Personal Financial Literacy

Saving. Investing. Spending! Learn how to save and spend wisely, the ins and outs of credit, avoidance of identity theft, and how to make the most of investing your hard-earned money. Become a smart financial decision-maker and let your future self reap the benefits.

Major Concepts:

• Goals beyond a high school education
• Job-related costs and benefits
• Factors that impact the earnings of workers
• Gross and net income
• The relationship between demand for goods and worker wages
• Productivity of workers • changes in economic conditions
• Effects of a recession on the unemployment rate
• Direct and indirect taxes
• Progressivity of taxes
• Purpose and use of taxes
• Purpose of creating a budget
• Factors influencing consumer decisions
• Researching goods and services
• Ways retailers express prices of products in order to influence consumers
• Donating to charitable and non-profit organizations
• Differences between savings and checking accounts
• Services available through financial institutions
• Reasons people choose immediate spending over saving
• Employer benefit programs
• Inflation’s impact on society
• Relationship between inflation, nominal interest rate, and real interest rate
• Ways the government protects consumers from fraud
• Government’s role in the investment market
• Types of credit
• Annual percentage rate (APR)
• Credit options
• Fixed and variable interest rate
• Ddown payments and collateral
• Secured and unsecured loans
• Common types of mortgages
• Significance of credit scores and reports
• Negative effects of failing to repay a loan
• Ways to receive a credit report
• Ways those in debt can seek assistance
• Benefits and costs to filing for bankruptcy
• Consumer protection laws for credit
• Government regulation of credit card companies
• Goals of fiscal policy (Honors only)
• How changes in fiscal policy affect the national budget (Honors only)
• Real return on an investment
• Costs associated with investments
• How buyers and sellers determine the price of financial assets
• How interest rates affect investments
• How economic conditions affect investments
• How investor actions, the U.S. economy, and the global marketplace impact the rate of return on investment
• Level of risk associated with investments
• The term of investments affects the rate of return
• Factors that determine a person’s willingness to take financial risk
• Importance of diversification in investing
• How insurance policies work
• Different types of insurance available
• Ways to avoid identity theft
• Assistance for victims of identity theft