Financial literacy: income and decisions (lesson 1)  (Page 3/9)

• What can happen if you mismanage your money?

Step 4.- Answers may vary among students. To achieve your financial goals, it can be helpful to write them down on paper. Be as specific as possible about what you want to accomplish by certain points of time in the future, for example by next summer, next year, or by the time you graduate. Examples of short-term goals might be to buy a jacket or get a part-time job; examples of long-term goals might be to buy a car or create an emergency savings fund equal to three months of expenses.

Step 5.- Students may bring their short- and long-term goals into better focus by completing the worksheet on the following page. The teacher’s copy of this activity follows the students’ worksheet. Refer to Activity 1 .

Visual 1.

• What’s the purpose of money? Imagine that for one day, money didn’t exist. What would be the impact on daily life?

• Does the value of money stay constant? What are some factors that might affect the value of the dollar?

• Has anyone here opened a savings account at a bank? What are the reasons you decided to do so?

• Name an item that might increase (or decrease) in value the longer that you own it. Why would it be worth more (or less) over time?

Visual 2.

• What are some future goals you have that are going to require saving money?

• What are some things you never seem to have enough money for? How could creating a personal budget help you afford those things?

• When you go shopping for a particular item, how do you decide whether the price is fair?

• What are some things you could learn about someone by looking at his/her personal budget? If you were to look at the personal budgets of three different 18-year olds, what do you think some of the similarities (and differences) might be?

• What can happen if you mismanage your money?

Activity 1: goal setting worksheet

NAME: ____________________________________________________________

This worksheet is divided into columns that indicate time spans in the future. Decide for each time period what goal you what to accomplish, then enter that item under the appropriate column. Be sure to include the amount of money you think you’ll need. As your plans or needs change, you can update your worksheet. You can work toward your goals by starting to save now – even by starting small.

Activity 1: goal setting worksheet

( INSTRUCTOR COPY )

This worksheet is divided into columns that indicate time spans in the future. Decide for each time period what goal you what to accomplish, then enter that item under the appropriate column. Be sure to include the amount of money you think you’ll need. As your plans or needs change, you can update your worksheet. You can work toward your goals by starting to save now – even by starting small.

Examples: