Planning your finances for the future

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Planning your finances for the future Planning your finances for the future Planning your finances for the future Planning your finances for the future

Helping young people feel more confident about finances can help them with planning for the short and long term. The activities on this page include the topics of mortgages, pensions, savings and borrowing and build understanding in a variety of ways, whether you’re looking for something quick, something independent or a full length, curriculum-linked lesson plan:

 Teaching resources:

  • Planning your finances for the future: Lesson plan and presentation slides – full lesson plan for use with a group of students in the classroom
  • Recognising risk and staying safe online: Interactive worksheet – interactive worksheet activity for independent learning whether remote or in class

Lesson plan

(90 to 150 minutes)

Use this lesson to explore different forms of borrowing for things like buying a house, going to university or making a large purchase, as well as improving your students understanding of interest and APR.

This lesson will also demonstrate that when dealing with debt, it is important to seek independent advice from someone in a place to help, by taking students through scenarios that feature financial difficulties and asking them to consider what actions they should take. The activities also contain tips on what to consider before borrowing as well as signposting to free, independent debt advice.

Lesson learning outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

  • Understand some of the costs associated with renting and buying a property
  • Look at how pensions work and why it is important to invest in a pension when you begin work
  • Apply different debt strategies to a range of financial emergencies

How can this lesson support develop students’ confidence on independent living?

Students will focus on long term saving, budgeting, borrowing and the importance of planning for your financial future, by looking at the considerations needed for independent living. There is the opportunity to discuss renting versus buying and their associated costs, as well as explore schemes for first home buyers and price comparison sites.

This lesson also looks at other long term financial considerations such as savings and different types of accounts, as well as pensions and their benefits.

Interactive worksheet

(15 minutes)

Please note that students below the age of 14 cannot sign up for their own LifeSkills account. Any independent tasks must be printed or downloaded and provided digitally for them to complete as they are currently hosted on educator pages.

The Recognising risk and staying safe online interactive worksheet contains some of the themes from the full lesson plan and will help students become more confident in recognising the risk involved in financial decisions. It also builds on the lesson, showing students the importance of keeping financial information safe online. The worksheet can be printed or completed digitally, so can be used flexibly to build your students understanding of fraud. You might choose to assign it:

  • As homework following the Planning your finances for the future lesson
  • For independent study
  • For remote learning

Further support for developing financial capability in your students

Students can gradually improve these skills in a variety of ways – including by talking to those around them.

 

Follow this lesson with further money skills lessons for this age group, including the Finances in the world of work, Managing money and budgetin and Planning your finances for the future lessons. Why not build financial capability as a focus in your students’ curriculum? Refer to our Content guide to find out how this LifeSkills resource can be used in lessons.

 

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