Money Management and Financial Planning for Your Child – Resources
College Planning Financial Resources
Funding Your Education
With clear, well-sourced information about every major source of student aid, this article is a great starting point for anyone seeking a quick description of the many methods available to pay for college. Most of the hyperlinks connect to internal pages, but they eventually direct the reader to pools of federally-provided information, which allows for easy research on the wide breadth of student loan topics.
Huffington Post – Easy Steps to Getting the FAFSA Done
A great starting point for the college financial aid process, this brief article provides a basic description of the FAFSA form and helpful tips for completing it quickly and easily. Parsed out instructions simplify the financial aid program, and there are even some handy tips to prevent would-be FAFSA applicants from stepping in potholes during the application process.
Cash Course
Cash Course offers a unique interactive tool to help students build useful financial management skills. While it offers services to staff, faculty, and people not affiliated with institutions of higher education, the bulk of its resources are directed towards students. Users must register for an account, but their services remain free for everyone.
Practical Money Skills – Start College Loan Search Early
This Practical Money Skills article lays out in plain English the basic financial aid process, and details in brief many of the options available to students and families who foresee applying for aid. While not the most in-depth resource available on financial aid resources, this article is a great starting point – it tells you what all is out there, and points you in the right direction to learn more.
O.M.G. Official Money Guide for Students
A book on personal finance, written specifically for college students.
General Money Management Resources
Mapping Your Future – Manage Your Money
Mapping Your Future provides a comprehensive summary of general money management skills written in plain language to help clarify complex monetary policy. It goes over every basic financial management skill, like managing bank accounts, budgeting, using credit cards responsibly, and managing student loan debt.
Oklahoma Money Matters
While it may be bundled under the website’s High School section, the financial management tips provided here are widely applicable. The sidebar links to detailed basic skills like tracking spending, budgeting systems, and saving for the future, all of which are useful for people of any age. Oklahoma Money Matters’ website also features a “College Students” section that tailors this financial management information to a college context.
Money as You Grow
Run through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the “Money as You Grow” program provides information to parents and guardians to help them teach their children effective financial management skills. The website provides useful activities, talking points, and supplemental resources for parents and guardians to use with their children, and also offers useful financial management tips for older Americans as well. Every article is extremely well sourced, which makes “Money as You Grow” a virtual one-stop-shop for valuable financial management information.
Money Milestones for Kids: An Age-by-Age Guide
It doesn’t get much clearer than this well-organized guide designed to help parents teach their kids good money management skills. By detailing lessons for kids to learn certain ages and providing activities designed to cement these lessons through experiential learning, this article does a good job guiding parents through the basics of teaching financial skills to their children. Some substance is sacrificed for the sake of clarity, it seems, as the article is sparsely sourced, and many of the activities seem to have been developed by the author (no credit is given to anyone else, at least).
Practical Money Skills – Lessons for Grades 9-12
Practical Money Skills offers a complete crash-course curriculum for high school students to learn general financial responsibility skills. Instead of being tailored for college, these lesson plans focus on more general skills like credit and budgeting, all of which is available in both activity form (designed for students) and lesson guide form (designed for educators). The entire curriculum is free, and includes a glossary of useful key terms at the end for reference.