When teaching Personal Finance, I am always excited to get to the “fun” stuff, like investing in stocks. But, before you can get to that point, you have to start with the basics. Like checking and savings accounts.

Some high school aged students are already familiar with bank accounts and their benefits. But, there a lot of people (high school students and adults alike) who avoid banks altogether – instead opting to pay fees to check cashing services every time they want to cash a check. Wal-Mart’s massive rollout of their in store “MoneyCenter” is a good example of the demand for non-traditional banking services.

This lesson guides students through the basics of checking and savings accounts through a PowerPoint discussion that includes the following topics:

• How Banks Work
  

  Sample Slide from Banking Basics PowerPoint

• Banks vs. Credit Unions
• Types of Services Offered by Banks
• Differences Between Savings Accounts, CDs, & Money Market Accounts
• FDIC Insurance
• Checking Accounts

I also include two small activities that get the students out of their seat.

• Bank Rate Comparison Activity: Students search the internet for a bank’s website. Then they find the APY for that bank’s various accounts and write the rates and the bank on the board. Class then compares the rates to determine which bank has the best rates.
• CNN Money Quiz: There’s a 10 question online quiz on CNN Money that goes along with this topic. I label four spots in the room (A, B, C, & D) then bring up the quiz on the projector. Then I read the questions off one by one and have the students move to the spot for the correct answer.

If you have time, and if your students need the practice, themint.org has a couple of good activities that could be incorporated into this lesson as well.

• Themint.org – Writing a check: Walks students through the process of writing a check
• Themint.org – Balancing a checkbook: Teaches students how to balance their checkbook

Lesson Resources
PowerPoint Discussion: Checking and Savings Account Basics
Website: CNN Money 101 – Basics of Banking and Saving Quiz
Website: Themint.org – Writing a check
Website: Themint.org – Balancing a checkbook

Related posts:

1. Personal Finance Lesson: Choosing a Bank
2. Personal Finance Lesson: Budgeting 101
3. Personal Finance Lesson: Miracle of Compounding