The National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®) offers the award-winning High School Financial Planning Program® (HSFPP), a free and flexible curriculum that has been proven to change students’ knowledge, actions and self-confidence about managing their money.
Money & Me is a hands-on experience that teaches teenagers the basics of money and how to make it work for them. The program covers budgeting, credit advantages and pitfalls, savings and checking accounts, how to save for a big purchase and investing for the future.
The brass|Student Program provides high schools with access to brass|Magazine, a personal finance publication written by young adults that delivers relevant content for classroom discussions and activities. The program also includes online resource centers for teachers and students, and the Credit Unions for College scholarship database.

LifeSmarts…the Ultimate Consumer Challenge is a game show style competition for teenagers designed to better prepare them as responsible consumers in today’s dynamic marketplace. Questions cover personal finance, consumer rights and responsibilities, health and safety, technology and the environment.

Biz Kid$ is a fun, 30-minute PBS television series for kids about making and managing money. It highlights young entrepreneurs who have turned hobbies into successful businesses, raised funds for good causes and much more.

The Kid’s Cash Kit & Caboodle includes practical, hands-on tools to teach children and their families the basics of money management using the concepts of saving, spending and sharing.

Financial Literacy Statistics

Financial Education

LifeSmarts


Why should your child participate in LifeSmarts?

Today's teenagers are bombarded with information and marketing messages in ways that were virtually unknown even 10 years ago. The choices they make about money, technology, their health, etc., will shape their lives- so it's crucial that they have the knowledge and skills to make the right choices.

By participating in LifeSmarts, teenagers learn how to be responsible, independent consumers who are truly prepared for today’s fast-paced, dynamic marketplace. While training and competing with their peers, they learn how to:

• manage money;
• lead a healthy life;
• keep themselves and others safe;
• benefit from technology; and
• recognize how their decisions impact the environment.


Along the way, they develop teamwork skills, self-esteem, verbal communication skills and leadership abilities that will benefit them in college and throughout their lives.

The ultimate goal? When they’ve finished LifeSmarts, teenagers like yours will take the knowledge they have gained and use it to create stronger families and communities.

If your local school or group/organization is not currently participating in LifeSmarts, tell your teenager’s teacher or youth group/organization leader about the program.

How LifeSmarts works

LifeSmarts is open to youth from any school, group or community-based organization in every state and U.S. Territory. Students in grades 6-8 can compete at the junior varsity level (link to: http://www.lifesmarts.org/index.php?page=Middle_School) in the online competition only. Students in grades 9-12 can compete at the varsity level, which includes the online competition and in-person state and national championships.

Online competition: Each player completes a series of three 20-question quizzes for a final score anytime between now and Feb. 12, 2012. The top five scores from each team are used to calculate the team score.

New York State Competition

Teams compete in an Internet-based competition, anytime between September 12, 2011 and February 3, 2012, where players complete a series of three 20-question quizzes for a final score. The top five scores from each team are used to calculate the score. There will be no in-person NYS championship competition for the 2011-2012 season. The top NY scoring team from the online competition will move on to compete in the National Championship.

National Varsity Championship

The National Championship will be held in Philadelphia, PA at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel, Saturday April 21 through Tuesday April 24, 2012.

 

How you can get involved

Each team must have an adult coach to compete. If you’d like to become a coach and help bring LifeSmarts to your organization or community group, please see the Coaches information sheets (LINK to: http://www.nycuf.org/financial_education/pdf/lifesmarts_InfoSheetCoaches.pdf).

 

Additional Resources

  • Info Sheet for Coaches: Access to Coaches Corner, How-to Register a Team, Retrieving a Lost Coach Code, How-to Check Student & Team Scores, How-to Check Student Pre-Test and Practice Scores, Game Stats, etc.
  • Info Sheet for Students: Access to How-to Register, Practice Quizzes, Competing in LifeSmarts, Retrieving User Name and Password, etc.

Personal finance, economics and financial education web sites:

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