Building Wealth
IN THE CLASSROOM
Federal reserve Bank oF dallas
economic education
www.dallasfed.org
UNIT 1: BUDGET TO SAVE
2
TABLE Of CONTENTS
Unit 1: Budget to Save
Lesson 1.1 What Does It Mean To Be Wealthy?
5
This lesson introduces the personal balance sheet and uses the balance sheet to measure wealth. It
requires one 50-minute period of instruction.
Lesson 1.2 Developing a Budget
16
This lesson emphasizes the link between personal and financial goals. After a goal-setting exercise,
students develop a budget that allows for increased saving to achieve various goals. The budget is de-
veloped using information collected during two weeks of expenditure tracking. It requires two weeks of
data collection by students and one to two 50-minute periods of classroom instruction.
3
Preface
This collection of lesson plans is designed to facilitate the use of Building Wealth in the high school
classroom. The lessons use a variety of instructional techniques and include student handouts as well
as presentation visuals to be used by the teacher.
These lessons are built around the idea that teenagers are active participants in the economy. These stu-
dents make decisions every day about earning, spending and saving. Rather than looking toward some
future reality, these lessons encourage the student to learn and use sound financial practices today.
Building Wealth was developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to offer basic guidance on wealth-
creating strategies for individuals and families. It contains information about budgeting, saving and
investing, controlling debt, and protecting wealth with insurance. Building Wealth has been used in a
wide variety of settings, including basic financial education classes for high school students as well as
adults, reaching a diverse audience of more than one million people.
In addition to the print edition, an interactive CD-ROM that animates features from the book is avail-
able. The CD-ROM features an introduction by Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Board o