Financing the Future

Financing the Future is a six-week financial literacy program designed for students in grades 6–8. Through interactive lessons, real-life examples, team challenges, and hands-on activities, students learn how to make smart decisions about money and build financial skills they can use in everyday life. Each week focuses on an important area of financial literacy: Week 1: Smart Saving Students learn why saving matters, how to set savings goals, and how to create a realistic savings plan. Week 2: Smart Budgeting Students learn how to create a budget, understand income and expenses, and plan where their money goes before they spend it. Week 3: Smart Spending Students explore needs vs. wants, comparison shopping, unit prices, sales tax, impulse buying, marketing, subscriptions, and the true cost of purchases. Week 4: Smart Investing Students are introduced to investing, compound interest, risk and return, diversification, stocks, bonds, and index funds through activities using pretend money. Week 5: Smart Economics Students learn how supply and demand affect prices, why money exists, how trade and barter work, and how inflation affects the value of money. Week 6: Smart Giving Students explore taxes, charitable giving, volunteering, causes, and impact. They finish by bringing what they learned throughout the program together into their own Money Plan. Objectives The program is designed to be interactive and practical, with students learning through simulations, games, discussions, team activities, and hands-on financial challenges. Students use pretend money during activities, allowing them to practice making financial decisions in a safe and engaging environment. Schedule 🗓️ Dates: November 8, 2026 - December 20, 2026 ⏱️ Time: 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM (PST/PDT) 📅 Days: Every Sunday 📍 Venue: Physical | Ohlone Campus