One of Treasurer Smith's most important initiatives is financial education and empowerment. He is committed to providing Iowans with unbiased financial information and education programs that can help improve their lives. By promoting a number of programs geared towards a variety of age groups, the Treasurer’s Office has made great strides towards accomplishing this goal.
Scroll or use the buttons below for resources about financial education and empowerment.
Games and Resources for Ages 3-12
Games and Resources
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Break the Bank - Sorting: Give kids an introduction to coins, how to recognize them and what they’re worth.
Dolphin Dash: Build the skill of counting money. The quicker they add, the faster their dolphin advances in the race.
Financial Education Bingo Board (PDF): Guide children through activities to teach fiscal responsibility and increase their financial knowledge.
Learn to Count Money: Build money counting skills in three levels of play with coins and bills up to 99 cents, 10 dollars or 100 dollars.
Money as You Learn: Offered by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, Money as You Learn provides free tools to educators interested in including financial education in their curriculum.
My Classroom Economy: A simple classroom economic system that can be incorporated into any curriculum, at any grade level, based on the idea that students need to earn school “dollars” so they can rent their own desks. By bringing real-world scenarios into the classroom, students see the impact of their decisions to save, spend and budget.
Online Lessons
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Ages 3-5: With talking points, activities and printables, help jump-start early financial education with topics including earning, saving, planning, shopping and money milestones for children ages 3-5. At this age, persistence is one of the money milestones you can watch for and help your child reach.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Ages 6-12: Does your child have a habit of planning, saving and sticking to goals and priorities? For children ages 6-12, find resources and activities to help absorb rules to live by and day-to-day habits that shape how they earn, save and shop.
Financial Literacy for Kids: In this course from EVERFI, children ages 9-12 will focus on critical life skills like budgeting, career planning and healthy borrowing habits through interactive and game-based learning.
Games and Resources for Teens and Young Adults
Games, Activities and Resources
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Dollar a Glass: Manage your own lemonade stand business. Learn the ethics of banking and debt in this fun game.
Financial Football: Visa and the NFL have teamed up to help teach financial concepts and money management skills. Check out the corresponding lesson plans for educators.
Financial Education Bingo Board for Middle School (PDF): Guides middle schoolers through activities to teach fiscal responsibility and increase their financial knowledge.
Financial Education Bingo Board for High School (PDF): Guides high schoolers through activities to teach fiscal responsibility and increase their financial knowledge.
Financial Soccer: Take your money skills to the next level with Visa’s Financial Soccer. Hone your practical knowledge of financial concepts while leading your favorite FIFA country to victory.
Hit the Road: This Oregon Trail-inspired game takes you on a road trip across America while learning the importance of saving, budgeting, responsible spending and debt management.
Misadventures in Money Management: With a graphic-novel theme, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created a game covering topics like avoiding impulse purchases, how debt can affect a military career and more.
My Life My Choices: Based upon your choices, learn how your priorities affect your finances in this 30-minute budgeting and scenario-based activity of financial priorities and consequences.
National Personal Finance Challenge: Each year, the Iowa Jump$tart Coalition, with support from the National Council for Economic Education hosts the Iowa Personal Finance Challenge. The Challenge is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge of personal finance by connecting with other students across the state in an online competition.
Stock Market Game: Offered by the SIFMA Foundation, this free game gives students the chance to grow $100,000 in virtual cash accounts through lessons involving math, business, economics, language arts and social studies.
Time for Payback: Players pick careers and majors based on what kinds of jobs they might find when they graduate as well as how much their student loans might be.
Book List (PDF): From essential topics related to personal finance, money management, borrowing and investing, these books can empower teens and young adults to make informed decisions about their finances.
Online Lessons
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Teens and Young Adults: With conversation starters and activities on topics including earning, savings, shopping, borrowing and more, find resources to help set your teen or young adult up for economic success.
Credit Fundamentals: Credit Fundamentals teaches students the fundamental of maintaining and managing a healthy credit score by building knowledge about acquiring, growing credit and managing credit as well as dealing with fraud or credit inaccuracies.
Economic Foundations: Sponsored by the MassMutual Foundation, middle schoolers will analyze the economy and identify factors that impact the price of consumer goods.
Financial Literacy for High School: This financial 101-course teaches high school students how to make wise financial decisions to promote financial well-being over their lifetime with seven 35-minute lessons.
Financial Planning for Life: Students accelerate their financial understanding through problem-solving, self-reflection and games that provide real-life scenarios for practice.
Financing Higher Education: Through interactive real-world scenarios, students learn how to evaluate the return on investment of higher education options and research how to pay for it.
FutureSmart: Financial Literacy: Through a story-based narrative and interactive exercises, middle schoolers learn to make real-life decisions about their personal finances, as well as how to achieve important goals around saving money, education, career planning and budgeting.
Hands on Banking: Learn valuable information about topics like banking, credit and loans, goal setting and investing.
Investing Basics: Through an engaging, gamified learning experience, students blend economic concepts with investing topics to learn how the government, corporations and individuals come together to participate in the financial marketplace.
Minding Your Money – Skills for Life: Teaching students about different financial stages in life, how money and mental health are intertwined and how money can affect interpersonal relationships, this EVERFI course empowers students to develop their own personal financial values, goals and habits.
Money as You Learn: Offered by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, Money as You Learn provides free tools to educators interested in including financial education in their curriculum.
My Classroom Economy: A simple classroom economic system that can be incorporated into any curriculum, at any grade level, based on the idea that students need to earn school “dollars” so they can rent their own desks. By bringing real-world scenarios into the classroom, students see the impact of their decisions to save, spend and budget.
SaveUp: Saving Money for the Future: Middle schoolers will learn why saving is important, how to budget and spend wisely, how to build an emergency savings, why savings can help reach financial goals and how to open a savings account.
Resources for Adults
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Budgeting Calculators: A well-rounded budget can make one of the largest impacts on achieving your financial goals. These budgeting calculators, including credit card debt, debt management, 50/30/20 budget, simple budget, vacation budget and more, empower you to track your expenses and savings.
Enrich: Provided by the National Association of State Treasurers, Enrich is a personal finance program helping individuals reach their financial goals one step at a time with articles, courses, questionnaires and personal analysis tools.
Invest in You – Money 101: CNBC offers this 8-week course to improve your financial wellness. Learn how to chart your path to financial freedom, get tips on managing your money and strategies to grow and protect your money.
Money Basics: Smart About Money’s Money Basics courses hep you to form a healthy financial foundation for the rest of your personal finance journey. Each course takes approximately 45 minutes to complete and includes valuable tools and resources including worksheets, calculators and quizzes.
Personal Finance Videos: Money Fit provides an ever-growing library of videos to learn the skills necessary to not only become debt-free but to take charge of your finances, get ahead and live comfortably.
Book List (PDF): From personal finance to investing strategies, these books build your financial knowledge.
