Personal Financial Literacy and Economics

03380083 Personal Financial Literacy and Economics

Recommended Grade Levels: 12

Prerequisite: None

Credit: 0.5 (Students may not be awarded credit for both this course and the personal financial literacy course)

Description: The Personal Financial Literacy and Economics Course emphasizes the economic way of thinking, which serves as a framework for the personal financial decision-making opportunities introduced in the course. Students will demonstrate the ability to anticipate and address financial challenges as these challenges occur over their lifetime. In addition, students are introduced to common economic and personal financial planning terms and concepts. As a result of learning objective concepts and integrating subjective information, students gain the ability to lead productive and financially self-sufficient lives.

Personal Financial Literacy and Economics builds on and extends the economic content and concepts studied in Kindergarten-Grade 12 social studies in Texas. The course provides a foundation in both microeconomics and macroeconomics. Students will survey the impact of demand, supply, various industry structures, and government policies on the market for goods, services, and wages for workers. Macroeconomic study involves economic systems with an emphasis on free enterprise market systems, goals of full employment, price stability, and growth while examining problems such as unemployment and inflation and the policies enacted to address them. The course also builds on and extends the personal finance content and concepts studied in Kindergarten-Grade 8 in mathematics in Texas. It is an integrative course that applies the same economic way of thinking developed to making choices about how to allocate scarce resources in an economy to how to make them at the personal level. The course requires that students demonstrate critical thinking by exploring how to invest in themselves with education and skill development, earn income, and budget for spending, saving, investing, and protecting. Students will examine their individual responsibility for managing their personal finances and understand the impact on standard of living and long-term financial well-being. Further, students will connect how their financial decision making impacts the greater economy.