As a financial institution that is heavily involved in the communities that we serve, Jonah Bank believes we play an important role in providing information and education to our youth about financial literacy.
Financial literacy, or knowing how to spend and save money, is an important part of learning how to be a responsible adult. The sooner you learn how to create a budget and save money, the more money you may have to spend on things that you want or items that you will need in the future. Printable worksheets and interactive tools can set you on the right path to budgeting, while making smart consumer choices and being practical with your money can help you save.
Creating a Budget
Learning how to manage your money can play a big role in saving as much money as you can. Creating a budget will help you set limits, and learn how to spend within them, so that you can get the most out of your money. Before you can responsibly plan how your money is spent, you’ll need to learn what a budget is. Below are some resources that explain budgets for every age group. You’ll even find worksheets and other printable documents that can help you plan out your particular finances.
- Marvel’s Avenger’s Saving the day - Join the Avengers in this exciting educational comic about saving money and saving the day, featuring a budgeting worksheet, finance terms and more.
- Counting Money Worksheets and Lessons: These printable worksheets and play money graphics help very young children learn the value of money.
- Hands on Banking 4.0 for Kids: These interactive lessons about budgeting, savings and credit are perfect for small children who are just learning about money.
- What is Debt?: Treasury Direct Kids explains what debt is to young children.
- Federal Reserve Kids Page: The Federal Reserve offers a number of activities for children to help them learn about money and banking. Games and simulations are grouped by grades.
- Managing Money: Create a Budget: This article gives kids specific instructions on how to create a budget.
- Road Trip to Saving and other games: The Independent Community Banks of America (ICBA) page has a lot of un games for kids to learn to save.
Saving Strategies
There are many easy ways that you can save money. They all, however, begin with a good understanding of the value of money and smart financial habits. Below are several articles and interactive tools that will help you learn how to save, so that you can stretch your dollars and have more money to spend later. Saving strategies are included for all age groups.
- Peter Pigs Money Counter Learning about money is fun with Peter Pig. In this interactive game, kids practice identifying, counting and saving money while learning fun facts about U.S. currency. After completing the game, players are rewarded with a trip to the virtual store to buy accessories within budget and dress up Peter Pig in fun scenes.
- Wise Pockets’ Library: A series of articles help young children learn about credit, saving and earning money. The format of these articles are like illustrated books.
- How to Save for Something Big: Kidzworld offers tips on how to save for an item.
- Ten Sneaky Saving Strategies: Written for the college-age kid, these strategies can help young adults save money quickly and easily. After a while, these strategies can become second nature, and savings can increase exponentially with little effort.
- Money As you Grow: These tips are separated by age, and emphasize saving techniques.
- How Money Smart Are You? is a suite of 14 games and related resources about everyday financial topics. It’s based on FDIC’s award-winning Money Smart program.
Games
One of the easiest ways to learn about money is to play games that were created with financial responsibility in mind. There are a number of free games and online tools available that can help you learn how to budget, save, and spend in interactive environments without having to lose any money yourself. Some of these tools are based in reality, and can give you an idea of what kind of money is involved in maintaining your present lifestyle or the one that you want to have in the future. There are even games designed to help you learn how to identify fraud, so that you can protect the money you earn throughout the course of your lifetime.
- For Me, For You, For Later: Sesame Street offers these fun, interactive videos to help teach young children about the value of spending and saving money.
- Learn to Count Money: Designed for children in grades 3-5, this money-counting game teaches students how to use coins and bills.
- Piggy Bank Adventure: Disney offers a piggy bank game that lets children understand and manage money. The game is designed for children between ages 8 and 14, and teaches the concepts of planning, saving and investing.
- H.I.P Pocket Change: The U.S. Mint provides a game that can teach children about budgeting, saving and even investing money.
- Reality Check: This game allows children to imagine the kind of life they want to live and financially plan for it. The actual costs of living, and the financial cost of luxuries, are explored.
- Financial Literacy for Everyone: These games help teach students about money in fantasy and real-world scenarios. Money is tied to a number of scenarios, including those featuring piggy banks, football leagues, road trips, and role-playing opportunities.
- Financial Entertainment: These games teach financial independence and responsibility.
- The Pay Off In The Payoff game, play the role of Alex or Jess, two up-and-coming video bloggers who are preparing for a life-changing video competition while managing their finances and handling unexpected events. In the immersive game, developed by Visa, help Alex and Jess make smart financial decisions within the tight three-day deadline and complete their video for the competition.
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