What Would You Do If You Owned the World's Best Investing Contract?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Jul 11, 2017
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Investing, Research, Index Funds, Current Events, Article, Excel Activities
Hat tip to Sid Sharma for pointing out this fascinating article. Imagine knowing stock prices one week into the future? Better yet, imagine getting these future stock prices every week for the rest of your life. Such is the plight of Max Herve-George as featured in this story in the Independent:
George, 25, is not a rogue trader. He is not a financial genius. He is just a man who has the life-long right to make investments with Aviva France that are guaranteed to succeed – to Aviva’s...
Question: What Is the Largest Company Headquartered in Each State?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Apr 06, 2017
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Activity, Current Events, Chart of the Week, Activities, Excel Activities
I thought that business teachers would get enjoy getting students to guess the answer for their specific state. Also will teach an important lesson about the various ways to measure the size of corporations. Here is the infographic with the largest company in each state based on number of employees (with hat tip to Visual Capitalist):
How to keep the discussion going:
When you hear about an analysis describing the “largest company,” what do you think are the various ways to...
Interactive: What Do Consumers Spend Their Money On?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Apr 04, 2017
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Activity, Question of the Day, Research, Budgeting, Purchase Decisions, Current Events, Math, Activities, Excel Activities, Interactive
If you are a data geek, you will love this interactive tool/data visualization from Flowing Data (be sure to click on the link to take advantage of the interactive nature of the tool):
Let me provide some context for what you are looking at. Here are the data sources:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (using data collected by the Census Bureau) estimates spending patterns over time and across demographics, through the Consumer Expenditure Survey. BLS released midyear estimates today. Spending on...
Spreadsheet Math: Two Investments Walk Into A Classroom...
By Tim Ranzetta
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Mar 16, 2017
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Activity, Behavioral Finance, Index Funds, Investing, Stocks, Math, Excel Activities, Compound Interest
Ok, not the best title but let’s run with it. Let’s start with a question:
You have a choice between two investments of $100,000:
Investment #1: Earns a consistent 8% return every year (put aside the fact that an investment like this doesn’t exist at the current time; it’s been a while since you could buy a 30 year Treasury Bond with that kind of return).
Investment #2: Has an average return of 8% per year but has “lumpier returns” aka it has more volatile...
NGPF is always at the ready...
You know we here at NGPF are always happy to help, which is why we didn’t think twice about responding to a unique email we received through our website. Dorothy was trying to solve a problem involving her church group: It’s got members who have joined at various points, anywhere from the past year to being a charter, founding member of the organization. They wanted to buy funeral flowers, as the members pass away, at varying price points based on length of membership. Dorothy turned...
NGPF: Tim Talks to Pat Page, Award-Winning Educator and Passionate Advocate for Financial Education
By Tim Ranzetta
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Nov 29, 2016
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Podcasts, Credit Cards, Schools In News, Current Events, Audio Resource, Excel Activities, Parent Conversations, Entrepreneurship
Thanks to Pat Page for the great conversation we recently had on the NGPF podcast. Pat shared her insights and expertise on many topics that financial educators will find helpful. You will learn about Pat’s approach to using technology in her classroom, teaching spreadsheets, using pithy phrases to focus student attention and telling stories that bring financial topics to life. You will also hear the inspiring story of how a group of students at her high school lobbied the Rhode Island...
These 16 Pages Will Teach Your Students All They Need to Know About Investing...
By Tim Ranzetta
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Sep 27, 2016
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Article, Behavioral Finance, Budgeting, Index Funds, Investing, Mutual Funds, Stocks, Excel Activities
Here’s a free (and simple) guide to investing from Dr. William Bernstein that brings some clarity to investing. The title tells it all, If You Can – How Millenials Can Get Rich Slowly (it’s really only 14 pages of text and well worth the 15 minutes). Will be a great extension activity and/or long-form reading assignment at the end of your investing unit. Here’s the tantalizing question that the booklet opens with:
Would you believe me if I told you there is an...
Interactive and Activity Idea: How Worried Are You About Your Economic Situation?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Mar 21, 2016
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Activity, Career, Paying for College, Research, Student Loans, Teaching Strategies, Current Events, Excel Activities
From NPR:
Marketplace has developed their own Economic Anxiety Index to go beyond the traditional economic figures you hear spouted about on a regular basis (i.e., unemployment rate, new jobs created, GDP, CPI). After providing some identifying information (see above), the quiz asks some general questions about your financial situation (including “Do you lose sleep over your financial situation?”). It then asks some questions about your employment situation, housing, other...
Day 9 of the 24 Hour Personal Finance Course: Creating a Monthly College Budget
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Mar 09, 2016
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Paying for College, Budgeting, Video Resource, Activities, Excel Activities
Today was Day 9 of our Presonal Finance in 24 Hours course, Day 2 of Budgeting in College, and one of my favorite lessons. Go ahead and click if you want to see the whole plan, with all of the resources, but here are some of my favorite moments I’d like to highlight:
Discussion Prompt: Does Maxine, who’s just landed her first full-time job, working HR for a large company in Washington, DC, NEED an updated wardrobe? or does she WANT an updated wardrobe? It’s business...
Day 8 of the 24 Hour Personal Finance Course: Big Picture College Budget
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Mar 07, 2016
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Activity, Paying for College, Budgeting, Student Loans, Activities, Excel Activities
First off — it’s Jessica, not Tim. While Tim taught the month of February at Eastside College Prep (in East Palo Alto, CA), I’m doing March, when we’ll cover budgeting and credit. So, I’m going to write the post-course updates, but I’m MUCH less prolific a blogger than Tim, so expect less.
My budgeting unit is two instructional days plus the case study, so today we did the big picture, semester-level budget. So, not so much, “How much are you spending on...
The $1 Million Bet: An Index Fund vs. The Best Stock Pickers
By Tim Ranzetta
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Mar 06, 2016
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Behavioral Finance, Investing, Stocks, Current Events, Audio Resource, Excel Activities
This Planet Money podcast: Brilliant vs. Boring (21 minutes) will engage your students and deepen their understanding of the philosophies underpinning active vs. passive management.
Here’s the teaser:
In 2006, Warren Buffett posed a challenge. He bet that the smartest hedge fund managers out there couldn’t beat the world’s simplest, most brainless investment. In this show, we tell you who’s winning.
I especially like the Planet Money description of index funds, which...
Question: When Can You Retire?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Jan 03, 2016
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Activity, Career, Question of the Day, Investing, Savings, Chart of the Week, Excel Activities, Compound Interest
Hat tip to Anna Takahashi of Eastside Prep. for pointing this out on the NGPF Forum.
A great way to kick-off your investing unit since the decisions that students make about investing (when to start, how much and their return) will ultimately impact when they can retire.
Ok, so I admit the challenge of getting high schoolers to think about retirement and the importance of starting early, but incorporating some math makes this a more interesting exercise.
This “heat map” does a great...
How Much Does A Rent-to-Own TV Really Cost Or What's the Cost Of Immediate Gratification?
By Tim Ranzetta
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Dec 11, 2015
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Activity, Behavioral Finance, Credit Cards, Payment Types, Purchase Decisions, Excel Activities
We often tell students that it is best to delay gratification when it comes to many situations in their financial lives. Here is a great example where they can actually see the cost of immediate gratification, in this case, a TV they must to watch the upcoming Super Bowl.
I did a similar activity back this summer but realize that washer-dryers may not be as engaging for high school students:) This article from Wise Bread blog served as the inspiration for this mini-activity.
You might start...
Project: Plan a Friendsgiving Dinner
If you’re already done with school before the Thanksgiving holiday, LUCKY YOU! Enjoy your much-deserved rest and relaxation. For the rest of you, I’ve generated this timely project, “Plan a Friendsgiving Dinner,” you can use in your classroom in the early parts of next week, even if attendance, motivation, or both are low in your personal finance classes.
The gist of the project is your students work in groups (whatever size you prefer) and they hypothetically plan a...
2 New Lessons: Retirement & College Budgeting
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Oct 14, 2015
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Budgeting, Investing, Featured NGPF Lesson, Front Page Spotlight, Activities, Excel Activities
We’re always excited to generate new content for teachers to use, and we’ve got two outstanding new lessons for you this week.
Investing for Retirement
First, if you use our Investing for Retirement lesson, your students will learn about Social Security, pensions, 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and Traditional IRAs. More importantly, they’ll leave understanding why they need to start saving for retirement ASAP! What to look out for:
We love our “Types of Retirement...
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