Recommended
9-Week
Course Outline

Prepare your students for the real world with our 9-week course. Through immersive simulations and practical projects, they’ll build financial habits and decision-making skills that will last long after graduation.

Access Semester-Long Personal Finance Course Materials

Includes 5 full units, lesson plans, presentations, and project guides.

PersonalFinanceLab 9-Week Course Outline
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Notice for teachers joining our Free Financial Literacy Events – Our free events do not have full admin access for teachers – all settings are enabled with our recommended settings. You can skip our guides on course set-up and dive straight into the Unit Outlines and Teacher Packets!

A Classroom-Ready 9-Week Course

5 Comprehensive Units

5 Comprehensive Units

A complete, standards-aligned curriculum covering everything from budgeting to insurance.

Course-Long Simulations

Course-Long Simulations

The Budget and Stock Market Games run alongside lessons for a semester-long, hands-on project.

Student & Teacher Materials

Student & Teacher Materials

Includes downloadable presentations, detailed project packets, and ready-to-use grading rubrics.

Built-In Assessments

Built-In Assessments

Use our library of self-grading assignments, quizzes, and pre/post-tests to easily measure student progress.

Course Scope and Sequence

This 9-week course is built on a framework of five core units. The Budget and Stock Games are introduced early to serve as a course-long project, allowing students to apply concepts from every lesson.

includes personal finance lessons

Unit 1: Budgeting and Spending Plans

Explore Unit Outline
Investing

Unit 2: Investing

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Credit Cards and Debt

Unit 3: Credit Cards and Debt

Explore Unit Outline
Employment and Income

Unit 4: Employment and Income

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Financial Risks and Insurance

Unit 5: Financial Risks and Insurance

Explore Unit Outline

 

Project-Based Learning

Maximize impact by using the Budget and Stock Games as a recurring, hands-on project that reinforces concepts from every unit.

Modular Lesson Design

Each unit is broken into 45-minute sub-units, with clear time estimates, making daily lesson planning simple and predictable.

Flexible & Adaptable

A mix of discussions, online assignments, and in-class projects that can be easily swapped with your own favorite activities.

Simple Setup for Your 9-Week Class

Our platform is highly customizable. To get the most out of our recommended projects, we encourage using these settings, which are specific to this 9-week course outline.

  • Recommended Budget Game Settings
    • Set up a 12-month game with students working “Part-Time” for the first 6 months and “Full-Time” for the last 6 months.
    • Utilize Speed Limits to allow students to complete no more than 2 months of the simulation per week of class.
    • Ensure students can save 10% of their monthly income by confirming the preview settings if you choose to change any of the default settings.
  • Recommended Stock Game Settings
    • Give students $10,000 in initial cash to start their stock portfolio.
    • Enable $1,000 weekly deposits to simulate regular contributions to a retirement account.
    • Organize the class into student teams to foster collaboration and prepare for final group presentations.
  • Managing Assignments & Grading
    • Load tasks as Weekly Assignments for easy class management.
    • Use the ‘Rewards’ function to award bonus cash in the games for on-time submissions.
    • Set up pre- and post-tests from the assignments page to measure student learning over the semester.
    • Use the Creating Assignments tutorial from this admin guide if you need any assistance.

Quick Access Links

Teacher Packets Student Packets Slideshows Course Outlines Copy All Resources to Google Drive

Give Us Your Feedback

We would love the input of every teacher on our course outlines. They undergo constant revision to reflect new lessons and features on PersonalFinanceLab, with each update based in feedback from teachers like you. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message below:

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