Pennsylvania Personal Finance Course Curriculum – PA Personal Finance High School Semester Class

Description

Pennsylvania Personal Finance Course Curriculum

My Pennsylvania Personal Finance Course is a complete, ready-to-use, high school personal finance curriculum designed specifically to meet the NEW PA Personal Finance Standards (22 Pa. Code Chapter 4, Appendix F, Effective July 1, 2026).

All activities, lessons, and projects are DIGITAL and attach easily to any learning management system as they are in Google Doc and Google Slide format. Most lessons convert easily to the Microsoft Office suite – some can be printed out.

If you already love my original Personal Finance course, this version follows the same structure, pacing, and format—but is now fully aligned to the new Pennsylvania Personal Finance standards, making it easy to confidently teach and document compliance. There are many overlapping lessons, activities, and projects, but I also had to create several new lessons and activities to meet specific Pennsylvania Personal Finance standards.

 

❤️ Why Pennsylvania Teachers Will Love my NEW Pennsylvania Personal Finance Course Curriculum

✔️ Fully-aligned to PA Personal Finance high school standards
✔️ NO PREP required — just download and teach!
✔️ A Complete full semester curriculum (no need to piece lessons together)
✔️ Same proven format as my best-selling Personal Finance course
✔️ Engaging, real-world, student-centered activities
✔️ Works with Google and Microsoft
✔️ Built for both new and experienced teachers

 

🎥 Here is a video preview of my PA Personal Finance semester course.

🎥 Here is a video on how to implement my Personal Finance courses to increase students’ engagement.

 

What’s Included in my Pennsylvania Personal Finance Course Curriculum❓

• A Lesson Library (See Preview) To Keep You Organized
• 85 Personal Finance Lessons w/ Teacher’s Keys
• 47 Video Suggestions To Introduce Lessons and Units
• Student Examples To Inspire Your Students
• Pacing Guides
• 22 PA Code – Chapter 4, Appendix F, Personal Finance Standards Cross-Walked
• Grading Rubrics (where applicable)

 

**All resource links are flattened, so students CANNOT copy and paste their answers. Students must use their critical thinking skills and build on their knowledge in order to complete the prompts.**

 

⭐SPECIAL BONUS: When buying this PA Personal Finance semester course, you receive an easy-to-follow LESSON LIBRARY to keep you organized! The lesson library is a valuable tool for the teacher that lists all Units in the recommended order of instruction, links to the lessons, video suggestions, teacher’s keys, and PA standards cross-walked!

 

Units and Lessons Include:

Career and Income:

• Can Money Buy Happiness?
• Steps in Financial Planning
• Wage Differences
• Work and Pay Reality Check
• Post Secondary Degrees discovery activity
• Sources of Income

Budgeting:

• Gen Z and spending – What do teens spend their money on?
• Creating a budget using percentages
• Creating a budget using the 50/20/30 rule
• Excel budget template analysis
• Holiday Budget Activity
• Guilty Pleasures – Reality Check activity
• Monthly Expenses
• Plan a Friend’s Road trip – Fun Budgeting Project file

Banking and Money Management Systems:

• Big Banks – Collaborative activity
• Banks vs. Credit Unions
• Types of Bank Accounts
• Writing a Check
• Practice writing a check – When do we even use checks anymore?
• Navigating Check Numbers
• Endorsing a Check
• Bank Charges
• Cash Apps
• Outstanding Checks
• Net Worth

Paychecks and Payroll Deductions:

• Five things a teen needs to know about a job
• Types of Income
• The W-2 Explained
• The W-4 Explained
• The 1040 Explained
• Federal, state, and local income taxes
• Types of Taxes
• Payroll Taxes and Deductions

Credit Scores and Maintaining a Good Credit Score:

• Credit Score Basics – FICO Discovery
• Most Common Credit Score Mistakes
• Credit Score Factors
• Monitoring your Credit
• Credit Card Basics
• Credit Card Advice of Teens

Student Loan Debt, Grants, and Paying for Schooling and Training:

• How to Pay for College
• How much will my college cost/reality check activity
• Tips to cut college costs and common mistakes made
• FASFA Forms

Buying a Car and Car Expenses:

• 10 Steps to Buying a Car
• Costs when Buying a Car
• Car Buying Activity
• Types of Auto Insurance

Housing: Renting, Leasing & Buying a Home:

• Home Buying Expenses
• Homeowners Insurance
• Steps in Buying a Home
• Home Buying Spreadsheet Activity
• Buying vs Renting
• Real Estate Reality Check Activity
• Home Buying Project

Types of Insurance:

• Insurance Introduction
• What is insurance and insurance components?
• Health Insurance Discovery File
• 4 Types of insurance that everyone needs – Life Insurance, Health Insurance, Long Term Disability Insurance, & Auto Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Insurance WebQuest

Loans and Credit Cards:

• Why People Borrow Money
• Types of Loans
• Teens and Credit Cards

Savings / Investments and Estate Planning:

• Saving Programs
• Saving as a Teen
• Risk and Return
• Saving vs Investing
• Investing 101
• Market Indexes
• Will and Power of Attorney
• Retirement Income
• Future ME at 63 Project (Retirement Savings)

Identity Theft:

• Understand how to prevent identity theft
• Know what to do if their identity is stolen
• Identify two important government agencies that help with identity theft issues and how to contact them
• Apply real-world strategies to safeguard personal information

Consumer Education:

• Taste Test Personal Finance LAB Activity
• Federal Agencies that protect consumers
• Consumer Protection Laws
• Navigating Meat Labels
• Understanding Store Shelf Labels
• How to read store shelf labels.
• Calculate serving costs (Applied Math)
• Calculate cost per unit (Applied Math)
• Consumer trends
• Cost comparison (Applied Math)
• Fundraiser Evaluation

Fun Activities:

Map Tax Facts

• Tax Facts Collaborative Activity and Bulletin Board
• Explore various types of taxes and how they vary by state

Event Food Budget

• Students plan a meal with a limited budget

Consumer Spending and Buying Habits – A great lesson to do around the Christmas Holiday Shopping season.

• What makes people spend money?
• Shopping Behaviors Explained
• Diderot Effect Explained
• Psychological Shopping
• Tips to Keep spending under control

The Cost of Coffee

• A consumer spending and applied math lessons and so much more!
• Calculate serving costs
• Calculate cost per unit
• Calculate cost of various convenience coffee products
• Consumer spending
• Consumer Trends
• Cost Comparison
• Factors that affect coffee prices and scarcity
• Cost of a daily latte at a popular coffee shop (Starbucks)

 

Bonus Digital Lesson: Financial Advice for Teens from Experts!

My FULL SEMESTER, PENNSYLVANIA PERSONAL FINANCE COURSE CURRICULUM, like all of my courses, includes Student-Led material. No PowerPoints needed as all of the information is included to allow the students to discover on their own and present to the class. Also, the Lesson Library includes Formative Assessment Templates that can be edited and customized for any lesson. There are no tests or quizzes included in this resource to allow for teacher autonomy on student assessment. Also, ready-made tests and quizzes can be bought and easily shared on the internet by students. I use the projects and activities within the bundle to evaluate and assess my students…which also saves me time grading tests. WIN! WIN!