Personal Finance and Money Management (HON)

High School / Electives

In Personal Finance and Money Management, instructional time will emphasize seven areas: (1) exploring how personal financial decisions are made, including understanding how cognitive biases impact decision making; (2) understanding how wages and salaries are earned, including the types of taxes owed, and evaluating various post-secondary paths and career options; (3) developing personal or family budgets and exploring how to purchase goods and services by weighing the costs and benefits of those goods and services; (4) analyzing how interest can be earned by saving now, which allows for the purchase of more goods and services later and understanding how to compare various savings accounts and services offered through financial institutions; (5) determining advantages and disadvantages of credit accounts that allow for the borrowing of money to purchase goods and services while paying for them in the future, usually with interest, and short- and long-term loans; (6) developing understanding of planning for the future through investment accounts and retirement plans and comparing investment choices by analyzing rates of return and risk, while analyzing how diversification is one way to reduce investment risk; and (7) recognizing that there are risks that can result in lost income, health, or identity and that those risks can be accepted, reduced, or transferred to others through the purchase of insurance. Curricular content for all subjects must integrate critical-thinking, problem-solving, and workforce-literacy skills; communication, reading, and writing skills; mathematics skills; collaboration skills; contextual and applied-learning skills; technology-literacy skills; information and media-literacy skills; and civic-engagement skills.