Welcome back to our Personal Finance series, where we have been talking about how to incorporate the various building blocks of good financial habits into lessons and curriculums and ways of approaching the topic from a teacher or caregiver perspective.

In Part 1 we talked about what financial literacy looks like.

In Part 2 we went over teaching various money concepts. 

Part 3 focused on the stages of personal finance that can serve as scaffolding guideposts for teaching financial literacy.

And Part 4 offered suggestions for ways to generalize personal finance concepts. 

To round out the series we are going to go over a few helpful personal finance resources that students can use either to practice or as tools for managing their own finances down the line. So let’s dive right in!

The Washington Department of Financial Institutions Game List

This resource compiles a handful of online games that focus on a variety of financial concepts, from counting money, to financial trivia, to managing personal finance, to a stock market simulator. 

Some games are aimed at a K-5 demographic while others focus on grades 6-12, but any can be useful based on the needs of a given student or students. 

The list also offers a nice variety of more abstract games that touch on financial topics and games that are closer to simulations.

Build Your Stax

Build Your Stax is an investment game that challenges you to outearn your computer opponent with a base income of $4,000 per month. The goal of the game is to teach about the variety of investment options available to you.

Time For Payback

This is a tongue-in-cheek game about paying back your student loans and all the challenges that can come with it. It pokes fun at the state of the current system while teaching about some budgeting and financial concepts!

SmartAsset Budget Tool

This is a straightforward budget-building tool that can let you list an income and compile your expenses by category in one easy place. While it is not a comprehensive budget tool it is a great starting point for learning how budgets work, how they break down, and how a given student might want to prioritize their current budget based on their current income.

The Personal Finance Toolkit

Finally, we are going to take a moment to toot our own horn by talking about our Personal Finance Toolkit, which covers a variety of personal finance topics including financial options that might be relevant to students who have legally qualifying disabilities and plan to live independently. It also includes a self-assessment that can help students determine their goals and how they want to get there!

With that we are wrapping up on our Personal Finance series but we want to hear more about your experiences teaching and/or learning about personal finance in a school setting. 

Are there areas you think we could cover more in depth? Do you want to see us cover this topic again? Do you have thoughts on our Personal Finance Toolkit? 

Whatever you may be thinking we want to hear from you! Just drop us a line at hello@autismgrownup.com and we will be back next week for the start of our Self-Advocacy Series!