Student Lending Analytics Blog

Next Gen Personal Finance: Creating Financially Capable Students

I thought you would be interested in some of the recent activity at Next Gen Personal Finance.  We are developing engaging, real-world personal finance curricula for high school and college students that work great in a classroom setting as well as for independent study.  Teachers have found our resources to be a great supplement to their existing curriculum.  

I wanted to give you access to our FREE content that you might find useful as you look for ideas that you can quickly implement to supplement your existing personal finance curriculum:

• Questions of the Day can be good openers to get your class started off on the right foot with a thought-provoking question.  
• What do High School Students Spend Most of Their Money On?
• How Do Lifetime Earnings Vary Based On Your College Major?

• Current events can be a great way to engage your students too. Here are some lesson ideas that come straight from the headlines.  

• Our Financial Forms unit provides students with real-life financial statements to interpret and master in 10-15 minute mini-lessons with assessments
• Reading Your Credit Report
• Reading Your Pay Stub
• Mastering Your Bank Statement

• Our online lessons provide students with videos, articles, simulations coupled with in-class projects to engage and educate.  Here is a sampling from our 30+ lesson library:
• Define Your Savings Goals
• Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card
• Budgeting Basics
• Purchasing a Used Car

Reach out to me at [email protected] if I can be helpful in any of your financial literacy efforts!

My New Venture: Next Gen Personal Finance, a non-profit

Hello!

Well, it's been several years since I last checked in and I hope you are doing well.  So what have I been up to?  In a nutshell, pursuing my passion:  personal finance education.   I have spent the past few years in the classroom teaching personal finance at Eastside Prep., an inspiring place which sends 100% of their first generation students onto college.  I created my own curriculum with an emphasis on honing student decision-making skills in a real-world context.  My students loved divining the mysteries of the credit card disclosures ("Schumer Box"), analyzing checking account fee schedules to calculate the cost of overdrafts and developing a critical eye while watching credit card ads.  The engagement of my students led to the launch of a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.  

So, what is Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF)?  We have developed a FREE curriculum that combines curated web content with engaging in-class discussions and projects.  We have found the best videos, articles, interactives and simulations from the web and combined them with assessments (to check for understanding) and engaging, "real world" projects to build student's decision-making skills.  Students learn by doing and with NGPF, we currently have 30+ lessons on credit cards, checking, saving, credit scores and budgeting (lessons on paying for college, investing and careers will be released by November 1st).  Oh, and it's easy to implement in a workshop format or through independent student work!  

I know many of you share the passion I have to improve the financial education of our young people.  Please reach out to me at [email protected] if you are interested in learning how NGPF can help you further your goals.   I look forward to talking soon!

If you want to follow our progress... 

• For a sample of our work, here is a lesson within our Credit Card unit on The Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card
• Check out ALL of our lessons here
• Read the Next Gen Personal Finance Blog
• Follow me on Twitter @NextGenPF
• Our Pinterest page