The Budget Project: Real World Personal Finance

Attention Ohio Teachers! This project aligns with Ohio's Model Curriculum for Financial Literacy!

This is one of my favorite projects that will fully engage your students! How many times do we hear…”when am I ever going to need to know this?” Here is your answer. This comprehensive budget project has students move through two different careers and plan out a monthly budget.

The objective of this project is for students to set up a budget that would allow them to live the type of life they would like, as well as to understand what skills and/or education they need to get there. This will include finding a house, finding a car, and developing a budget for two different careers (one that requires college and one that does not). This project involves research and the use of online calculators. I also hope students observe certain realities about work, and what it takes to be a successful adult in the world today. It is not easy. It takes a lot of money! Students tell me this is their favorite project they have completed in high school!

Please note this project was completed in my classroom after a month of personal finance lessons about taxes, interest rates, insurance, etc. It can definitely be used without personal finance prior knowledge but would require more teacher guidance. You could organize an entire semester around it if you wanted to! The project is based on the U.S. dollar and all through the use of Google Products.

What is included:

1. Google Slides Presentation (61 slides): with in-depth directions and student fill-in slides

2. Google Sheets (2): easy to use google sheets that calculate for students how much they have spent and how much money they have left.

3. Google Docs Reflection Questions: a great way to wrap up the project and give students some different scenarios based on their budget.

4. A student example!