Teaching Chapter 9

Financial Literacy: Managing Money and Minimizing Debt-Balancing Saving, Spending, Learning, and Earning

Key Objective (Intended Learning Outcome) for this Chapter

  • This chapter is designed to assist students in becoming more aware, knowledgeable, and strategic with respect to managing money and financing their college education.

Using the Text in Class

  • Using Thought Starter 9.1 on p. 217have a class discussion on what money is (or means) to students.
  • TAI 9.2 p. 219-Have students share what incidentals they spend the most money on and how they can reduce the expenses of these incidentals or eliminate them all together.
  • TAI 9.3 p. 223-Have students share their experiences using credit cards. As a class, make a pros and cons list of using credit cards.
  • TAI 9.7 p. 233- Have students brainstorm and share ideas for saving money.

•Case Study p.242-This case study can be done as a class discussion or by breaking students into groups.

Additional Activities to use in Class

  • Place students into groups and have each group think up the top 5 ways to spend money and the top 5 ways to have fun without spending money (or spending very little). Write each group’s lists on the board. Have students look for commonalities and differences in the lists. This is also a good time to discuss wants vs. needs.
  • Make an assignment or offer extra credit for students to meet with someone in financial aid to look at their current financial package and see if they are borrowing too much, not enough, or approximately the right amount of money.

Videos to use in Class

25 ways to cut spending and save money (5:09)

Credit card game show-animated (3:57)

One student’s lessons learned on financial literacy (3:01)

Possible Minute Papers Specific to this Chapter

  • What is something new you learned in class today?
  • What is one thing you can start doing today to start saving money?
  • What is the one thing you waste the most money on? What can you do to limit the amount of money you spend on this item?
  • After discussing finances in class, do you think you are managing you correctly? Why or why not?
  • What is the most useful idea you learned in this chapter?

Learning Exercises& Assignments for Chapter 9

  • 9.1 Self-Assessment of Financial Attitudes and Habits p. 239-Have students fill out the assessment and write a paper explaining what they learned about their financial attitudes and habits.
  • 9.2Financial Self-Awareness: Monitoring Money and Tracking Cash pgs. 240-241-Have students estimate their expenses and then actually keep track of their real expenses for a month and write a paper about what they learned through the assignment.
  • Have students complete the Chapter 9 Reflection (p.243). They can do this in the book or expand and write a paper.

Additional on Line Resources