MONEY MANAGEMENT

Explore the big idea of money management and the associated concepts, competencies, and academic standards at various grade levels.

 

Big Idea & Essential Questions

Money management includes setting goals and developing a plan for how to spend, save, and share financial resources.

  • How do financial goals vary across a person’s lifetime?

  • In what ways does money management impact reaching financial goals?

  • What constitutes sound financial decision making?

  • How does organized record keeping impact finances?

  • What factors impact a person’s spending plan?

 

Core Concepts & Competencies

Within the Pennsylvania Personal Finance Instructional Framework, the big idea of money management includes five core concepts. The competencies for each can be found below or download the PDF version which includes a correlation to the Pennsylvania Academic Standards.

  • Financial Goals

  • Decision Making

  • Spending Plan

  • Purchasing

  • Giving

 

High School (Grades 9-12)

Financial Goals: Identify strategies for personal financial management.

Decision Making: Analyze types of consumer behavior and characteristics including but not limited to spending habits, emotional buying, rational buying, and buying power.

Spending Plan: Demonstrate the relationship of the components of a simple spending plan and how that relationship allows for managing income, expenses, and savings.

Purchasing: Evaluate the impact of internal and external influences on purchasing decisions.

Giving: Evaluate how charitable organizations use contributions.

 

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Financial Goals: Discuss the importance of developing short, medium, and long-term personal financial goals.

Decision Making: Explain how people apply decision-making skills to make financial decisions.

Spending Plan: Discuss earning, spending, and saving for financial stability.

Purchasing: Compare various payment options for purchases.

Giving: Compare the missions of charitable organizations.

 

Elementary (Grades 3-5)

Financial Goals: Classify financial goals as short and long-term and develop plans to reach goals.

Decision Making: Analyze how unlimited wants and limited resources affect decision-making.

Spending Plan: Describe the ability to meet basic human needs through different types of purchases.

Purchasing: Identify types of advertising designed to influence personal choice.

Giving: Identify charitable organizations and the services they provide.

 

Primary (Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2)

Financial Goals: Identify goals and determine steps to achieve them.

Decision Making: Differentiate between needs and wants and choices people make.

Spending Plan: Identify goods and services people buy and how people use money to make purchases.

Purchasing: Define price and how prices vary for products.

Giving: Describe ways children can share with others.