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What is the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program?

Reprinted from the NEFE HSFPP home page.

The NEFE High School Financial Planning Program® (HSFPP) was initiated in 1984 as a public service to increase the financial literacy of America's youth. The six-unit program provides teens with a greater understanding of and ability to manage their personal finances in the areas of goal setting, budgeting, saving, credit, and risk management. The program uses unique games, simulations, case studies, and interactive excercises to provide hands-on experience for students to test and apply the financial principles and concepts being taught.

There are fourmain purposes of the program:

• To understand the importance of career planning and the impact on economic well being
• To learn the financial planning process—what it is and what it can do for students
• To give students the opportunity to apply the process through stimulating exercises and assignments provided in the program
• To take control of their finances—beginning now

The High School Program is offered by the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®) in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture-Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service and participating Land-Grant University Cooperative Extension Services. To date, it has been taught to over one million students in all 50 states.

The program is strictly noncommercial in content, and it does not promote financial or other products. An instructor's manual is provided for all teachers, and every student is given a workbook and personal finance portfolio — all at no cost.

The Six Units of the High School Financial Planning Program

1. Financial Planning: Your Roadmap - Students learn the steps in the financial planning process, the difference between needs and wants, how values affect needs and wants, how to develpp written and meaningful goals, and how their decisions affect their goals.

2. Career: Labor You Love - Students learn the relationship between career factors -- such as education and training -- and earning potential; identify career options, including entrepreneurship; and demonstate awareness of future financial decisions affected by career choices.

3. Budget: Don't Go Broke - Students learn effective money management primarily through the process of creating and following a budget. They will learn about tools they can use to help manage their budget, such as record keeping, the idea of "pay yourself first," understanding a paycheck, and using a checking account.

4. Saving and Investments: Your Money at Work - Students learn to explain the importance of saving and investing to meet financial goals, explain how the time value of money affects student goals, describe basic investment principles, and discuss a variety of savings and investment alternatives.

5. Credit: Buy Now, Pay Later - Students will examine the use of credit as a tool to effective financial management, learn to explain the importance of using and managing credit effectively in the financial planning process, and describe how this can be accomplished.

6. Insurance: Your Protection - Students learn the different types of personal and financial risk they will encounter in their lives, explain methods of protecting themselves against those risks, and explain why protecting their assets against personal and financial loss is a important part of the financial planning process.