9 Activities To Practice Math for Financial Literacy

Math and money go hand in hand. To earn, budget, and monitor your saving and spending, you have to understand basic mathematical concepts. This April, you can share activities that pair math with financial literacy to help high school students better understand how to manage their money. Choose from activities on topics like:

• Earning money
• Banking
• Budgeting and investing

[Earning money](id-earn)

Students can explore the responsibilities that come with earning money with the following activities:

1. Learn the ins and outs of a paycheck 

Students can better understand what happens when they earn a paycheck by watching videos, reading articles, and answering questions on topics like:

• The type of information that appears on a pay stub.
• How to fill out a W-4 form when starting a new job.
• What taxes and deductions come out of a paycheck.

2. Explore the U.S. tax system

Students can dig deeper into what taxes and paycheck deductions really are with an activity about the U.S. tax system. Students will learn:

• The differences among income, payroll, property, and sales taxes.
• How the government spends the tax money it collects.
• The differences among progressive, regressive, and proportional taxes.

3. Discover why it’s important to save money

Saving money can help us achieve long-term goals like home ownership, taking dream vacations, or earning post-secondary degrees. With this activity, students will learn the importance of saving money by:

• Analyzing the reasons why people save money.
• Identifying personal short- and long-term financial goals.
• Discussing how influences like family members, social media, and businesses can impact our personal savings decisions.

[Banking](id-bank)

Most people use banks to store and safeguard their money. Students can learn more about how the banking system and their accounts work with the following activities:

4. Discover how a checking account works

Checking accounts are one of the most common places that people store their money so they can spend it. With this activity, students can learn:

• The purpose and benefits of having a checking account.
• How to read a bank statement.
• How to put money into and get money out of your checking account.

5. Explore the convenience of online and mobile banking

Most banks offer mobile and online banking options to make checking your accounts and monitoring your spending easier. With this activity, students will learn: 

• How to set up online bill pay from mobile banking accounts.
• Differentiate among person-to-person apps, messenger-based payments, and digital wallets.
• Identify ways to protect their money when banking digitally.

6. Learn how to navigate your account with an account simulator

Show students how to navigate accounts in an online banking environment with an online account simulator. With this activity, students can:

• Learn how to find and interpret checking account information.
• Discover how a savings account works and differs from a checking account.
• See how to navigate online bill paying.

[Budgeting and investing](id-budget)

After earning money and learning how to use the banking system, students can focus on learning how to budget and invest their money with these activities:

7. Discover helpful budgeting tools

Budgeting is easier with the help of technology and tools. Students can discover the budgeting tools and supports available to them like:

• Budgeting apps.
• Writing equations to better customize tracking your budget.
• Creating a budgeting spreadsheet using those equations.

8. Learn how to budget your money

After students learn about budgeting tools, they can practice creating a personal budget. With this activity, students will learn:

• How to create a mathematical model for a budget.
• Write and graph linear equations you may use in budgeting.
• Calculate percentages that appear in a budget.

9. Explore the benefits of investing 

Investing can help generate additional revenue streams and savings opportunities. Students can learn more about the pros and cons of investing with this activity, specifically on topics like:

• Distinguishing investing from saving.
• Analyzing how compounding builds wealth over time.
• Discovering how to outpace inflation to build wealth.

Want more finance and math activities?

The Formative Library has a variety of free, pre-made activities developed by our curriculum experts and educators like you. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your instructional needs. Use the library’s sort filters to browse content by subject and grade level to find what you want.

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Create your own activity if you don’t see a template that matches your instructional needs! Log into your Formative account and choose how to customize your lesson or assessment. You can create new slides with various multimedia, including audio and video, import content from Google, or enhance a PDF or existing document.

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Don’t have a Formative account yet? Sign up for Formative for free today to start creating activities for Financial Literacy Month and beyond!