See our introduction webinar to walk through every aspect of creating your class stock, adding assignments, viewing reports, and much more.
Also check our webinar in managing your class Budget Game, including how the game works, class set-up, and teacher reports.
This course outline is designed for condensed learning programs for financial literacy, usually taking place over the summer. Enrichment programs can vary in length, but our benchmark for pacing is a 3-week program that meets for approximately 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.
With student packets that can be easily shared with your students! And teacher grading rubrics too.
In the outline below, you will find a breakdown of activities for each day, along with the approximate time commitment. Many activities can be used either as a lecture/presentation/class discussion (and include a slide deck to get started), or as individual activities with an online lesson and associated pop quiz.
All materials can be utilized both in person or online to suit a variety of blended or remote learning experiences.
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!
The course is divided into 5 units on a different aspect of financial literacy, largely aligned to the Jumpstart™ national standards.:
The course begins with a pre-test assessment to measure student baseline understanding, before beginning each of the sub-units. Each day of the course starts with a recap of the previous day, with additional challenge questions to foster discussion and solidify learning. At the conclusion of each sub-unit, there are short assessments to measure understanding before continuing on.
Buffer time is built into the course outline to allow flexibility for students with different learning needs, with time set aside each day to progress through the PersonalFinanceLab™ budget and stock games for a complete experiential learning experience. The course concludes both with a summary of experiences from both games, and a post-test to measure outcomes compared to the pre-test at the start of the course.
This course outline is a condensed form of our other course outlines designed for quarter- or semester- long classes. Due to the condensed nature of enrichment programs, the overall content is roughly the same load as our 9-week course outline, but with additional time spent on in-class activities, videos, and discussion points.
In terms of course content, ordering, and pacing, the biggest change is that our Investing unit is moved to the front of the course. This is because giving students a hands-on component with the PersonalFinanceLab™ stock game is a cornerstone of our investment learning experience, and it is important to have as long of a trading period as possible to allow students to have the maximum exposure to how events in the real world can impact their portfolio.
In a typical 9- or 18- week course, we also recommend teachers close their class stock game before the end of the class so students can prepare final reports and presentations. In our enrichment program outlines, we recommend teachers extend the stock game beyond the end of the program, giving students the opportunity to continue to watch their portfolio grow (and practice investing strategies and research themselves) beyond the end of the course.
PersonalFinanceLab is highly customizable for your class. However, to make the most of our recommended projects, we encourage teachers to use the following settings when setting up their class (these settings are specific to this 9-week course outline):
Our last recommended activity for the class involves each group making a 5-minute presentation to the class, and so we recommend you adjust your group sizes accordingly to allow all groups present in the same day at the end of class.
Each unit outline has our recommended assignment tasks. The class begins with a pre-test and ends with a post-test, and the course outline specifies our recommended assigned tasks for each day.
Instead of having a single assignment for each day, we recommend grouping each of the 5 units in to their own “Assignment”, which students will complete over the course of 2-3 days (and give students who need more time a chance to catch up). You can find out more about creating assignments at our admin guide here.
If you have any questions about setting up your enrichment session, or would like a walkthrough on the specific needs for your school or program, you can connect with our account management team using the “Live Chat” on this page, or emailing info@personalfinancelab.com for more information.
We are looking forward to working with you soon!
After logging in, you will be brought to the page you see below, the Student Dashboard, where your portfolio in the Stock Game, your progress in the Budget Game, and your assignments are available. Other useful widgets are “My Watchlist” which you can edit to track particular stocks or ETF’s.
To access the trading pit, you can select “Stocks” from the dropdown menu under “Stock Game” on the main menu. Alternatively, if your class has more securities available you can choose whichever one from the list. Your teacher may have included bonds and/or mutual funds as well.
If you’re in a more advanced class, you will also have other security types available like options, futures or forex. For a tutorial on how to trade all the available security types in your class, please go to the Video Library.
Click the link above to open the stock trading page, you should see a page appear like the one below.
If you have no idea what to invest in first, you can always invest in what you know. Here are some questions to help you get started.
The more questions you ask like these, the more you realize how interconnected the stock market is with your day-to-day life. You could also look up the names of the production companies that make your favorite movies, video games, the apps you use the most, or anything else you can think of.
Once you have a list of companies, it’s time to check what their ticker symbol is. Your teacher may have included the following lessons as part of your class assignments. The two lessons take about 10 minutes to complete altogether, and will give you a basic knowledge about stocks and ticker symbols.
Whenever you’re ready, head over to the Symbol Lookup page. You can find it from under the “Investing Research” tab on the main menu. From this page, you can do a deep dive on the company’s financial situation, get a detailed stock quote, see company news and much more.
Start by typing the name of the company in the search box, in this example, Spotify. A list will appear below of all the relevant ticker symbols based on which exchange it’s listed in. You want to select the basic ticker symbol, in this case, SPOT.
If you want to learn more about stock exchanges, this 5 minute article goes over the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE). It will explain the basics of how a stock market works.
Once you’ve selected the ticker symbol from the dropdown menu, all the buttons in the left side panel will provide more information about that company. For instance, if you click “Analyst Rating” your screen will show you whether the company you selected is considered a good investment by financial professionals.
All the other buttons are equally useful to help inform your decision to invest in the company or not. You can see the company’s financial statements that were filed with the SEC, company news, price history, charting tools and more.
When you’re ready to place an order, click the “Trade” button beside the search bar, you will be taken back to the trading pit with the ticker symbol pre-selected for you.
After you click “Preview” you will see an image like what you see above. Your class might have Trade Notes required, however, it’s a good habit to add a note anyway. This will help you remember why you placed each trade at the end of your class when it comes time to prepare any reports or assignments on your performance in the Stock Game.
You can review your current holdings at any time by going to the Open Positions page, available from under the Stock Game tab on the main menu. For more information about each holding, click the “+” button. Whenever you want to close out your position, you can click the “Trade” button and you’ll be taken back to the trading page.
Please note that the Market Value will say “delayed” for the first 15 minutes after a trade is placed. However, the trading simulation is still using real-time data for the US stock exchange while the market is open.
One of the most popular pages on the site is the My Rankings page, available from under the Stock Game tab on the main menu. This is where you can see how your portfolio is performing compared to other students in your class.
You can access the Budget Game by clicking the “Play Budget Game” button on the Budget Game dropdown menu, or with this link Budget Game Page. From the Budget Game menu you will also be able to access your class rankings, your account statements and useful videos to help you get started. The slideshow above will walk you through the main features of the game and how to navigate through each month.
As you progress through the Budget Game, you’ll be able to access your checking account, saving account and credit card statements just like a real bank account. All statements can be exported to excel, which will be useful if ever your class has any projects on your cashflow or choices you made in the game.
This page is available from under the Budget Game tab on the main menu, or this handy link Budget Report.
There are many different places you can access your assignments, like from the Student Dashboard, the Open Positions page, and the Budget Game page.
You can see all your lessons from the “View Active Assignments” page under the Learning tab. From here you can see your grades and what you still have left to do.
When you click on “View” it will open the lesson. Each lesson includes videos, text and other interactive elements, like you can you can see below, “What is a Stock?”
Each lesson ends with a pop quiz that will provide you a grade when you click “Submit”.
If you need any assistance along the way, please use the “Contact Support” button that is available from all pages in the bottom right corner. During business hours, (9:30AM to 5:30PM EST) we have live chat, and outside these times you can send in a ticket and our team will answer you as soon as possible the following business day.
PersonalFinanceLab.com is used by nearly 1,000 teachers each year and we love getting to know each and every one of them! Everyday we are impressed by their dedication and the many unique and innovative ways to teach students about Personal Finance. Today we celebrate one of our many outstanding educators — Terry Ley, a high school Personal Finance, Accounting, Microsoft Applications, and Web Design teacher.
Hello! My name is Terry Ley, and I’ve been teaching at Bothell Highschool since 2006. We are located in the great state of Washington. I currently teach Personal Finance, Accounting, Microsoft Application, and Web design for grades 9-12.
Ley: “It’s [PersonalFinanceLab] definitely planned into the curriculum. [..] Once we finish my budgeting unit, then we play [The Budget Game]. And they [students] play that for two months.
I’ve created a worksheet that goes with it. And they have to answer questions along the way. It includes challenges they’ve had, things that went well, what they would do differently the next time they play, and then life lessons that they’ve learned. Then we will play again, later in the semester, as we learn more about credit cards and all that.
I also just introduced the stock market game. In my class, we just learned about stocks. Today, I’m finishing up teaching them about mutual funds. And so this week, in the stock market game, they have to buy two stocks and one mutual fund. And I require that they spend about $10,000, every week on three different stocks or stocks and mutual funds. So that way, they’re always researching and always trying to discover new, hot stocks that they think will do well.”
Ley: “I work really hard to make my class very real life and very relevant. I love the budget game, because it’s the unexpected expenses [that] come up, and they have to deal with them. And, you know, some kids complain, ‘I had three flat tires last week or two speeding tickets,’ and they’re frustrated with that. But you know, I’d say, Well, does that ever happen? And then, they have got to find a way to deal with it. But yes, I try to incorporate as much real life into my classes as I can.”
Ley: “I do not grade on performance of their investments, I just grade that they have purchased three brand new stocks. Every student has a a paper copy of a portfolio and they have to fill out the portfolio. They have to go get all the information, like earnings per share, PE ratio, earnings growth, PEG ratio, large cap/small cap, what is the value of that, the 52 week range, the beta number. I want them to actually have to do some research. And I’ve have guest speakers come in and talk about what type of beta number to look for? What beta number are they looking for? What’s a good PE ratio? That type of thing. And so they have some guidelines, and hopefully those guidelines from our guess speakers guide them as they make their choices.”
Ley: “I love PersonalFinanceLab, because it has the two parts to it — the Budget Game and the Stock Market Game. The Budget Game is super engaging for the students. And it’s fun to sit back once they’re into it. And the students start talking and chatting with, you know, their neighbors about the good things going on, or the frustrating things going on. And what I love, particularly about the Budget Game, is that it incorporates their credit score and lifestyle, that type of thing. They have to think about the ramifications of partying too much on the weekend, or studying too much and not doing other things, or if they don’t work. And so it incorporates a lot of extra things that they need to really think about and not just doing one thing and trying to get a high score. So it’s a great fit into a classroom […] overall, it’s a great, great addition to my class.”
Helping students reach a deeper level of financial literacy is our goal at PersonalFinanceLab, and it wouldn’t be possible without teachers like Terry Ley and teachers like you!
Click the button below to discover more about our Budget Game, Stock Game and Curriculum. If you would like to join one of our webinars, check our calendar by clicking the button below.
PersonalFinanceLab.com is used by nearly 1,000 teachers each year. In our conversations with many of them throughout the year, we are constantly impressed by their dedication and the many unique and innovative ways to teach students about Personal Finance. Today we celebrate one of our many outstanding teachers. Robert Fredette, a 10th grade Financial Independence teacher.
Hello! My name is Robert Fredette, and I’ve been teaching for 13 years. I work at Lamo Union High School, Hyde Park, Vermont. I currently teach Financial Independence, Accounting, and Entrepreneurship for grades 10-12.
Fredette: “We use it [PersonalFinanceLab] as a primary tool, I use it […] like an evaluation tool of what we’ve talked about all year long. We set the game up right at the end of the semester. And I usually run it for about 18 months or so. I do like three months of being a student in the game, and then they move to being a full time worker.
And I also look at […] where we’re at in the economy, what hourly wages seem like, I go through what rents look like, and try to mirror, at least a little bit of what might be really out there. So we’re not taking a test […] what we’re doing is, we’re experiencing this game. And now the students are explaining the different concepts of money– and what we’ve talked about– and how they’re applying it in the game, what’s happening in the game, and how they’re feeling about the learning process of the game.”
Fredette: “I think the ‘relevance’ part of teaching is really where we connect with kids. For me, it started with doing some simulations with financial independence. And that was good. But it wasn’t the Budget Game.
We were able to talk about events that happened in the game. And the online part of our school just went from me teaching, or trying to teach a PowerPoint slide to them interacting with a game, having an experience, and then being able to reflect on it, relate with it, and then communicate and talk about it as a group. And kids had similar experiences sometimes or different ones, and so that they were all able to share. And so it really made our online time really, really, so much better.”
Fredette: “At the end [of the semester], they write a paper that addresses things like, ‘what ways do you think differently about how to manage your finances?’ So things like personal decision making, earning and reporting income, budgeting and savings. And they have to write a summary paper about how they felt after they played the game and took the class.”
Fredette: “As I was reading some of these [student reports], […] there are so many times as a teacher, I could stand up and talk about budgeting and save this for that, and don’t spend here […] and you know, what really connected with them is this game, this game made that connection more relevant and deeper than me just explaining that to them. […] This has changed their thought process. And that’s what I kind of look at when I read their summaries.”
Helping students reach a deeper level of financial literacy is our goal at PersonalFinanceLab, and it wouldn’t be possible without teachers like Robert Fredette and teachers like you! Click the button below to discover more about our Budget Game, Stock Game and Curriculum. If you would like to join one of our webinars, check our calendar by clicking the button below.
This course outline is designed for a 18-week Personal Finance Class. It makes heavy use of PersonalFinanceLab’s budget and stock games, as well as our curriculum library and assessments to measure student progress.
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!
The course outline is divided into 5 units:
To maximize impact of each lesson, classes make heavy use of our budgeting and stock games. We introduce these concepts early so students can continue to practice and build understanding as a course-long project even as the main teaching focus continues on to other topics.
Each unit is divided into several sub-units, each of which would take a typical class approximately 45 minutes to complete, including class discussion time. Each unit contains a mix of class discussion points, Assignments from PersonalFinanceLab’s curriculum and assessment library, class projects, and potential homework lessons. We’ve also included some activities, videos and course packs from other personal finance curriculum experts
We include a time estimate for each activity to allow teachers to easily replace any of our recommended lessons with their own projects.
Each of the Units below contains an overview of the unit’s objectives and glossary terms, along with a PowerPoint Presentation for each unit (with glossary introductions and definitions to help facilitate class discussion). Many of the individual lessons also have an accompanying Google Slides presentation, which teachers can use in place of our online lessons. Each Unit has a Google Docs overview that you can copy, plus additional Teacher and Student packets with individual project prompts and grading rubrics.
There are also several “In-Class Projects” throughout the course outline. More details on each project, including grading rubric templates, can be found in our Teacher Packet. There is also a separate Student Packet for students with prompts for each project.
PersonalFinanceLab is highly customizable for your class. However, to make the most of our recommended projects, we encourage teachers to use the following settings when setting up their class (these settings are specific to this 18-week course outline):
Our last recommended activity for the class involves each group making a 5-minute presentation to the class, and so we recommend you adjust your group sizes accordingly to allow all groups present in the same day at the end of class.
Each unit outline has our recommended assignment tasks. Most teachers load these as Weekly Assignments for their class. We generally recommend teachers utilize the Rewards function to alternatingly award bonus cash to student’s budget game or stock game accounts throughout the class to encourage on-time submissions. Also, you can set-up pre and post tests from the Create Assignment page to gauge how much your students are learning about financial literacy and personal finance. Set-up the pre-test before students use the platform, and the post-test at the end of the semester.
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:
PersonalFinanceLab has all the resources you need in one online platform that is ideal for K12 classrooms. To see how you can use this in your class, join the webinar that best suits your schedule.
Our regional account managers are here to help YOU design the most engaging class activities and lessons.
Hi from Oklahoma, my name is Alyssa and I am a former High School Business and Computer Applications Teacher. I’ve taught Personal Finance, Accounting, Digital Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Business Computer Applications I & II and more! I’m also an Entrepreneur with over 12 years experience in B2B Marketing. I love connecting with Teachers and strategizing how they can incorporate Personal Finance Lab into the classroom and curriculum!
I’m Heloise, I’m an Account Manager and I help teachers get set up on PersonalFinanceLab and make the most out of our resources. I accompany teachers from onboarding, guide them and help them discover our platform and answer their questions throughout the year. Contact me if you’d like to find out more about what we do!
Hi! I’m Tyler, I’m an Account Manager and I help provide personal finance solutions for your school district. I enjoy meeting with district leaders and walking them through our products and how to best implement them. I am passionate about bringing finance tools into the classroom, knowing the impact that would have had on me as a young student. In my spare time, I manage my own personal investment portfolio and specialize in crypto trading. I have been partnering with educators for the past six years working with the western and central states. I am looking forward to partnering with you in the future. Feel free to contact me if we seem like a good fit for you!
Below are the conferences that we will be attending, if you have any questions or would like to come say hello, we look forward to meeting you.
There are a lot of new enhancements that will improve how both teachers and students use PersonalFinanceLab!
Personal Finance curriculum has new sub-units based on the Jumpstart/Council for Economic Education standards. Each sub-unit has a short introduction and short unit review quiz.
Instructors can view the individual quiz responses from each student to see where they got questions right and or wrong, along with the time taken to complete each lesson and quiz.
Professors will have summary reports for their class showing the average time to complete each lesson and quiz for the entire class, along with statistics on the right/wrong averages for the class on every quiz question.
Our design team has been hard at work to bring more gamified elements to the pop-up choice and event cards in the Budget Game. As students play, they encounter some choice cards that ask them to spend money with either their debit or credit cards. Giving them the opportunity to practice using a credit card before they may have received one in real-life.
Other choice cards ask students to decide if they want to purchase or participate in an activity at all. All these choices they make have consequences. The latest enhancement will tie in similar graphics across cards to thematically represent how choosing one option over another has long-term consequences.
In response to requests from teachers, we’ve changed how students enter their answers into the pop-up lessons in the Budget Game. Before it was an open text field, and often students were getting stuck and couldn’t move forward. Now we will have a dropdown multiple choice list so students can still test their knowledge, but can quickly and easily keep playing after completing a lesson.
With over 300+ lessons, it can be difficult to know where to start; this enhancement will group our personal finance lessons according to Jump$tart standards. Not only does it make it easy to identify the lessons that reinforce knowledge statements like budgeting, credit, financial risk and decision making etc. but it allows teachers to quickly assign a whole sub-unit at a time.
By adding an introduction and exit quiz, you can be reassured that your student will be prepared for the lessons, and will be assessed on their knowledge at the end.
Teacher reports just got a whole lot more useful by allowing you to see EXACTLY which questions your students are getting right or wrong. You will be able to see trends, and cover the concepts in more depth that students are struggling with. Similarly, you will know what has been firmly understood so you can safely move on to new material!
On top of what students got right or wrong, you will be able to see how much time it took to complete the quizzes. This is a great way to know which students are not being challenged enough, or who is struggling. Over time, you will see what topics your students need more time with so you can allocate class time accordingly.
*The 10 teachers that have the most students completing at least 6 months of the budget game will each receive a $100 Staples e-gift Card. That’s another $5000 in prizes for teachers.
Dates: Registration is now open. Challenge runs from March 28th to April 29th, 2022.
Prizes: The Top 10 students from each contest, (from the Budget Game and Stock Game) win a $100 Amazon gift card for their classroom. Teachers of the top-performing finalists will be notified the week after the challenge ends. Teachers will decide how the prizes will be spent for their class. PLUS 10 Teachers will Receive a $100 Staples Gift Card, (please see above).
How to join the challenge? Your students will be able to register themselves via a pop-up message on our website.
You can invite students from other classes who are not already using PersonalFinanceLab! These extra students won’t count against your site license. However, automatic reports will not be available in this case.
We will also send a trophy to the top-performing school in the Stock and Budget Games!
How does it work? Your students must complete 12 virtual months of our Personal Budgeting Game, and build a diversified portfolio of stocks, ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds to be eligible for prizes.
They can earn a certificate in Personal Finance by completing all the included lessons as well – this certification will look amazing in their curriculum in the future!
If your students are already using PfinLab this semester, they will see an invitation to join the challenge when they login. You won’t have to do anything on your part!
If other teachers at your school want to include their class in the Financial Literacy challenge, you can use the link below to register as a new teacher. Please note, this will not be tied at all to your existing account or site license!
All results are subject to an audit to verify accuracy by the PersonalFinanceLab team. The results of the audit are final.
*The 10 teachers that have the most students completing at least 6 months of the budget game will each receive a $100 Staples e-gift Card. That’s another $1000 in prizes for teachers.
Dates: Registration is now open. Challenge runs from March 28th to April 29th, 2022.
Prizes: The Top 10 students from each contest, (from the Budget Game and Stock Game) win a $100 Amazon gift card for their classroom. Teachers of the top-performing finalists will be notified the week after the challenge ends. Teachers will decide how the prizes will be spent for their class. PLUS 10 Teachers will Receive a $100 Staples Gift Card, (please see above).
We will also send a trophy to the top-performing school in the Stock and Budget Games!
How does it work? Your students must complete 12 virtual months of our Personal Budgeting Game, and build a diversified portfolio of stocks, ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds to be eligible for prizes.
They can earn a certificate in Personal Finance by completing all the included lessons as well – this certification will look amazing in their curriculum in the future!
All results are subject to an audit to verify accuracy by the PersonalFinanceLab team. The results of the audit are final.
➤ This challenge allows teachers and students to test the platform according to existing configurations. It is not possible to customize any of the games. If you want a fully customizable version of the platform, please fill out this form so that we can know how to better serve you!
In this challenge, you’ll get to have access to a limited selection of what PersonalFinanceLab has to offer. To get a better understanding of what you’ll get when you upgrade to a paid account, check out our product matrix below.
Dates: Registration is now open. Challenge runs from March 28th to April 29th, 2022.
Prizes: The Top 10 students from each contest, (from the Budget Game and Stock Game) win a $100 Amazon gift card for their classroom. Teachers of the top-performing finalists will be notified the week after the challenge ends. Teachers will decide how the prizes will be spent for their class.
We will also send a trophy to the top-performing school in the Stock Game!
How does it work? You must complete 12 virtual months of our Personal Budgeting Game, and build a diversified portfolio of stocks, ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds to be eligible for prizes.
You can earn a certificate in Personal Finance by completing all the included lessons as well – this certification will look amazing in your curriculum in the future!
All results are subject to an audit to verify accuracy by the PersonalFinanceLab team. The results of the audit are final.
Watch our new teacher tutorial video with an overview of our budget game, stock game, curriculum library, and how to set up a class!
Customize the exchanges and securities to suit the level of difficulty for your students. We have loads of tutorial videos on researching and understanding the different types of markets. We also have live data and quoting tools to allow students to perform all their research before investing in our site.
➔ Learn more
If you are not sure how to use our stock game, click the button below!
The curriculum and assignments: choose from investing, personal finance, economics, accounting, marketing, management and more. All grades and progress are exportable into convenient reports to integrate with your other lesson plans.
➔ Learn more
In addition to Personal Finance lessons, PersonalFinanceLab.com also includes dozens of integrated activities for economics, accounting, investments, marketing, and management classes!
Personal Budgeting Game is set up as a calendar. Students experience managing their own bills, fixed and variable expenses and meeting their savings goals as either a full-time student with a part-time job or a full-time professional. Pop-up lessons integrate core lessons like “Needs vs Wants” or “Credit Cards.” Each month of gameplay takes 20 minutes. However, student progress is saved so this is an excellent bell ringer!
➔ Learn more
If you are not sure how to use our budget game, click the button below!
The curriculum and assignments: choose from investing, personal finance, economics, accounting, marketing, management and more. All grades and progress are exportable into convenient reports to integrate with your other lesson plans.
➔ Learn more
In addition to Personal Finance lessons, PersonalFinanceLab.com also includes dozens of integrated activities for economics, accounting, investments, marketing, and management classes!
This course outline is designed for a 9-week Personal Finance Class. It makes heavy use of PersonalFinanceLab’s budget and stock games, as well as our curriculum library and assessments to measure student progress.
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!
The course outline is divided into 5 units:
To maximize impact of each lesson, classes make heavy use of our budgeting and stock games. We introduce these concepts early so students can continue to practice and build understanding as a course-long project even as the main teaching focus continues on to other topics.
Each unit is divided into several sub-units, each of which would take a typical class approximately 45 minutes to complete, including class discussion time. Each unit contains a mix of class discussion points, Assignments from PersonalFinanceLab’s curriculum and assessment library, class projects, and potential homework lessons.
We include a time estimate for each activity to allow teachers to easily replace any of our recommended lessons with their own projects.
Each of the Units below contains an overview of the unit’s objectives and glossary terms, along with a PowerPoint presentation for each unit (with glossary introductions and definitions to help facilitate class discussion). Many of the individual lessons also have an accompanying Powerpoint presentation, which teachers can use in place of our online lessons. Each Unit has a PDF Course Outline overview that you can copy, plus additional Teacher and Student packets with individual project prompts and grading rubrics.
There are also several “In-Class Projects” throughout the course outline. More details on each project, including grading rubric templates, can be found in our Teacher Packet. There is also a separate Student Packet for students with prompts for each project.
PersonalFinanceLab is highly customizable for your class. However, to make the most of our recommended projects, we encourage teachers to use the following settings when setting up their class (these settings are specific to this 9-week course outline):
Our last recommended activity for the class involves each group making a 5-minute presentation to the class, and so we recommend you adjust your group sizes accordingly to allow all groups present in the same day at the end of class.
Each unit outline has our recommended assignment tasks. Most teachers load these as Weekly Assignments for their class. We generally recommend teachers utilize the Rewards function to alternatingly award bonus cash to student’s budget game or stock game accounts throughout the class to encourage on-time submissions. Also, you can set-up pre and post tests from the Create Assignment page to gauge how much your students are learning about financial literacy and personal finance. Set-up the pre-test before students use the platform, and the post-test at the end of the semester.
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:
Our team has been busy this summer rolling out improvements to make teaching financial literacy and personal finance that much easier. Check out all the new features that will be available for this fall semester.
Our graphic design team has been hard at work as well, adding new illustrations and graphics throughout the game to bring each scenario to life. Check out a sneak preview from the gallery below.
We brought the student’s progress on your class Assignments front and center, so students are immediately greeted with what they need to focus on first.
If your class is utilizing our Budgeting Game, their current game progress comes up with a button to continue from where they left off. They’ll also see their open positions and a snapshot of their portfolio. If your class is not utilizing the budget game or assignments, this will appear right on top.
The new dashboard is the featured image for this post!
Our Investing 101 curriculum is a great refresher for students on the fundamentals of investing as well as an essential component to department-wide or campus-wide investing competitions to help promote financial literacy. Our 10-chapter, 100-lesson course has undergone a comprehensive overhaul in light of changing trends in the investing world since its first launch. Highlights to the update include:
Our Financial Literacy lesson library has also received a major update. In addition to bringing our taxation lessons up-to-date with current tax policy and dozens of updates to our existing lessons, many new lessons have also been added. These include:
Course outlines on budgeting, investing, credit and other financial literacy topics to make it that much easier to integrate our platform into your curriculum. Once all the materials have been prepared, we’ll have a separate announcement to help explain to teachers how they can integrate this in their classes.
Research shows the students learn more by doing than by listening. And at PersonalFinanceLab.com, we totally believe that!
Our simulations let your students “DO” Personal Finance so that they will remember it. Perhaps more than any other skill, learning to manage your money is a lesson that will truly last a lifetime.
PersonalFinanceLab offers 4 tools in 1 site to help YOU teach and to make sure your students LEARN.
With one easy to use site, your students will:
This is a teacher introduction to the PersonalFinanceLab platform, with an overview of our budget game, stock game, curriculum library, gamification engine, and assessments.
Discover why the Budget Game, Stock Game and our Learning Library of assignments and lesson plans will transform how you teach financial literacy. And make teaching more fun, curriculum planning easy, and improve student engagement!
• Teachers can customize the types of securities students can trade, the diversification, and amount of trades per day. The stock game provides integrated research and reports so students can make smarter investment choices. Great for distance learning, and engaging students through healthy competition and portfolio rankings.
Our stock game can be perfectly tailored for your class. Choose your own class contest length and dates, what students can trade (stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, commodities – even cryptocurrencies!), how students need to diversify, and over 50 different settings!
You can even require students to take notes with every trade to connect the stock game back to your current course topics, use the built-in forums to drive class discussion, and post messages and alerts for your class!
This makes our stock game the perfect centerpiece for any personal finance, economics, business, entrepreneurship, or accounting class – you pick whatever rules work best for your set of students!
Income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, historical prices, accounting ratios, SEC filings, option chains, and over 40 other data points are available in our Research Center. We even integrated company info, analyst ratings, symbol lookup, and charting tools directly into the trading page, so students can do all their investing research all in one place.
Teachers also get access to an unprecedented level of reporting and tracking, with real-time activity reports, diversification reports, trading activity, class summary data, and much more. Best of all, it is completely exportable to Excel or any other spreadsheet program!
Our Teams feature lets you group students into collaborative portfolios, so you can both see each student’s individual actions while keeping team class rankings as a group project!
Since PersonalFinanceLab.com is entirely web-based with no software to install, students can also track their portfolios from at home or even between classes on any mobile device for the ultimate gamified investing activity.
If you are not sure how to use our stock game, click the button below!
• Students learn how to build an emergency savings fund while balancing their monthly expenses. The game is set-up like a calendar and each “month” of gameplay takes 20 minutes to complete.
• Students make impactful decisions that change the opportunities they face in the game. These choices also affect their Net Worth, Credit Score, and Quality of Life Score. As they play the Budget Game they complete integrated lessons, pop quizzes, and mini-games that make personal budgeting fun and interactive!
Your students take on the role of either a college student with a part-time job or a graduate just starting their first full-time job. Either way, they are now living on their own, paying all their bills, and managing their variable income, expenses, and lots of unexpected life events!
You set the initial fixed expenses, wages/salaries, income tax rates, and more to make the game unique to your class! You also choose the lessons that pop up and influence what types of “Life Events” occur so your game evolves with the topics you cover in class.
Students need to constantly make financial decisions – work extra hours or spend time studying in school. Buy renter’s insurance this month, or take the risk? Their game score increases as students reach their savings goals, improve their credit score, and build their Quality of Life.
Teachers can easily track student progress throughout the game. All transactions they make are exportable to excel or Google sheets; which includes their bank statements, credit card statements, and pay stubs!
With this information students can run activities in the class based on their actions in the game. For instance; cashflow statements, monthly budgets or compare the different choices they made.
If you are not sure how to use our budget game, click the button below!
• Registering your class to the PersonalFinanceLab comes with an extensive collection of experiential learning exercises to maximize your students’ understanding of personal finance, investing, economics, and business. Assignments include articles, videos, interactive calculators, and exams that are self-graded and included in the students’ progress reports.
In addition to Personal Finance lessons, PersonalFinanceLab.com also includes dozens of integrated activities for economics, accounting, investments, marketing, and management classes!
| 1. Personal Budgeting Game – Students take on the role of a young adult with their first job and manage a budget. Rent, car loan, utilities, groceries and many unexpected expenses challenge them to stay on budget. Students learn to manage cash and credit cards. ▶ Learn more |
| 2. Stock Market Game – Real-time stock game, with live streaming portfolios and class rankings, instant order execution, integrated research and reporting. Quotes, charts, news and analyst ratings help students research and learn to invest. ▶ Learn more |
| 3. Integrated Curriculum With Built-In Assessments – Teaching a class on Personal Finance, Economics, Business, Accounting and Investing? We’ve got integrated curriculum that meets National Standards that can be blended in to our games. ▶ Learn more |
| 4. Live data displayed in your Classroom – Use any LCD screen to broadcast Words of the Day, class rankings, streaming stock charts, watchlists, market news, and much more! Use real-time financial news and current events to keep students learning each day. ▶ Learn more |
| 5. Certifications – Students who complete all 50 Personal Finance lessons, as well as the 12 months of the Budget Game and place 25 trades in the Stock Game can earn the Financial Literacy Certificate. In both cases, all the badges the students earned is printed on the back of the certificate. |
| 6. New Enhancements – We are constantly improving our platform, with new features and updates. You can check the features for Spring 2022 here. |
| 7. Webinars and Events – Our team hosts webinars to introduce updates and answer any questions that teachers may have regarding the platform. Our support is exclusive and is always available to the teacher and school. |
| 8. Career Center – Your students will understand the importance of internships, certifications, and preparing for interviews as important life skills. Students have access to the PersonalFinanceLab Job and Internship center, which pulls local job postings from dozens of different job boards to continually remind students of what skills employers are looking for after they graduate – as an extra push to succeed in school! |
There are a lot of new enhancements that will improve how both teachers and students use the platform!
• Our new Dashboard brings all your student’s actions into one place
• PFinLab now has live chat support available for teachers and students (during market hours)
• First-time users now get help to get started on key pages (teachers too!)
• Instead of lump-sum cash to invest, students have periodic deposits into their stock game account
Restrict your investing universe! Common uses include:
New mutual fund research tools! See:
• “Cash Spots” trading now supports basic commodities!
For Finance Classes, improvements to Risk Adjusted Rankings!
• Better transition from Part-Time to Full-Time mode
• Part-Time mode hours are more consistent (14-30 hours, instead of 5-35 hours)
• Students can now look back and see when they had transactions in previous months
The game now supports zero-priced bills
• Example: Students do not need to pay rent while still in school (since they live with their parents)
• Multi-month discounts on bills
• Card deck shuffles differently depending on a “Status”
• Financial Literacy Certificate + Investing101 Certificate
• Students can download the PDF, and they earn a badge to show off on the rankings page!
• Some reports from schools that students were not getting credit
• New assignment logging system opens the doors to more reports in the future!
• For schools with our Widget Packs, new ranking types, financial data, and even custom widgets now available!
• Great bell-ringer – see what students are buying and selling for any date range!
• Admins can now pull transaction history and open positions export live
• … But this may fail for VERY large classes (150+ students). Our support team can help!
If you want a printable PDF to download and share with your students, click here.
Dates: Registration now open. Challenge runs March 22nd to April 30th. Teachers can continue using PersonalFinanceLab for free until June 30th.
Prizes: The Top 20 students from each contest, (from the Budget Game and Stock Game) each win a $100 Amazon gift card for their classroom. Teachers of the top-performing finalists will be notified the week after the challenge ends. They will decide how the prizes will be spent for their class.
*Prizes are based on April 30th, and the winners will be announced on the first week of May. The challenge will remain open until June 15th, so teachers can continue using the games and lessons after the prize period ends.*
About the Challenge: This is a free national competition where students learn about budgeting, credit cards, investing, insurance, income, taxes, and transitioning to their job after school – all in a fun game environment with national rankings and prizes. Students complete 12 virtual months of our Personal Budgeting Game, 30 Financial Literacy lessons, and build a virtual portfolio of stocks, ETFs, bonds, and mutual funds. They can earn a certificate in Personal Finance by completing all the included lessons as well.
Extra-curricular activity: The challenge works excellent as a supplement during Financial Literacy Month with little to no class time requirements – making it perfect for the entire school. The challenge is already set up for you! All you have to do is register, and your students will get access to our budget game, stock game, and assignments. Your students only need around 20 minutes a day to complete a virtual month and the accompanying activities. The best part is that they learn a variety of personal finance lessons at the same time!
If you are not sure how to use our budget game or stock game, click the buttons below! When you are ready, scroll up and click the “Register Now” button! 😉
There are a lot of new enhancements that will be coming this January and will improve how both teachers and students use the platform.
Weekly Deposits
$1 Starting Cash
Starting Positions
Graphics Update
New Badges
New Widgets
New Certifications
New “Combo” Dashboard
New Onboarding for Teachers and Students
Focusing on bringing more emphasis on Personal Investing, which mimics how people invest their money in the real world. Starting out with a small amount of cash, (like $1) and then adding weekly deposits every week for the rest of the semester.
Students need to continually reinvest these new funds, ranging from $100 to $50,000 that is automatically added to their accounts each week. This rebalancing is replicating how investors save for their retirement, buying a car or house or any other goals they may have.
To encourage students to complete their lessons, teachers can set rewards that add a lump sum into their account only when they finish their assignments. This integrates the lessons into the game so everything is interconnected. Students would only be able to make trades after they’ve watched the tutorial videos since their accounts will be empty when they first start. What stocks should students buy? Read this Motley Fool Review for the best performing stocks.
Students will now start the game and immediately set their budget for the upcoming month. Including their expected income and expenses, as well as their savings goals BEFORE choosing their apartment, meal plan, internet and cell phone plans.
We’re also upgrading all the graphics in the game to add more illustrations and images to every event card to bring the game to life. Also, we’re rearranged the Budget Game to be the first step when creating your class.
New Mastery badges have been added! These are earned by students who complete full units of lessons and activities in the Stock Game and Budget Game.
For example, become a “Credit Master” by completing all the lessons related to Credit, plus building a credit score in the Budget Game and collecting badges for trading specific combinations of stocks from different sectors in the Stock Game. This encourages students to go above and beyond the bare class minimums
Customize and broadcast news to your classroom much more easily than ever before! You will now be able to change the parameters yourself from the administration tab. Options include; watchlists for top traded stocks, (e.g. the Dow Jones) portfolio rankings, word of the day for investing and more.
Each widget can be set per class and for specified periods of time. A unique URL will be generated that automatically runs a rotation of your selection on any screen with internet connection.
You can create as many screens as you want and host them on monitors in your personal finance lab or classroom. There are a lot more options than ever before, so you can broadcast your own google slides, your school website or even weekly or monthly rankings.
If you’ve purchased the Data Widget bundle, a member of our team will be in touch with you in the coming weeks to explain how you can set this up yourself. Contact us at sales@stocktrak.com if you would like to add this to your classroom.
New Investing and Financial Literacy certificates of completion are now in beta testing. If you want early access you can test it out now, and it will be fully functional by mid-January 2021.
Students who complete all 10 chapters of our Investing101 course and complete 25 trades can earn this certificate. Students who complete all 50 Personal Finance lessons, as well as the 12 months of the Budget Game and place 25 trades in the Stock Game can earn the Financial Literacy Certificate.
In both cases, all the badges the students earned is printed on the back of the certificate. Even if they weren’t part of the curriculum.
The certification will be available from the main menu and will include 30-50 activities to complete. Once students are done, they can download their certificate as a PDF along with all their competencies on the date they finished.
The new dashboard will be available before the holidays, and we expect further updates to continue into next semester as we get more feedback from teachers and students. Once implemented, anyone who logs into their account will have an overview of everything included in their class right from the dashboard.
This includes portfolio rankings, open positions, budget game status and a summary of assignment progress with their due dates. Class announcements will also be available as well as market news, word of the day and top traded securities. Teachers will have a slightly different view with more information on how students are progressing overall.
Starting this January, new “product tours” will launch when students and teachers login to Pfinlab for the first time. It will continue to be available as a “help button” from the top menu if you ever need assistance later on.
When you login in for the first time, the tour will help you set-up your first class. Showing you the default settings and providing recommendations to help you customize everything for your class.
Students will be taken on an interactive tour highlighting how to access the Budget and Stock Game and what everything means. They will continue to have access to more in-depth tutorial videos demonstrating how to use the investment tools.
When you set-up your class for the first time, adding the name and description of the class etc. you may want to start using the private option to limit access from outside students. We’ve received many complaints about this from teachers, so if you haven’t used the password protection in the past, it’s a good feature to start using.
If you choose to turn off “Show Certificates,” the system will still record all the assignments and tasks your students complete. So if you choose to turn it on later, they will still get credit.
Moving forward, the Budget Game settings will be moved to the beginning of the class set-up process to reflect how most students use the platform in their class. Here is a proposal of how you could set-up your class to take advantage of some of our new features.
1. Students get access to the Budget Game and learn about budgeting and saving goals.
2. They have $1.00 in their portfolios so they can’t invest yet, so they can use this time to watch the trading tutorials.
3. When they complete their first assignments, they get a reward of a lump sum (e.g. $100) that allows them to start investing.
4. Every subsequent week, students will get a weekly deposit into their account to invest in stocks, mutual funds and bonds (or whatever else is available).
5. This integrates the Budget Game, Stock Game and assignments together so that students learn how related their personal budgets are to their investing activities.
Curriculum Update – a huge overhaul to our assignment engine will enable faster updates and will improve the teacher reports. Later in the spring, we’ll have another update that provides more in-depth information to teachers on topics students are having the most trouble with. Allowing you to pinpoint what to focus on in lectures and provide more support for.
Budget Game Speed Limits – a method to prevent students from racing ahead and finishing the entire game ahead of schedule. This will allow you to set assignments and tasks to complete in the game, (for example more insurance cards) to reinforce core concepts as they progress through the curriculum.
A student loan is exactly what it sounds like – a loan given to students to finance their studies. This is most common for college or university students, but also works for trade schools and other vocational studies.
Most of the time when a person takes out a loan, they are using it to invest in an asset that they will use later – like a mortgage for a house or a car loan for a car. With a Student Loan, you are investing in yourself. The gamble you make is that the cost of the loan (plus interest) will be less than the extra income you’ll earn with the new education.
The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you want to pursue higher education, this is the first place to start, even before you look at student loans. If you qualify for federal financial aid, it is basically free money you can put towards education (and reduce the total amount you need to borrow).
The FAFSA form can be a bit long and may require you or your parents’ tax information to see what aid you can qualify for. But when you are looking to go to school, this is the first step in the process. Many universities insist every student complete the FASFA before taking out any student loans to lower the total debt burden students will have when they graduate.
There are a few types of student loans available for students in the United States, depending on their needs.
The cheapest loans are provided by the US Department of Education. These loans are only available for students at federally approved colleges, universities, or trade schools. These have a low interest rate, but also allow very little to be borrowed – potentially not even enough to cover tuition and school fees (let alone housing costs). Federal loans have two types – “Subsidized” and “Unsubsidized”.
A single borrower can have both types of loans at the same time, so you might have some of your borrowed amount accumulating interest while the other is not.
The amount you can borrow with a federal loan is determined by your school – schools work with the Department of Education to ensure students do not over-borrow on federal loans (meaning borrow more than the minimum it should cost to attend school).
| Year In School | Borrowing Limit |
| 1st Year Undergraduate | $3,500 subsidized, $6,000 un-subsidized ($9,500 total) |
| 2nd Year Undergraduate | $4,500 subsidized, $6,000 un-subsidized ($10500 total) |
| 3rd Year + Undergraduate | $5,500 subsidized, $7,000 un-subsidized ($12,500 total) |
| Graduate Studies | No subsidized, $20,500 unsubsidized |
| Total Cap (Across all years) | $65,500 subsidized, $73,000 unsubsidized ($138,500 total) |
Source: https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized
You can borrow the less in your first and second years because of the risk of dropping out – the program is designed to prevent students who drop out of college from being saddled with massive debt that they are unable to repay.
If you are still a “dependent” of your parents for tax reasons, you can borrow even less, as it is assumed your parents should be helping you out with some of your school costs if they can claim you on their taxes.
But if your family already has financial need, your parents can obtain what are called “PLUS” loans. With a PLUS loan, your parents would take out a student loan on your behalf to help pay for your school. The difference is that your PARENTS are the ones responsible for paying back the loan, not you.
PLUS loans are not very popular – their interest rate is much higher than direct student loans, and parents in families with financial need are not usually able to take on the additional debt burden.
Private student loans are issued by other private banks and lenders. The interest rate is determined by the general market interest rate. Sallie Mae is the largest provider of private student loans – if you need student loans to finance your education, you will probably work with them at some point or another.
While federal loans are usually cheaper than private loans, private loans have some distinct advantages:
Student loan debt in the United States has skyrocketed, which makes some parts of private student loans controversial. The biggest drawbacks of student loans include:
At the end of the day, taking private loans is still a great way to finance your education, but it takes good financial discipline on your part to avoid graduation day saddled with debit.
Whether you have a Federal loan or a Private loan, there are some unique risks associated with student loans.
With a student loan, you are investing in yourself – the education you receive with the loan money should increase your future income. Unlike a house or car (which you can sell if you get behind on payments), if you do not complete your education, you get no benefit and all of the debt.
This means that before you take out any student debt, you should be sure that you can commit to finishing school and obtaining your degree. Ideally, you should also do some career research to see what kind of starting salary you will earn after you graduate when you plan how much you can borrow. Most undergraduate students wildly over-estimate how much they will earn after graduation – you can find estimates per major through surveys conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (https://www.naceweb.org/).
If you rack up credit card debt or other types of loans, you always have the option of bankruptcy relief. But bankruptcy works by selling off your assets, negotiating with lenders, and coming out with a payment plan.
Because student loans are based only on the skills and credentials you should have earned while in school, student loan debt does not qualify from bankruptcy protection – there is no escape, and you are stuck with it until you can pay it off.
Knowing how to build an effective budget, and stick with it, while in school is the best thing you can possibly do to manage your student loans. Ideally, at the end of each year, you should have a sizable amount of the loan amount that you did not use (and kept as an Emergency Fund), and can repay immediately when you graduate to lower the interest you need to pay going forward.
This means you need strong long-term planning, good impulse control, and the ability to see yourself after graduation – and understand how much your loan payments are going to cut out of every paycheck.
If you are considering higher education and might need student loans, follow these steps:
After you graduate from school, investigate options to refinance your student loans. By the time you finish school, you will probably have several different student loans (mixes between Federal and Private, different periods and interest rates, ect), which can be tricky to manage.
However, there are many companies set up specifically to refinance your student loans after graduation, usually paying you a loan transfer bonus, and potentially a lower interest rate. Refinancing companies want to see that you’ve started work (and how much you’re earning) before they give you options, but this is an often over-looked way to save thousands more dollars on your total debt burden right out of school.
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You may or may not have used PersonalFinanceLab in your classes before. Many teachers know how to take advantage of all its resources, but there are always new schools registered that need a basic tutorial on how to use the platform.
With that in mind, we created this post to highlight the main points you should know about the Budget Game. If you have any further questions, check out our tutorial video below.
About the Budget Game
Students Objectives
Launching the Game
To kick off the game for your class, give them a prompt describing their scenario:
You are taking on the role of a college student in their last semester. You have a part-time job and are sharing an apartment with roommates. You will earn a paycheck each week, have bills to pay, and a credit card you can use – your goal is to build up your Emergency Fund and Credit Score while maintaining a high Quality Life.
After you graduate from school, you will move to a new apartment on your own and start your full-time job. You will have more (and bigger) bills, but also a bigger, steady paycheck. Keep hitting your Savings Goals and keep a high Credit Score and Quality of Life to max out your financial future!
– This is important because it helps students understand what they’re doing in the game as they’re moving through time. They need to understand that this transition from a student to a worker is very different –
First Learning Points – Unplanned Expenses
When students start the game, one of their first goals is to balance their expected income and expenses so they can set their first Savings Goal.
We give students most information, but they need to take a guess at how much they will spend on “Unplanned” expenses each month.
This is a key learning point – the first month will be a complete guess, but after a couple of months, students will see that small “impulse” and “last-minute” purchases add up quickly to be a major part of their spending!
First Learning Points – Pay Yourself First
Every month students also need to set their Monthly Savings Goal.
The secret is that we don’t care what their expected expenses are – to get the most points, students need to save at least 10% of their expected income.
This is a key tenant of the “Pay Yourself First” savings strategy, a foundation of the budget game.
First Learning Points – Quality of Life
When students start the game, they are also asked to make several lifestyle choices:
These choices have a big impact on their Quality of Life – more expensive options give students a better Quality of Life and bonus points, but make it harder to hit their savings goals.
Discussion Point
Every student will have different events through the game – try launching a class discussion on what were the biggest expenses students faced each month. How frequently would students expect each expense to happen in the real world?
First Month
As students progress through the first few months, the game will pause and prompt students to complete short lessons.
We cover Credit and Debit, Savings Goals, Emergency Funds, and other essentials students need to succeed in the game in the first month, and more general finance concepts as the game goes on.
Life Events
At the end of each term, they get a life event. There’s two major types of led events: Fixed Expenses and Choices.
Fixed Expenses
Students don’t get any choice in it.
Either they need to choose to pay for something on their debit or credit card, either they need to choose to pay for it or skip it.
Choices
The choice cards have a big impact on their quality of life. Taking the more expensive option usually gives students a lot more points on the Quality of Life throughout the game.
Example: Students need to choose either they want or not to pay for house insurance. If they choose to don’t pay for it, there is a chance to have a break in every month, costing them several hundred dollars.
Discussion Point
Every choice in the budget game matters. The “Life Events” that pop up through the game are somewhat determined by the choices students make as they play.
What happened to you this month? What did you do before that had an impact on this? What would you have changed to make this outcome better? You can discuss this with students since they can give a recap of what worked well and what they would have changed in the past.
Ending the First Month
At the end of the first month, students get a summary of their savings and expenses, along with their progress to their savings goal.
Hitting a savings goal of 10% or more of their income earns big bonus points.
Teacher Tips
Make sure to play at least the first month of the game together as a class
End the first month of a recap – what were unexpected expenses? How did students cope? What will they do differently next month?
Assessments
Building assessments around the budget game is a matter of art. You will get the most out of your students if you ask them to provide “Monthly Summaries” as written document – specify what went right, wrong, and what they plan to do to fix it.
Be sure to also use the Assignments built into PFinLab — these have quizzes with automatically-graded quizzes you can use for more objective grading!
The Next Months…
Students will build up their Credit Score and Emergency Fund for the first part of the game, with lessons along the way.
Keep students “paced” by completing assignments and quizzes, rather than hour-long blocks of just the game itself.
Students will build up their Credit Score and Emergency Fund for the first part of the game, with lessons along the way.
Keep students “paced” by completing assignments and quizzes, rather than hour-long blocks of just the game itself.
The Rankings
The Budget Game also has a ranking page, showing student rankings by Overall Score, Net Worth, Credit Score, and Quality of Life.
Pay attention and give students shout-outs – even students at the bottom of the list!
Graduation
After playing as a part-time student for a semester, students “Graduate” from school and start their first full-time job.
They will need to pick a new place to live and other settings (as they no longer have roommates), and now get a consistent 40-hours per week salary at a higher pay grade.
Key Learning Point
The starting salary students get when starting their full-time job depends on how much they “studied” when a student. Students who “studied” often get a bigger paycheck with their full-time job!
Full-Time Mode Differences
Key Learning Point
On the weekend, “Study” becomes “Professional Development” – as every student in the modern economy should understand the importance of lifetime learning. Conducting “Professional Development” frequently leads to a raise at their job!
Other Full-Time Mode Differences
Once students start their full-time job, they will be faced with even more choices and long-term impacts than before.
Key Learning Point
As students complete 6, 12, 18+ months of the game, most of the healthy financial habits should become second nature.
After 12 months, how many students have a full 840 credit score? Launch a class discussion with both the students at the top and bottom of the class rankings to identify what went right and wrong, and discuss the importance of establishing healthy habits early!
If you have used a stock game in your class before, you know the drill – you choose your class’s custom rules and starting cash (usually around $100,000), your students sign in, and they use that cash to build their portfolio that they manage over the course of a semester.
This might make sense to a professional fund manager who has a certain amount of assets, but is a far cry from how personal investors build their wealth over time. PersonalFinanceLab’s newest enhancement turns this system on its head with our new Weekly Deposits – the biggest thing to happen to stock games since stocks!
With Weekly Deposits, you would start off your class with a relatively small amount of starting cash – say $100, $1000, or even $10,000.
Then every Sunday evening, your students get extra cash deposited into their account – as the teacher, you choose exactly how much.
This completely transforms a passive “Fund Manager” stock game into a true Personal Finance exercise. Just like the real world, students regularly add money into their portfolio, which they need to continually re-invest and re-balance, rather than passively holding a few stocks they purchased on the first day of your class game.
This matches how a small investor really builds their portfolio – one transfer at a time!
Weekly Deposits opens up a whole new world for ways to use the PersonalFinanceLab stock game in classes. Here’s a few scenarios to consider for your next semester:
When we ask for student feedback, one of the biggest downsides of a “$100k stock game” is that it is more money than the average student can really conceptualize. For Weekly Deposits, you can create a “Micro-Investor, Regular Saver” game!
This scenario gives a bit more flexibility for students to build a diversified portfolio right off the bat.
The new Weekly Deposits also adds a great dimension for classes also using our Budget Game. By leveraging our Assignments, you can automatically credit students’ Stock Game accounts after they complete specific actions in the Budget Game, like completing a certain number of months or completing specific lessons in the Learning Center.
In our back-end, we adjust the Weekly Deposits by incrementing up the student’s starting cash balance. For the rankings, it means that the “percentage returns” are not distorted by the weekly deposits. However, classes that might be using more advanced rankings, such as Sharpe Ratio and Alpha/Beta, will see some distortion.
If your school already has a PersonalFinanceLab site license, “Weekly Deposits” are a new rule you’ll see right after choosing your Starting Cash Balance for your next stock game.
If your school does not yet have a PersonalFinanceLab site license, use the form below to get a quote!
PersonalFinanceLab is a gamified platform that focuses on engaging students through interactive and experiential learning. The program has a Budget and Stock market game that allows students to learn while understanding the fundamentals of managing and investing money.
When focusing on money management, people tend to concentrate on either looking for ways to earn more money or cut costs to have more money. However, we sometimes overlook another essential aspect of money: the quality of life. An important part of money management is finding a healthy balance.
In the Budget Game, students need to make choices. To increase their disposable income, they may choose to work extra hours or choose to purchase cheaper options. Here is where our Quality of Life concept comes in. If students are always working, they may neglect their studies. If they are always socializing, they may not have enough money to pay their bills or keep on top of their school work. The Quality of Life score rewards players for choosing a balanced lifestyle between working, studying, spending time with friends, and looking at ways to cut costs and keep on top of household chores and tasks.
When discussing quality of life, we should not confuse this with standard of living. Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods, and necessities available to someone. Quality of life, on the other hand, is a subjective term that can measure happiness.
Every $ saved from cutting coupons, looking for items on sale, reducing bills, etc. are fewer dollars that need to be earned.
Socializing does not mean always going to the mall and “hanging out” with friends. It could mean networking and widening your social circle to get an internship or future job.
Studying, learning a new skill or joining a club are always great to add as additional information on a resume.
Working extra hours could mean building reserves of money to cover future expected costs. It also means showing a good work ethic and being given additional responsibility and possible promotions.
Sample activities:
Want more examples? Check out our lesson plan library, or book a demo with our team to discuss how PFinLab can be used in your class!
Congratulations on playing our financial life simulation and completing all of our lessons. We now invite you to make the transition from the simulation accounts to real world accounts…
Where are you on your financial journey?
We’re ready to give you personalized, face to face guidance in a safe environment* at a time and location that works for you. Our specialists can help you with more education and resources. We’re just a click away…
You can speak to a specialist at a time that works for you.
CLICK HERE NOW to get started , or save this link as a Favorite so you can review it later.
If you want to learn more about finances, technology and tools to help you where you are in your journey, we have a dedicated student resource page for you. Visit the student resource page by clicking here.
*Our top priority is to ensure the health and safety of our teammates and clients at each location. We have taken proactive steps to enhance cleaning procedures to limit the risk of exposure, based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and follow local restrictions on the number of clients that can enter at one time.
Congratulations! You will soon be graduating from college and negotiating your various job offers.
You have worked hard to graduate and you deserve a great paying job.
But as you start to negotiate your offers, keep in mind that you really should be considering the overall compensation package. Salary is important, but so are things like location and commute to work, your health insurance costs, your retirement plan, and many other benefits that are being offered these days.
Click on the image below to review 9 different benefits that you should consider when selecting a job offer.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
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Have you ever wondered how the interest that is charged on your credit card is actually calculated?
If you understand a little of the credit card company’s math, you can save yourself lots of money over your lifetime by realizing EVERY DAY counts.
Click on the video image below to see a simple example of how your APR and your payment schedule really impacts the interest you are charged.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the video.
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Whether we like it or not, April 15 comes every year and that means our Federal taxes are due.
The average taxpayer spends over 10 hours preparing their taxes.
To reduce the burden of getting organized and preparing your taxes, it is important to stay organized and know what documents and forms you will need to collect throughout the year.
Click on the image below to review the forms and documentation you will need to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=230]
A survey of the Class of 2019 showed that 69% had some form of a student loan.
While most student loans require you to start making payments within 6 months of graduation, there are certain instances where you can defer these payments.
Click on the image below to watch a brief video that explains the difference between loan deferment and loan forbearance. Even if you don’t have a student loan, it is important to understand the difference as it applies to most loans in general.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the video.
[qsm quiz=228]
Shopping for a new car is always a fun day.
But negotiating the final price and your payment method with the car salesman can be a dreadful and a challenging task.
So, just like going into a final exam, the more prepared you are the easier it is.
Click on the image below to reveal 3 questions that you MUST understand about buying a car.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=226]
It’s a tough trade off that we all consider at some point: To buy a used car and save money, or to splurge and buy a new car.
Buying a used car is obviously cheaper, but generally new cars are more reliable and get better gas mileage.
So what factors should you consider and how to you make that decision?
Click on the image below and watch this short video that answers those questions…
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=224]
Your credit score will affect many segments of your financial life.
It will determine if you get approved for a car loan or a mortgage to buy your house.
If you get approved for either loan, it will also impact the interest rate you get charged.
So get to know your credit score, and click on the image below to learn how it is calculated.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
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It seems like a Catch-22. How can you start building your credit if you don’t have any credit to start with?
Well the truth is most banks will give college students and young adults a credit card with a very low credit limit. Then, if payments are made on time for the first few months, the bank will raise your credit limit and then you will be well on your way to building credit.
This helps you build your credit history which then helps to raise your credit score which then helps to lower the interest rate you will be charged on other loans you might get.
Click on the image below of the video to learn how to build your credit from scratch.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the video.
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Most studies show that over 70% of Americans own at least one credit card and carry it with them when they go shopping.
Other studies show that most Americans carry an average balance of $6,200 on their cards and pay interest every month, but they DON’T know what the interest rate is that they are being charged.
Nor do they understand how their payment plan impacts their credit score.
Click on the image below to reveal 7 FACTS that you should know about using credit cards.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
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Saving money is a lot easier than you think.
The first question you have to ask yourself when you are thinking of making a purchase is: “Do I NEED this or do I just WANT it?”
Stopping at your local coffee shop every day and spending $2.70 for coffee for 270 days a year adds up to $729 a year. And that’s not counting the gas and the time you take to drive to get that cup of coffee.
Saving money is easier than you think and you will learn from this video how to get started and you will see how quickly it starts to add up.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the video.
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Here is one of the most common questions that people who are trying to get control over their finances ask: If I have a little extra cash, do I pay down debt or do I put the money in my savings account?
On one hand financial advisors tell us to stop paying high interest rates on our credit card balance.
But on the other hand they also tell us to make sure we have at least 3 to 6 months cash in our savings account (Emergency Fund).
So which is it?
The answer is easy, kind of.
Click on the image below to review 5 questions that will help you decided if you should pay down debt or save.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
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Creating (and staying on) a budget is easier for some people than others.
Watch this video to get more ideas on how to simplify your budgeting process and make it easier for you to reach your financial goals.
Click on the video image below to get started.
Pay close attention to the video as a short Pop Quiz follows below.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.
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Over time, our society moved away from paying for goods and services with gold and silver to paying for things with cash. In the last two decades, we have been transitioning from paying for things with cash to credit and debit cards.
While these 2 cards may look the same, their features and uses are very different.
Knowing the differences between them and knowing when to use them appropriately is an important part of personal banking.
Did you know using one builds up your credit score and the other doesn’t?
Did you know if someone steals your card you may have liability on one card but not the other?
Click on the image below to learn the differences between credit and debit cards in terms of how they work, how they affect your finances, and the inherent security of each.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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Hopefully by now you have a real checking account that you use to manage your monthly cash inflows and outflows.
But are you really using all the features that your checking account offers?
While there are lots of negatives associated with a checking account, likes ATM fees and overdraft charges, there are lots of really good features that they offer.
Are you using direct deposit for your paychecks?
Are you able to move money easily between your checking and your savings account?
Do you get alerts when your balances are low?
Click on the image below to review these 8 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Checking Account.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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Now that you are getting used to managing your checking, savings and credit card accounts as part of this virtual platform, it is time you think about opening real banking accounts.
But where do you begin?
What questions do you need to ask a bank to make sure you are getting the right accounts for you?
Click on the image below to learn about the 10 Questions To Ask A Bank When Opening a New Account.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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As you learn to save, become more aware of your personal finances, you will find yourself accessing your checking, savings, and credit card accounts more and more.
While most banks and credit card companies are willing to open up accounts for you for free, keep in mind that every company has to make money some how. So be aware of the various fees that your bank might charge you.
The common fees are usually when you do something wrong, like bounce a check or use the ATM too many times in a month.
But beware of other fees for just using some services that you assumed were free.
Click on the image below to learn about 7 Common Bank Fees.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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As you learn to save and become more aware of your personal finances, you will find yourself accessing your checking, savings, credit cards and other accounts online or via your mobile phone.
This means bookmarking your banks URLs, installing their mobile apps on your phone, and inevitably the hassle of remembering all of your logins and passwords.
While it is extremely important that you monitor your finances online, it is also important that you are careful and that you safeguard your private information and report any suspicious activity.
Click on the image below to learn 10 Important Online and Mobile Security Tips to follow.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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Once you get in the habit of saving money each month, the next question is where exactly to you put the money you are saving?
The obvious choices are to keep it in cash in your piggy bank at home or put it in a bank account.
Well here is a secret… Instead of keeping your cash stashed in your piggy bank, you might as well have the bank PAY YOU INTEREST on your savings balance.
Consider the following quote from Albert Einstein…
The bank will give you several options that pay you interest. Generally the quick options are to open a Savings Account or to put your cash in a Certificate of Deposit (CD).
Click on the image below to learn the pros and cons of each.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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We all know that we should be saving money.
We have all heard the saying from Benjamin Franklin that “a penny saved is a penny earned.”
But it seems that it is just so much easier to SPEND money than it is to SAVE money.
So how do we get started saving money?
Ahh….. That is the hard part…….getting started.
Click on the image below to read a great article that gives you 8 key points to help you start saving money immediately, to help you establish short-term and long-term goals, and to help you pick the right tools to save.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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At some point in your life you might find yourself in a situation where you need some cash quickly.
For example, you might have a doctor bill you need to pay. Or you might need to get your car repaired so you can get to work or you might have a rent bill or a tuition bill coming due.
If you don’t have any savings in an emergency fund, what would you do?
It is a situation that you hope you never find yourself in, but inevitably most of us do.
Click on the image below to read a great article that summarizes your choices, and the risk associated with each of those choices.
Pay attention to the left hand column that shows the progression from the “Lower Risk” to “Higher Risk” choices. A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
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Congratulations on playing our financial life simulation and completing all of our lessons. We now invite you to make the transition from the simulation accounts to real world accounts…
Where are you on your financial journey?
We’re ready to give you personalized, face to face guidance in a safe environment* at a time and location that works for you. Our specialists can help you with more education and resources. We’re just a click away…
You can speak to a specialist at a time that works for you…
If you want to learn more about finances, technology and tools to help you where you are in your journey, we have a dedicated student resource page for you. Visit the student resource page by clicking here.
*Our top priority is to ensure the health and safety of our teammates and clients at each location. We have taken proactive steps to enhance cleaning procedures to limit the risk of exposure, based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and follow local restrictions on the number of clients that can enter at one time.
Whether we like it or not, April 15 comes every year and that means our Federal taxes are due.
The average taxpayer spends over 10 hours preparing their taxes.
To reduce the burden of getting organized and preparing your taxes, it is important to stay organized and know what documents and forms you will need to collect throughout the year.
Click on the image below to review the forms and documentation you will need to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=230]
Congratulations! You will soon be graduating from college and negotiating your various job offers.
You have worked hard to graduate and you deserve a great paying job.
But as you start to negotiate your offers, keep in mind that you really should be considering the overall compensation package. Salary is important, but so are things like location and commute to work, your health insurance costs, your retirement plan, and many other benefits that are being offered these days.
Click on the image below to review 9 different benefits that you should consider when selecting a job offer.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=229]
A survey of the Class of 2019 showed that 69% had some form of a student loan.
While most student loans require you to start making payments within 6 months of graduation, there are certain instances where you can defer these payments.
Click on the image below to watch a brief video that explains the difference between loan deferment and loan forbearance. Even if you don’t have a student loan, it is important to understand the difference as it applies to most loans in general.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the video.
[qsm quiz=228]
Shopping for a new car is always a fun day.
But negotiating the final price and your payment method with the car salesman can be a dreadful and a challenging task.
So, just like going into a final exam, the more prepared you are the easier it is.
Click on the image below to reveal 3 questions that you MUST understand about buying a car.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=226]
It’s a tough trade off that we all consider at some point: To buy a used car and save money, or to splurge and buy a new car.
Buying a used car is obviously cheaper, but generally new cars are more reliable and get better gas mileage.
So what factors should you consider and how to you make that decision?
Click on the image below and watch this short video that answers those questions…
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=224]
Saving money is easier than you think and you will learn from this video how to get started and you will see how quickly it starts to add up.
Click on the image below to reveal 5 money savings tips when you travel.
A short Pop Quiz follows below the article.
[qsm quiz=223]
