Title: Instructor Introduction TEACHER ONLY
Course: Personal Finance Sample "STANDARD" Syllabus > Section: Personal Finance Sample "STANDARD" Syllabus

A “Standard” Personal Finance Curriculum
Curriculum Overview
This approach aligns with the National Standards for Financial Literacy (NSFL) and the grade 12 benchmarks for those standards. Additionally, Unit 1 of this curriculum is “Decisionmaking,” a topic that establishes a solid foundation for the NSFL. The standards for Unit 1 are unique to this curriculum. The units of the curriculum and the topics covering the standards are as follows:

- Decisionmaking—PACED decisionmaking model, trade-offs, opportunity costs, and planning and tracking goals
- Earning income—careers, investment in human capital, and paying taxes
- Buying goods and services—budgeting, planning, collecting information, and consumer protection
- Saving—interest rates, time value of money, inflation, employer benefits, and financial regulations
- Using credit—types of credit, costs of credit, credit reports, credit bureaus, credit scores, credit counseling, bankruptcy, mortgages, and consumer protection
- Financial investing—return on investment, risk and return, diversification, capital markets, taxes and investments, and consumer protection
- Protecting and insuring—risk, property and casualty insurance, health insurance, life insurance, fraud and identity theft, and social safety nets

The order of the content is not random: Decisionmaking permeates our personal financial lives. Income is earned and then taxed; people plan (budget) from there—for saving (future spending), (current) spending, investing, borrowing when necessary (to increase net worth), and finally to protect their health and assets with insurance and careful monitoring. This reasoned framework provides smooth transitions for building and refining personal finance knowledge and skills. The approach is divided into themed units based on the decisionmaking standard and the six NSFL standards, with each unit containing individual lessons. The lessons use a variety of strategies designed to engage students in the learning process and equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed personal finance decisions. Each unit lists a variety of resources on the given topic(s) for use over multiple class periods or out-of-class assignments. All resources are available online for free. The time required to use each resource varies and can range from a few minutes to longer periods of time.

Each themed unit includes the following:
Unit Description: The unit description indicates the overall purpose of the unit.
Talking Points: The talking points provide simple wording of the main concepts in the unit. The points are not tied to a particular resource and are not intended to be presented in their entirety as listed; rather, teachers are encouraged to reference the talking points as needed.

Standard and Benchmarks: The standard and benchmarks met by the unit are listed. When all resources of a unit are used, all of the benchmarks for the given standard are met. As noted, the standard and benchmarks for Unit 1 are unique to this curriculum. Units 2-7 each address the grade 12 benchmarks of a single NSFL standard.

A pdf of the full curriculum unit may be downloaded here- https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/a-standard-personal-finance-curriculum