they engage students more than worksheets, lectures and PowerPoint presentations.
- Appeal to students with different learning styles.
- Use short, simple statements which don’t require great reading proficiency.
- Integrate well with curricula such as NEFE, FEFE, Money Smart, MoneyWi$e, Financial Fitness, etc.
- Get beyond budgets to begin important conversations about the interaction between lifestyle, values and finances — a fundamental part of the wants-vs-needs discussion.
- Can be used (and re-used over and over) in a wide variety of classes and programs, including personal finance, economics, business and entrepreneurship, math, career counseling, history and psychology.
How it’s used
- Icebreaker or introductory exercise. Teaching personal finance to students is often dry and disconnected from their lives; understanding personal finance in the context of one’s own life starts the topic off on a fun, low-key footing and makes later lessons more relevant.
- Student-parent conversations. Parents know that talking about money with their kids can be difficult — especially when they don’t feel confident about the topic. Money Habitudes makes it easy to have a good conversation and one that often leads to productive next steps — for both parents and teens — such as creating a budget, cutting out excessive spending, or opening a bank account.
