Review
“Live like no one else so later you can live…like no one else.”
Those familiar with Dave Ramsey know that he is a popular financial guru that has given the envelope system and the debt snowball a makeover, transforming them from yawn-inducing kill-joys into popular, almost-hip methods of financial management. While we may not have millions in investments, how many of us desire to manage our money more wisely but lack the know-how and the courage? How many want to break the cycle of bad habits and instill bedrock principles for future generations?
Whether your student wants to be a grocery-store owner or rocket scientist, think about how life-changing it would be to have a solid financial foundation! When your high school student completes Foundations in Personal Finance: Homeschool Edition he will understand how to relate to money, stay out of debt, “tell his money what to do instead of wondering where it went”, buy cars with cash, be investment-savvy, know how to negotiate and hunt for bargains, and have a firm grasp of how mortgages work. He won’t have to be one of the 70% that live paycheck to paycheck because he’ll have a plan; all this before he graduates from high school!
In Foundations in Personal Finance: Homeschool Edition, Dave has a straight-forward, pull-no-punches, practical but entertaining delivery. He keeps you glued as he marvelously unravels the mysteries of money with clear, funny, and relevant illustrations and visuals. His daughter Rachel joins in to add a fresh, young element to the lessons. They pepper the lessons with clips aimed at the student with interviews, how-tos (such as balancing your checkbook), and definitions of difficult concepts. This DVD course has 12 chapters broken up into 10-15-minute sections. If your student wants to get credit, Foundations meets national and state requirements for accreditation. However, I highly recommend that ALL high schoolers (and parents for that matter!) sit through this teaching as it is invaluable!
There is plenty to appeal to the younger student but there are a few jokes and examples that are geared for a more mature and married audience (nothing vulgar). Although buying furniture or a house, owning a business, marriage, joint taxes and saving for your child’s college fund will eventually come, as a high school course, it would be so much better if Dave were speaking to a young, unmarried crowd with fewer ‘stupid’ references.
You can watch the chapters of Foundations in Personal Finance in any order, but it would’ve made more sense to walk through the basics instead of jumping into stocks, investments, and annuities in the second chapter. It is like taking baby steps and then training for an Olympic marathon! FYI, the sessions are the same as the recorded Financial Peace University ones but in a different order. This edition comes with a CD-ROM that has lesson plans, suggested activities, case studies, and tests to promote further discussion and study. As a homeschool parent, I would prefer a printed copy with a full-text workbook with answers. However, you’re able to print out any of the dozens of handouts for all your kids: blank cash flow, debt snowball worksheet, charts etc. Activities are sometimes geared for groups but easily adaptable to the single student and well worth reviewing.
The content in Foundations in Personal Finance: Homeschool Edition is incredible and worth serious consideration – with a few of those changes, this curriculum just might be perfect.
About the Reviewer
Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeove,r and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 4.5 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
From the publisher website: The Lampo Group, Inc. is providing biblically based, common-sense education and empowerment which gives HOPE to everyone from the financially secure to the financially distressed.
I am currently teaching this to a group of 15 high schoolers in our local homeschool co-op. We meet once a week for 2 hours to watch the videos and do a couple of activities and then I send them home with work or the test.
Overall, I feel the content of the curriculum is excellent. The students really enjoy Dave’s videos which are entertaining and very informative. I can see the light bulbs turning on in their heads. I think the worksheets are really well done too- there is a Teacher’s DVD which includes at least 4 worksheets for each chapter to emphasize learning. The book has plenty of ‘sound bytes’ of info in that style that appeals to teens, and is loaded with extra info, plus ALL the forms Dave mentions. I have encouraged my students to discuss everything with their parents from getting credit reports to budgeting to insurance issues and opening checking accounts for students.
My two issues with this program are not really the fault of the curriculum, but the organization of the material. I agreed with the reviewer that the layout of chapters is not ideal. I have gone back and forth in the book because the first three chapters are a bit tedious and contain BIG ideas which are completely new to students. They seemed to need a break after chapter 2 (investing) so I chose to jump around in the book and intersperse the heavy-subject chapters with the lighter, more socially and culturally interesting (to teens) chapters.
The second issue is that I found it challenging to complete this subject in a 1/2 year (this qualifies as a .5 credit hour in TN). Our co-op meets once a week and I had two hours for my class. While I initially intended to complete one chapter per week, I realized that we needed to have discussion time and go over some of the math and the larger concepts in more detail. Plus, the videos segments range from a minimum of 45 minutes (for all the segments in one chapter) to almost 90 minutes. With only two hours, we couldn’t complete one chapter per week. I wanted these students to really understand these concepts as this may be the most valuable class they will take in high school.
I think the program would work well if your group met 2x week, and obviously public school students could do this class in a semester by watching a video section per day, but it just didn’t translate as well for the once-per-week homeschool style of co-op. Had we done this independently at home, we’d have no problem, but you don’t get the fun classroom discussion and feedback which makes it more enjoyable a subject.
Abbey, thank you SO MUCH for your input! I haven’t used it in a co-op setting and so this is very helpful. If a co-op spread out the chapters and they had the liberty to do that, it would work better. I know that there were local classes that were able to use it and it worked out. I do think that the arrangement of the chapters were odd as it didn’t jive with the baby steps. I LOVED the content though!
We really appreciated Ramsey’s FPU class when we took it two years ago. I’m surprised that the sessions don’t follow the order of baby steps. That helped solidify the process mentally. I can say that I would have LOVED to get this in depth financial teaching in high school, or even college. As Ramsey would say, I am a “free spirit” but his style of teaching helped even me understand investments and budgeting better!!
My husband and I did the Financial Peace University and then ordered the homeschool program for our daughter. She LOVED it and feels empowered after taking the course. She impressed the socks off of her grandparents when she was able to talk to them intelligently about a cd they were setting up for her along with a trust! She loved Dave’s humor and she actually GOT the information.
We were so impressed with the program that we didnt sell after we finished like we do most of our home school items. We are keeping it for future reference when we have financal questions.
I told my daughter that she can’t get married until she and her fiancee’ both retake this course. That is how important I think it is!!!
That’s totally what I want my kids to do too! You can’t graduate from our homeschool unless you take this course! LOL
My husband and I took his FPU class a couple of years ago and loved it. I’m so happy he has a homeschool study. I can’t wait for mine to be old enough to take it.