English and Math alone are not enough to comprehend personal finance. I did
really well in both subjects, but had no clue about finance until I taught
myself. Finance contains its own lexicon and strategies and can be very
dangerous if you don't get proper education, look at the mess the economy is in
now.

Basic economics is a required course in Florida, however, it's so basic that all
I remember from it is the economic cycle and a little bit about supply and
demand.

Students need to understand why keeping up with politics and the economy are
important to the financial markets and ultimately their own pocket books.
That's why I want to teach the course.

Does Jim Cramer still answer questions on these boards? I would be curious to
see what an expert in the field thinks about what the curriculum should look
like.

Drop Algebra and add basic economic classes. A Subject you will actually need in
real life.Great ideas here.

If students learn English and Math properly, they would not need any finance
classes in high school.
They would be able to read, comprehend and use logic whenever needed.

I'd do Time Value of Money first, since it can quickly get their attention. And
add a section on ripoffs, like variable annuities. You can check on
ClarkHoward.com for a pile of those. He's got a radio show that's full of
these. The hardest thing can be that there are so many different approaches to
building wealth and proponents of each insist they are right. Most of them have
something to sell.

Thanks for the kudos Tamina!

Your post is exactly why I am doing this. You see, I ran a very successful
mortgage company for four years, and sold it just before the bottom fell out of
the market. I was tired of having to teach basic finance to every client I met,
so I decided to get into teaching. I feel that I can bring that "expertise" as
a professional into the class and can augment my non-expertise with guest
speakers that are experts in their respective field. I have approached several
friends and past partners about guest speaking and they are more than willing to
give their time to teach their respective field.

Again I appreciate your help, any snipits of insight on your second hand
knowledge would be great. Let me know when your book comes out, sounds like a
great read.

Fair enough: Below is my syllabus, let me know what needs to added, tweaked,
etc.

Thanks!

Topics:

*History of U.S. monetary policy
*Role of the FED
*Current monetary policy
*Current economic state


*What taxes are
*History of taxes
*Why we pay them
*What they are used for
*Tax brackets
*Tax deductions
*Employee vs Self-Employed

*Checking
*Savings
*CD’s, money markets
*Fine print
*Fees
*Balancing accounts
*Bank software

*What is credit
*Credit Cards
*How it’s used
*Establish good credit
*Maintain good credit
*Dispute credit errors
*How to recover from mistakes with credit

*Budget
*Research
*Used vs New
*Test Drive
*Negotiations
*Inspections

*Budget
*Research
*Realtors
*Title Agents
*Inspections
*Appraisals
*Contracts
*Negotiations

*Credit Cards
*Student Loans
*Car Loans
*Mortgages
*Personal Loans
*Business Loans

*Auto
*Health
*Home
*Life

*Paper Assets (i.e. stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds)
*Real Estate
*Businesses

*Security
*Prosperity
*Wealth
*Retirement

We have to do these classes through our community college system, because the
best teachers for the different subjects in finance are also in private industry
and representative of companies are not allowed to teach in public schools here.
So, we have classes at the college taught by Edward Jones reps and taxes taught
by Jackson Hewitt preparers,etc. The best stock market education I got was on
Cramer's radio show and then learned charting to augment it for myself. But
there was a real good personal finance book I read long ago (which may be
outdated on roth IRAs,etc) that was called The Wealthy Barber. It was a story,
but taught a lot. I personally got ahead by deciding (as an environmental
concern) 35 years ago to live secondhand. I call it 'Living on the Leftover
Side' and am working on a book of that title. Most high school kids have no
idea how far their dollar can go if they forgoe buying the latest hot thing.
I'd be happy to help any way I can. Kudos to you for doing this.

Come to think of it, you should probably delve into the perils of debt, too.

Why don't you post your syllabus so we can see what you have thought of so far?

I know you must be planning to explicitly discuss inflation and the power of
compound interest, but do discuss the time value of money. I learned about
inflation in Junior High school, but never heard about the time value of money
until I was nearly out of college.

Great ideas guys.

I have been thinking about adding insurance and car buying into it. I will
definitely add reading financial statements to the curriculum as well.

Keep 'em coming!