After 31 years teaching, including eight teaching Personal Finance, NGPF Ambassador and Distinguished Educator Julius Prezelski is retiring with a legacy of empowering students through financial education. In this Q&A, he reflects on his journey from the business world to the classroom, and shares the lessons, stories, and tools that helped his students build brighter financial futures. 

How long was your teaching career? And how many of those years did you teach Personal Finance? 

I left the Business world after 7 years and pursued my love of coaching basketball and teaching. I started coaching and teaching at DeMatha Catholic H.S. in Hyattsville, Maryland for four years.

For the past 27 years, I have been at Mount St. Joseph High School, a private, Catholic all-boys high school located in in Baltimore, Maryland with approximately 850 students grades 9-12. I taught Personal Finance for the last 8 years.

What is one of your earliest money memories?

Having a six-day-a-week 5:30 am paper route and collecting payments/tips once a month. I specifically remember coming up with a way to be paid where I didn’t have to go to each house to collect. I would put an envelope with their paper and the next morning the envelope would have the $ in the envelope and it would be in their mailbox, which in those days the mailboxes were attached to the home.

I remember sorting all the bills and coins and counting it up and then depositing it all into my savings account. I thought I was rich!

What makes you passionate about personal finance education?

My enthusiasm for personal finance education began nearly 20 years ago when I read Beth Kobliner’s book, Get a Financial Life. That experience opened my eyes to how crucial financial literacy is for long-term well-being and opportunity.

I’ve witnessed, both personally and through others, how a lack of financial understanding can result in avoidable setbacks—such as racking up high-interest debt, missing out on investment opportunities, or being unprepared for unexpected expenses.

On the other hand, learning the fundamentals of saving, budgeting, credit, and investing gives people the power to make informed decisions, reach their goals, and break free from financial stress.

What truly fuels my passion is the conviction that everyone should have access to these essential skills, no matter their background. It’s incredibly rewarding to see students in my classes get excited about what they’re learning, and even more so when I receive follow-up emails from students or parents asking questions and applying these lessons in real life.

Teaching personal finance goes beyond just numbers—it’s about empowering students with the knowledge and confidence to shape their futures, avoid common mistakes, and create security for themselves and their families. Watching students and adults gain that confidence and make positive changes is deeply gratifying and constantly inspires me to champion practical, accessible financial education for all.

What were your favorite topics to teach? And activities to use?

I love teaching about Investing/Mutual Funds and Behavioral Economics.

When it comes to Investing, using Data Crunches to show statistics is always eye opening, What’s the S&P 500 and FinViz Map, Rule of 72, Move: Let’s Make a Mutual Fund, Stock Index Fund Fact sheet and any investment calculator that shows graphs based on how much you invest, how often, and for how long. Also, playing the game STAX is always fun for the students. 

When it comes to Behavioral Economics: Dollar Auction game, the Ultimatum game, and showing videos that explain a handful of the most prominent cognitive biases. Ex. Decoy effect and the popcorn video, sunk cost fallacy, confirmation bias, etc. You can see the students make the connection between the definition and the video. Inevitably, you will hear students say, “I have done that”! Why would I do that? Then I explain how to recognize the biases and try to not be influenced by them.

Can you provide an example of how a lesson taught in class helped a student and/or someone in their family make a better money decision?

When I teach taxes and fill out the federal and state employment tax forms (W4 and MW507 in Maryland) most students do NOT fill in EXEMPT and they are having taxes taken out but now have to file tax returns to get a refund. Many students come back to me and we fill them out together and they give them to their employer and their next check is a larger amount and they don’t usually need to file taxes.

Also, when I teach how to open a Roth IRA through Vanguard and invest in an index fund they usually stop by and tell me how much they are making vs how little they made in their bank account.

I received many emails from parents because after each unit I send out a parent newsletter informing them what their son is learning and adding in articles and websites that are appropriate to the topic.

I would get the following comment from many parents: “best class my son has ever taken, he will use it the rest of his life and we are always having conversations about the topics that are discussed in class."

How has being part of the NGPF network helped you personally? Professionally?

If it wasn’t for meeting Tim Ranzetta about 10 years ago at a conference in Florida, I would not have stayed in teaching. I was teaching Computer Science and I just wasn’t being fulfilled like I am now with PF. The NGPF team and all they offer has allowed me to gain the knowledge and confidence to teach the class at a very high level.

Because of NGPF, I didn’t need to keep creating new materials because they did it for me. I just concentrated on how I was going to shape my classroom teaching on a daily basis.

Also, I have been able to attend many NGPF conferences and meet the most fantastic teachers who are always willing to help through FinLItFanatics. The bond I see with PF teachers is second to none.

I am sure because of my involvement with NGPF, I have attended many Jump$tart Conferences and have spoken at the Maryland and Economic Educator Summit the past two summers.

Going into retirement, what advice do you have for other personal finance teachers? 

When it comes to teaching, complete all of the certifications the NGPF offers. It will give you complete confidence when you are teaching and being asked many questions. Attend as many conferences as you can and stay up on the newest material and be ready to change based on changes in the PF world. I update my notes, assignments, exercises, graphs, etc. every summer.  

Also, when you are young don’t take summers off. Find what you are good at or like to do in the summer and work to make that extra buck. Now take the extra money and max out your Roth IRA or 403b. You will be retiring early, too!

Is there anything else about you, your school, or your personal finance journey that you would like us to know?

Personal Finance teachers should not be afraid to use their life experiences whether good or bad when telling stories in the classroom to make different points. The students remember real life stories more than reading out of a book.

We teach a subject that nobody asks, “when am I going to use personal finance?” They know the answer is every day of their lives.  

About the Author

Hannah Rael

As NGPF's Marketing Communications Manager, Hannah (she/her) helps spread the word about NGPF's mission to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.

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