Next Gen Personal Finance: February 2015 Newsletter

Welcome to Next Gen Personal Finance's February 2015 Newsletter  Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) is a non-profit organization that believes all young people deserve a free, quality education to develop their financial capability. We recently received feedback from educators that you wanted ways to extend student learning and engagement in the classroom.  We listened and are excited to announce theNGPF Activity Bank (click on Finance Activities on left side to find our 40+ activities).  These 15-30 minute interactive activities will teach your students how to pick a checking account, create savings goals, understand the difference between a college's sticker price and "net price."   We continue to add to our FREE Lesson Library (70+ lessons and growing) and the NGPF Blog, updated daily, provides you with case studies, questions of the day, and current event ideas and is updated daily. Please send me an email (tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org) and let me know how we can help provide you with the resources you need to succeed in the classroom.    Regards, Tim Ranzetta NGPF New Product Feature: The Activity Bank Check out our latest product innovation to engage your students with interactive, reality-based activities.  Your students will learn to calculate, research, compare, debate, role play and create within these activities. Oh, and we created answer sheets to make life easier for you.  Please contact Jessica at jessica@nextgenpersonalfinance.org and let her know what you need.   Here are a few activities that your students will enjoy: Shopping with Interest:  Students calculate how much items cost when factoring in credit card interest. Comparing Checking Accounts:  Students conduct online research to compare and select a checking account. Create a Savings Goal:   Students learn importance of goal-setting and brainstorm their savings goals. Compare Needs vs. Wants:  Students prioritize their budget items and understand the role of values in how they spend their money.   Paying for College Vocabulary Webquest: Students conduct online research to familiarize themselves with key terms  Activity Ideas/Case Studies Research tells us that students learn by doing. Here are some activity ideas that will engage your students: Case Study:  The Mystery of the $8 Million Janitor Case Study:  The Boeing 401(k) Plan and the Missing Millions of Dollars Activity Idea:  What's Your Biggest Money Mistake? Activity Idea:  A Budgeting Challenge and The $5,000 Sweater Popular NGPF Lessons At Next Gen Personal Finance, we find and curate engaging videos, articles, activities and performance tasks and package them into full lessons. These lessons provide your students with both the practical knowledge and application to develop their financial capability. Looking back at 2014, here were the top lessons:     Budgeting Basics Credit Card Basics Reading Your Pay Stub Checking Basics The Costs of Not Paying Off Your Credit Card Bill What's the Catch?: Creating Savvy Consumers We have to create savvy consumers to navigate the minefield called the financial services industry. Our What's the Catch? posts provide students with opportunities to develop their financial savvy: Better Read the Fine Print on This Credit Card! Do I Have To Pay To See My Credit Score? Making a Mobile Deposit on Your Smartphone?  Read This! Video Resources You know students love videos but you also know finding great video resources can take time. At NGPF, we spend hundreds of hours looking for resources so you don't have to. Here are a few video (and one audio) resources that we uncovered the past month that we thought your students would enjoy: What Can "Gangnam Style" Teach Us About the Stock Market? (8 minutes) What Do Your Credit Card Purchases Say About You? (4 minutes) Behavioral Finance:  Why Are Humans Bad Investors? (4 minutes) Questions of the Day Here are questions to engage your students in current events and serve as great ways to catalyze classroom discussions before you jump into your lesson: What is the Cost To Insure a Teen Driver?  Interactive Map:  What is the Most Common Job In Each State?   Chart:  How Much Of An Impact Does Your Credit Score Have On Your Interest Rate?   What Is The Average Credit Score for 18-24 Year Olds? Why Was My Credit Card Application Rejected? Chart of the Month:  How Does The Average Household Spend Their Money?     Community Activity Next Gen Personal Finance actively supports the financial literacy community through workshops, conference sponsorships and volunteer teaching. We are based in the Bay Area but travel constantly so e-mail me at tim@nextgenpersonalfinance.org if you are interested in discussing a speaking or sponsorship opportunity. Previous Events: October 18, 2014: FBLA Conference (Santa Clara, CA) - NGPF provided a workshop for FBLA Advisors and students November 8-10, 2014: Jump$tart Conference (Los Angeles, CA) - NGPF participated as an exhibitor November 15, 2014: CBEA State Conference (Monterrey, CA) - NGPF exhibited and conducted a workshop for personal finance educators November 19-21, 2014: AFCPE (Bellevue, WA) - Exhibitor December 9-12, 2014: Pilot at Palo Alto High School (Palo Alto, CA) January 21-23, 2015:  Collaboration with Harvard University Winter Session Personal Finance Course (Cambridge, MA) Upcoming Events: January-March, 2015: Pilot at Eastside Prep (East Palo Alto, CA) February 24, 2015: Common Ground Speaker Series and Educator Workshop (Princeton, NJ) February 28, 2015: FBLA Bay Section Conference (Daly City, CA) April 10, 2015: FBLA California State Conference (Santa Clara, CA)