Helping Youth Achieve Financial Literacy

When young people understand how to manage money, they are equipped with a skill that is key to making their dreams a reality -- and bringing reality to their dreams. To help youth achieve financial literacy, try the following resources.

Program Activities and Curricula

Building Wealth: A Beginner's Guide to Securing Your Financial Future
With interactive and print versions, this personal finance education resource is available for schools, nonprofits, financial service providers, and consumers. Topics include setting financial goals, budgeting, saving and investing, managing debt, and understanding credit reports and credit scores. Free download available in English and Spanish.

Dollars & Sense: Building Financial Dreams
Written by the Partnership for After School Education, this curriculum is designed to provide young adults with information about the value of saving, and enable them to create a more secure future.

Education World: Financial Literacy
Two activities for students are outlined here. Where Does the Money Go helps students understand budgeting, and Charge!? asks students to compare three types of credit cards.

Jumpstart Coalition Clearinghouse
Jumpstart offers a clearinghouse of educational materials for building financial literacy. Their searchable database includes many free materials.

The Mint
This site provides tools to help educators and parents teach children to manage money wisely and develop good financial habits.

Money Smart for Young Adults
A free program offered on CD by the FDIC, Money Smart consists of eight instructor-led modules.

Money Talks
The University of California Cooperative Extension offers Teen Guides, videos, and games in English and Spanish on a wide range of topics, including "My Money Personality," "Shopping Savvy," "Making Your Dreams Come True," and many more. Resources for teachers and program leaders are also available on the site.

Saving Our Futures: A Financial Responsibility Program
This curriculum from America's Promise teaches young people how to learn about, practice, and advocate for sound fiscal decisions in their families, communities, and country. Available in English and Spanish. Free download; registration required.

YouthSuccessNYC: Learning to Budget
Written for staff who are working with youth in foster care, this is a 1-hour and 15-minute activity on learning to budget. Taking a story by a teen, Mountain Climbing for Beginners, as its jumping off point, this lesson is most appropriate for older youth anticipating living on their own.

Resources for Young People

Jumpstart's Reality Check
This survey helps youth understand how much money they will need to make in order to support the lifestyle they want.

The Mint: Tips for Teens
Written for teens, this site offers information and activities on earning, saving, spending, owing, tracking, giving, investing, and safeguarding.

New York State Career Zone: Dollars and Sense
This interactive site from the New York State Department of Labor helps young people work through how much money they will need to make in order to support the lifestyle they want.

YouthSuccessNYC: Money
This site offers money basics and tips from and for youth transitioning out of foster care. The site also links to Youth Financial Empowerment, a New York City financial literacy and aid program for youth aging out of care.