Want to help your teen learn to make wise financial decisions in the future? Get them started with Beyond Personal Finance TODAY!
Have you ever had your college kid complain about not using a certain homeschool curriculum? My daughter is home from college for the summer and she overheard her younger brothers explaining how they were going to pay for their Dodge Charger and BMW.
Knowing that neither of them has enough money to afford a decent remote-controlled car, she poked her head around the corner and asked what we were doing. As I began explaining our new finance course, she blurted out:
“So, it’s like the Game of LIFE on steroids! Why didn’t I get to take this class? It seems way better than the one you made me take…”
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I never expected to hear my daughter disappointed about not taking a class! But, boy, does she wish she could have used the Beyond Personal Finance Teen (13+) Self-Paced, Online Curriculum!
Not Your Typical Finance Class
Let me tell you, this is not your typical personal finance class! This course is amazing! Not only does the creator, Charla McKinley, teach the principles of personal finance (which is where most finance classes start and stop), but Beyond Personal Finance allows students to practice what they are learning.
The course title is so incredibly appropriate because it goes beyond, far beyond, where most finance classes stop. Essentially the students get to design their future based on the financial decisions they make throughout the course.
Making Future Financial Decisions
And, it’s not just for one year. They go to college, trade school, or get jobs. Set their budgets. Rent apartments, buy cars, get engaged, plan weddings and honeymoons. Purchase homes and have children. They meal plan, pay taxes, make investments, learn about credit versus debit cards, and more – tons more!
And, it’s not just basic information. Charla dives deep into many topics. For example – students don’t just randomly pick a college. They learn about student loans, and the vast cost differences between in-state, out-of-state, and private school tuition.
When selecting their occupation, they must research and determine what education is needed and what their starting salary would be.
Students also learn about fixed, variable, discretionary, and emergency expenses as they work on their budgets.
They discover the pros and cons of buying used cars – hello depreciation! Charla also teaches them how to read the fine print so they can make educated decisions about whether they will pay cash or get a car loan. (You can watch some of Lesson 3, which is all about buying a car!)
Students get to select the type of apartment they want to live in and if they will have a roommate – which of course affects the cost of rent.
They learn how federal withholding and taxes work. They even practice calculating simple interest loan amounts versus compound interest loans.
And all that is just the first eight years of their future lives! We’ve still got twelve more years to go!
Twenty Years of Future Financial Planning
What’s on the horizon? Renting versus buying homes. The five basic types of insurance. Charitable giving. More children. Choosing school options for your kids. Investing. Stocks. Mutual funds. Minivans. Medical decisions. Promotions. Layoffs. Planning for retirement. And more! Lots more!
Students even complete a model Year in Review to see the consequences of divorce! (Not to worry – it’s only a sample Year in Review to show the financial devastation divorce can cause. No one gets divorced in the class!)
And you can’t forget about the plot twists! Life never goes quite how you plan it. Charla accounts for this as well. Students get to spin the Plot Twist Wheel throughout the course so that they get to experience some of those unplanned events that life throws our way.
Throughout the entire course, students are consistently shown that life is all about our choices!
“Once they see how each choice impacts their savings account, they begin to understand that the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our choices. We want them to see that now while the money is fake, instead of getting out in the real world and wasting real dollars making uninformed choices!”
How the Beyond Personal Finance Course Works:
First, there is the student portal and the teacher portal. Between the two portals (and the student workbook – I’ll talk about that in a bit) you have virtually everything you need to complete the course. There are instructional videos, lesson material, resources, and more!
And then, there’s the Beyond Personal Finance student workbook! student workbook. I absolutely love it! First, it’s spiral-bound which makes it much easier to write in it than in a bound spine book.
Secondly, the text and photos are engaging, bold, colorful, and large! I don’t know if it’s my aging eyes, but the size of the images and text makes me happy! Be sure to flip through the student workbook to see what I mean!
Please tell me I’m not the only person who appreciates a highly engaging student workbook! Who wants to use a boring black-and-white workbook? Not my kids!
Beyond Personal Finance Course Content:
The Beyond Personal Finance course for teens consists of three units and twenty lessons (one for each year of your student’s future life).
There are two assignments for every lesson. First, there’s the Selection & Reflection Form, which is a Google Form (shown below). This is a way for students to document and reflect on their life choices.
Next, there’s the Year in Review Budget Form, which is a Google Sheet (shown below). This is what the student uses to track their budget and savings.
At the end of each unit is a Checkpoint, which can be used to help measure your student’s learning and issue grades if you so desire.
Helpful Hints for Beyond Personal Finance
Now that we are almost halfway through Unit 2, I’ve got some helpful hints to share!
1) Watch the Instruction Video.
Be sure to watch the Introduction Video below before you begin the course! It will explain exactly how to use the course materials and your role as the instructor.
FYI – 90% of the course is self-directed. However, your role as the instructor is to help enrich the experience. Therefore, be sure to watch the Teacher Talks in the teacher portal prior to each lesson for guidance.
2) Each account needs its own email address.
Initially, I created my boys’ accounts using my email address. WRONG! I would have known better had I watched the above Introduction Video first! Maybe I was just so excited to get started that I somehow missed the QR codes and the big red notice on the inside cover with the activation code and instructions.
I’ll never know how I miss this – maybe it’s my aging eyes! But, when I screwed up, the folks at Beyond Personal Finance were super helpful. They got right back to me and helped get my little email mishap all fixed! Shout out to Kelley! Gotta love exceptional customer service!
3. Print each Year in Review Budget form.
We found that it was best for us to print out each Year in Review Budget Form after we completed the Google Sheet. This makes it easy for the boys to transfer the numbers to the following Year in Review form and make modifications based on the current year.
Just Get the Beyond Personal Finance Course!
I love this curriculum! I cannot say it enough. The fact that my boys get to make decisions about their future life choices NOW and see how those choices impact their bottom line is HUGE!
And it’s working! Rather than buying brand-new cars, they selected a 2015 BMW and a 2018 Dodge Charger. They decided they didn’t want a car loan. Nor did they want to use all their saving on a car! Y’all – they made these decisions without me having to say a word about their choices. Thank you, Charla, for helping my sons learn to make wise financial decisions!
And, I am confident that the lessons they are learning as they live their future lives will stick with them long after we complete this course! Why? Because they are not just memorizing a bunch of information just long enough to reproduce it on a test.
This is the most hands-on, interactive finance course I’ve ever seen! And, in my opinion, this is how students learn best. They retain what they’ve learned when they can put it into practice in a fun and engaging way! And, that is exactly what Beyond Personal Finance does!
I LOVE the Beyond Personal Finance course and I recommend every single parent use this curriculum for your teen or tween! Just get it! You’ll thank me later!!
More from Beyond Personal Finance:
Want to keep up with Charla? Be sure to check out her weekly blog with helpful parenting tips or her It’s Not About Money podcast. Got questions? Be sure to check out the FAQs! Want to know what others have to say about Beyond Personal Finance? Check out some of these raving reviews!
This post was originally published on July 2, 2024.
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