Grades 6–8Ages 11–14 · Unit 3.5 · Saving and the Time Factor
Emergency fund first: a free worksheet for grades 6–8.
Investing earns more than a savings account, so why would anyone save first? That is the question this page is built around, and it has a real answer. Students total their own essential costs, size three versions of a fund, and then argue the case.
No account. No email. Nothing collected about your child.
What is on the page
- Five essential monthly costs to list and total
- A starter goal, a three-month goal and a six-month goal
- A written question on why this comes before investing
- An answer page with a worked example and the argument
What it teaches
- Telling an essential cost from one you could stop
- Sizing a fund against real monthly spending
- Why avoiding high-interest debt beats earning a return
How to run it
Watch for subscriptions and eating out in the essentials list. Anything a student could cut in a bad month was never an essential, and spotting that is half the exercise.
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Where it comes from
Unit 3.5 · Saving and the Time Factor of a 266-lesson curriculum.
This sheet is one activity, unchanged, from Financial Foundations™. Teachers can run a free five-week pilot with one class. Families can take the Family Edition home.