Counting your money should be helpful when trying to learn math, right? Well, it seems that it does! Research shows that one of the many benefits of financial literacy is that it can also help you develop math skills — that can come in handy with budget creation, expense tracking, and more.
This can be helpful for teachers looking for ways to bring financial literacy education into other topics, such as mathematics, but also for students, who may fee like they’re killing two birds with one stone as it relates to their studies.
Financial literacy, and math skills development
There isn’t a whole lot to it more than parents, students, and teachers should be aware of the evident link between financial literacy education and the development of math skills. Again, this can be helpful in numerous areas inside and outside of the classroom, and overall, contribute to a student’s long-term financial health, and student financial awareness.
Perhaps the thing to keep in the forefront of your mind is that discussing money in the classroom allows for some practical math applications. It’s relatively easy to substitute a financial figure in for almost any value in many math problems — although it may be a good idea to mix things up every once in a while.
But at the end of the day, the link between financial literacy and math skills is yet another win in the column for financial education and financial literacy curriculums.
In fact, many schools are hoping that financial literacy classes can help bolster students’ sagging math scores. Millions of students across the country struggle with math. But again, putting it in a practical and real-world sense, and one in which students have a financial stake, may help them better grasp the underlying concepts.
And to recap, the Money Vehicle financial literacy curriculum hits on several topics that are easily connected to math skills:
- Setting monthly and yearly Personal Finance Goals
- Quantifying how much their individual plan can put toward the future
- Setting up a Cash Management system
- Opening foundational bank accounts
- Starting credit history with a credit card
- Identifying a first investment through Index Funds
- Diagnosing ways to confirm coverage and lower your insurance costs
- Implement proactive ways to prevent cyber-attacks
- Synthesize the transaction from Gross to Net income and quantify Federal Income Tax liability
- Open a Roth IRA
As we’ve written before: By focusing on these core concepts and teaching areas, students who successfully complete the Money Vehicle course learn how to create a cash management system, the importance of paying their bills on time and in full, how to manage debt and loans, how and why they should be investing in their future, the ins and outs of critical concepts like the time value of money, how credit cards and credit scores work, and how to handle macroeconomic turbulence, such as recessions, stock market corrections, or periods of relatively high inflation.
Check out the Money Vehicle textbook — you can find it here on Amazon. And if youlike what you see, you can get more content sent directly to your inbox! Sign up for the Money Vehicle Movement Newsletter!
And check out our white paper: “Strategies for Increasing Financial Literacy Rates Among High School and College Students”
More from Money Vehicle:
