Thanks to Andrea Stemper of Palmer High School in Colorado Springs for the great conversation that we had recently. I got to know Andrea last summer at the inaugural NGPF Summer Institute. I was impressed by her passion and creativity as she shared lots of great activity ideas that she developed for her students. In fact, we turned one of those ideas into an activity “Let’s Make A Mutual Fund” for our new Teach Investing in Two Hours lesson (see Resource #7 for the activity). In this podcast, you will hear Andrea’s process for developing new projects, how she has advocated for financial education in her community and the message she would like for her all of her students to walk away with after taking her course. Enjoy!

• 0:00~1:15 – Introduction
• 1:15~3:32 – Where Andrea teaches
• 3:32~15:20 – Background prior to her move into the classroom
• 15:20~17:12 – How she decided what to teach
• 17:12~23:03 – Process to create new projects
• 23:03~25:52 – Advocating for personal finance education
• 25:52~26:10 – A word from our sponsor, Next Gen Personal Finance
• 26:10~28:25 – What are administrators concerned about when it comes to financial education?
• 28:25~31:53 – Engaging administrators and parents
• 31:53~33:40 – The holy grail: How do we translate knowledge into behavior?
• 33:40~35:26 – How to make more money
• 35:26~36:04 – Favorite book
• 36:04~36:52 – Favorite resource
• 36:52~39:25 – Right age for a credit card
• 39:25~42:58 – Right amount of student debt
• 42:58~45:02 – Weekly text
• 45:02~47:55 – Student insight
• 47:55~48:33 – Conclusion

• Why Didn’t They Teach Me This in School?
• Insurance game 

• “Every time you do something think about the value of your opportunity cost. What could you be doing right now to increase your human capital?”
• “I don’t want my students to feel guilty about spending money.”

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

More posts by Tim