18-Week Financial Literacy
Course Outline

Stop building a course from scratch. Our complete 18-week
curriculum provides everything you need for a full semester of
engaging, hands-on learning—from daily lesson plans and
presentations to semester-long games and projects.

Access Year-Long Personal Finance Course Materials

Includes extended class projects and presentations to support more in-depth study.

18-Week Course Outline
>
>

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!

Everything You Need for a Full Semester

5 In-Depth Units

5 In-Depth Units

A complete, standards-aligned curriculum with extended time for projects and deep dives into complex topics.

Year-Long Simulations

Year-Long Simulations

The 18-month Budget and Stock Games run the entire semester, providing a rich, long-term experiential project.

Flexible Teacher Materials

Flexible Teacher Materials

Get presentations in both PowerPoint & Google Slides, plus editable lesson plans and packets in Google Docs.

Curated Resources

Curated Resources

Go beyond our core lessons with supplemental videos, activities, and course packs from other leading finance experts.

Course Scope and Sequence

This 18-week course provides a comprehensive framework for a full semester. The extended schedule allows for a deeper exploration of each of the five core units, with the games serving as a semester-long project.

includes personal finance lessons

Unit 1: Budgeting and Spending Plans

Explore Unit Outline
Investing

Unit 2: Investing

Explore Unit Outline
Credit Cards and Debt

Unit 3: Credit Cards and Debt

Explore Unit Outline
Employment and Income

Unit 4: Employment and Income

Explore Unit Outline
Financial Risks and Insurance

Unit 5: Financial Risks and Insurance

Explore Unit Outline

 

Designed for In-Depth Study

The 18-week schedule provides ample time for the 45-minute lessons, plus extended periods for class discussions, project work, and reinforcement activities.

Rich & Varied Content

Enhance your lessons with a curated mix of our core curriculum, in-class projects, and supplemental resources from other financial education experts.

Project-Based & Hands-On

The Budget and Stock Game serve as the “applied learning lab,” running throughout the semester to bridge the gap between classroom theory and real-world application.

Customizing Your Full-Semester Class

While our platform offers extensive customization, this guide provides the ideal starting configuration for a full-semester, 18-week course.

  • Recommended Budget Game Settings
    • Set up an 18-month game with students “Part-Time” for the first 12 months and “Full-Time” for the last 6.
    • Utilize Speed Limits to allow students to complete no more than 2 months of the simulation per week of class.
    • Ensure students can save 10% of their monthly income by confirming the preview settings (if you adjust the default settings).
  • Recommended Stock Game Settings
    • Give students $10,000 in initial cash to build their stock portfolio.
    • Enable $1,000 weekly deposits to simulate the powerful effect of regular, long-term investing.
    • Organize the class into student teams to foster collaboration and prepare for final group presentations.
  • Managing Semester Assignments & Grading
    • Load tasks as Weekly Assignments for easy and consistent class management throughout the semester.
    • Use the ‘Rewards’ function to award bonus cash in the games and incentivize on-time submissions.
    • Set up pre- and post-tests from the assignments page to measure student learning over the entire semester.

Quick Access Links

Teacher PacketStudent PacketCopy All Resources to Google Drive

Give Us Your Feedback

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

Contact Us