Those of us who just filed our taxes, or paid our bills, or calculated our monthly expenditures know the importance of having a solid base of financial literacy. For students, it's just as important to have this base knowledge to prepare them for the real world, so in observation of Financial Literacy Month, here are a few resources to get those fiscal gears turning.
- BETTER MONEY HABITS
The new BetterMoneyHabits.com is the result of a partnership between Bank of America and the Khan Academy. While the link between behemoth bank and startup nonprofit might seem a strange marriage of company cultures, the combination of the former’s reach and credibility with the latter’s experience developing online video resources makes logical sense.
So far, the site features a 13-video selection on topics more likely suitable for high school and college students (and even adults), including creating and managing your own personal budget, understanding interest, understanding mortgages, digging yourself out of debt, and preparing financially for unpredictable tough times.
- PRACTICAL MONEY SKILLS FOR LIFE’S ONLINE GAME SERIES
Visa’s financial literacy program features what has been a growing number of free online game titles accessible to a wide range of student ages. The simplest include a drag-and-drop game where players select which coins to deposit into a piggy bank to build up the most money, and puzzles that challenge players to assemble pieces on a screen into paper currency.
Among the more complex titles, "Financial Football" and "Financial Soccer" are geared toward sports fans ages 11 and up, where players assume control of their favorite teams or countries in a simulated game where the outcome of each play is decided based on how students answer finance-related questions. Then there's “Countdown to Retirement,” which might remind some of the time when Cliff gave Theo a financial lecture about being one of the "regular people."
- FINANCIAL ENTERTAINMENT
This series of five fiscally driven online games comes from the Doorways to Dreams Fund, a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of helping low-income Americans use their limited resources more wisely through the development of new products and policies. Players help a vampire nightclub owner invest his profits and save for retirement in "Bite Club," try to reform the wasteful habits of the rich and famous in "Celebrity Calamity," and prepare for the inevitable but unpredictable famines, droughts, and other disasters in "Farm Blitz."