Personal Finance

Financial literacy, the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage one's financial resources effectively for lifetime financial security, has rapidly evolved into one of the American public’s most relevant issues.
Financial, educational, and governmental entities across the country have joined a growing coalition asserting that all young people graduating from high schools should be able to take individual responsibility for their personal economic wellbeing. There have been calls across the country to mandate personal financial literacy courses as a requirement of high school graduation. Fully embracing this concept, Cardin requires all graduating seniors to pass a Personal Finance course.

Meeting once a week for the entire school year, Personal Finance introduces students to the critical concepts and vocabulary of financial literacy consistent with the National Academic Standards in Personal Finance Education. These Standards are grouped into six major categories:

Financial Responsibility and Decision Making
Income and Careers
Planning and Money Management
Credit and Debt
Risk Management and Insurance
Saving and Investing

Students learn how to create a financial plan based on their personal goals; how budgets help track spending; what happens to the money withheld from a paycheck; how to use credit responsibly; the relationship between investment risk and reward; how to utilize the concept of “time value of money” to help fund their future; and many other valuable lessons of money management. Current event discussions underscore practical applications of classroom learning.

Cardin is dedicated to providing our students with the tools necessary to manage their current and future finances so that they will lead secure and productive lives as members of the American and Jewish communities.