Out of all the topics, financial literacy for high school students is least seriously taken in educational institutions. As a result, many young people spend sleepless nights over debts and financial burdens later on.
Additionally, this is due to a lack of financial capability and a personal financial plan. In fact, you’ll often witness millennials joking about how they know all about photosynthesis but nothing about money management.
In addition, achieving your financial goals doesn’t only mean getting wealthy. Instead, knowing how to manage your finances and sustain them is the real challenge.
Hence, schools have now introduced a financial literacy curriculum high school. They have done this to enhance financial literacy for high school students.
This way, financial education will be accessible to high school students. This is because it’s one of the most helpful life skills out there.
So, read on to learn the importance of teaching financial literacy. Moreover also get to know about various financial literacy projects for high school students.
How Financial Literacy Should Be Taught In High Schools
Before we understand the importance of financial literacy for high school students, let’s know its meaning.
The term financial literacy encompasses knowledge of:
- Credit cards
- Checking account
- Knowing your credit score
- The basics of financial aid
Moreover, a student’s overall development occurs naturally in the high school environment. However, Mark Joseph Parrillarequires a lot more than that.
This means that financial literacy for high school students needs to be in the form of a curriculum. For example, financial literacy books for high school students are a must.
Significant Financial Literacy Topics:
1. Making The Right Financial Decisions As A High School Student
The initial part of the financial literacy curriculum teaches students about appropriate financial decisions. For example, this could teach them about the right time to spend and save.
Furthermore, it could also include teaching students about the right sectors to invest in. In another case, it could educate them about prioritization and spending wisely.
For example, is it more important to buy a jaguar or a decent house? This is an excellent example of making responsible financial decisions.
Hence, teachers must inform students about the proper steps to make financial decisions:
- Understanding your aims
- Preparing an action plan
- Gauging the consequences accompanying each of your financial decisions
- Keeping alternate options/plan Bs in mind
- Choosing the best action plan
- Evaluating the outcomes accompanying it
Teachers could also use financial literacy games to explain financial literacy for high school students in class.
2. Taking Responsibility for Your Money
Responsible spending can be a daunting task for many adults. However, it’s exceptionally challenging when you’re a young adult new to the race.
This is why most people fail to understand where their paycheck goes at the end of the month. Losing track of your cash flow is expected, however not correct.
This is where budgeting saves the day. Budgeting helps individuals organize their expenditures.
Furthermore, it also gives financial clarity to spenders and helps them prioritize their needs.
Hence, budgeting activities are an essential part of financial literacy for high school students. Teachers could incorporate these in budget games for high school students to learn from.
3. Spending and Managing College Expenditures
Once a student passes high school, their most significant investment is “college.” Hence, schools should include college cost management in the financial literacy for high school students’ courses.
Teachers should educate the students about:
- Tackling student loans wisely
- Thrifting their way through college
- Getting the right scholarships
- Applying for financial aid
- Developing the right practical and financial skills to pay of their educational debts
- Prioritizing their expenses through their college years
- Saving up for practical life
4. Increasing Income
The courses on financial literacy for high school students must educate students to enhance their income.
Furthermore, the best way to do this is with your degree. Hence, it’s important to teach learners about the impact of their degree on their future.
This doesn’t mean only lawyers and doctors will live financially stable lives. Instead, it means students must focus on developing skills in their relative fields.
Hence, foremost, teachers must guide scholars about the most financially rewarding careers.
Secondly, they must also teach them how important it is to attain skills in these fields. This is because companies hire individuals who will efficiently get the work done.
Hence, having a complete skill palette will let students score high-paying jobs. Furthermore, it will enhance their income according to their worth.
5. The Right Way to Use Your Credit Cards
Credit score and obtaining a good credit history are significant in learning financial literacy. Hence, teachers should incorporate this knowledge in financial literacy for high school students.
Furthermore, they should also enlighten students about the pros and cons of consumer credit.
As a result, students will be able to maneuver efficiently through financial services.
6. Dealing With Mortgages and Loans
Loans are directly related to responsible spending. For example, if someone goes into debt over a world tour, it’s irresponsible financing. However, if they take the same loan to buy a house, the case is entirely justified.
This is because a house is a long-term and solid investment that fulfills your basic needs rather than wants.
Thus, it’s crucial to apprise students of the right reasons to take loans. Some basic knowledge to give in this field of financial literacy for high school students includes:
1. How to Buy A House
Teach students to:
- Compare long-term expenditure on rental property vs. buying their own
- Attain mortgage knowledge
2. How to Buy A Car
Teach students to:
- Calculate long-term expenditure on possessing a vehicle
- Know about leases
- Know about co-signers and warranties
7. Saving Up And Investing Appropriately
Saving up is a necessary skill and should be part of financial literacy for high school students.
Furthermore, the habit takes time to develop. Hence, youth financial literacy teachers must start training students early. Then, they could guide them about ways to put away a part of their income for the future.
Moreover, financial literacy books for high school students must also have a section on saving appropriately. In addition, they should also inform students on making wise investments with their savings.
As for teachers, they can guide the students about long and short-term financial aims and checkpoints.
This education could include the following points:
- Determining personal financial goals
- Jotting down the action plan to achieve these goals
- Calculating the approximate time required to achieve them
- Calculate the finances required
- Prepare a budget to stay on track
Moreover, teachers must provide students with objective information about saving and investing wisely. For this, they could:
- Enlighten them with various saving methods
- Provide rough estimates for different saving percentages
- Explain the right way to make an investment decision
- Include mutual funds in the financial literacy for high school students course
- Alert them about investment frauds
- Teach them about savings accounts and the significance of having a sum in their account in the long run
8. Educating High School Students About Banking
Banks can be intimidating for newbies. For example, cash withdrawal, ATM usage, and various other services.
However, if students are familiarized with these services, they’ll be confident in their practical lives. Hence, teachers must teach the knowledge of basic bank services to students. This may include:
- Using ATMs
- The significance of credit and debit cards
- E-payment method
- Savings accounts
- Checking accounts
What The Statistics Say About the Financial Literacy for High School Students
It would be a lie to say that most schools don’t incorporate financial literacy courses in their curriculum. However, it would also be wrong to say that they fully implement them practically.
Here are the statistics from a 2020 survey on financial education in the US to further prove the point:
- The financial literacy course is missing in five schools’ K-12 standard curriculum.
- A standalone personal finance course is mandatory for students in only six states.
- Passing the financial literacy exam to graduate is only mandatory in five states.
What Is The Moral of Teachers When It Comes to Teaching Students About Finances
Financial literacy is a life skill as significant as other courses in the high school curriculum. Hence, more schools are streamlining their studies to incorporate this mastery into their education systems.
Furthermore, teachers are also learning innovative ways to make these courses interesting for students. In addition, schools are also aiding teachers with relevant resource material.
They are providing various sheets and lesson plans. Thus this makes it easy for the teachers to cover multiple aspects of the financial literacy course.
Moreover, it also aids students in understanding the course topics and helps in their practical implementation.
Final Words
This concludes our post on the significance of financial literacy among young adults.
Hence, enroll your children in this course to become knowledgeable and financially responsible adults.
