September 2025 Financial Literacy Curriculum

Objective: Improve practical financial skills in budgeting, credit, debt, saving, investing, and ongoing financial education for the remainder of September.

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Week 3: September 11–17 — Modern Budgeting & Saving

Goal: Create a personalized, realistic budget and automate savings.

Topics & Activities:

• Principles of “Conscious Spending” (Ramit Sethi).
• Set up automated savings transfers for multiple goals.
• Evaluate current spending habits and identify non-essential spending.

Assignments:

• Create a monthly budget spreadsheet.
• Set up 2 automatic transfers: 1 for emergency fund, 1 for short-term savings.

Resources:

• Book: I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
• Article: How to Save Money and Still Enjoy Life

Week 4: September 18–24 — Credit, Debt, and Smart Borrowing

Goal: Improve credit health, understand loans, and develop a debt repayment strategy.

Topics & Activities:

• Understanding credit scores and their impact on future loans.
• Debt repayment methods: snowball, avalanche, and hybrid strategies.
• How to negotiate lower interest rates and refinance debt.

Assignments:

• Pull a free credit report (annualcreditreport.com).
• Identify one debt to focus on paying down this week using an appropriate strategy.
• Set a monthly goal for reducing credit utilization below 30%.

Resources:

• Book: You’re So Money by Farnoosh Torabi
• CFPB tools: Credit Reports and Scores

Week 5: September 25–30 — Investing & Financial Growth

Goal: Begin investing and plan for long-term wealth building.

Topics & Activities:

• Basics of investing in 2025: index funds, ETFs, and robo-advisors.
• Importance of starting early and leveraging compounding.
• Understanding risk tolerance and diversification.

Assignments:

• Open a micro-investing account (e.g., M1 Finance or Betterment) and make your first contribution.
• Research a low-cost ETF or index fund and document its potential growth over 10 years.
• Set a personal finance goal for the next 3 months (saving or investing).

Resources:

• Book: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
• Audiobook: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
• Guide: Cleveland Fed Financial Literacy Curriculum

Optional Activities for September:

• Track all spending in a notebook or app for at least 10 days.
  • Print your bank statements and highlight essentials
  • Get rid of the non-essentials + save that money instead
• Set up recurring reminders for credit card payments and bill tracking.
  • Create a budget calendar
• Join a personal finance newsletter/podcast/blog (e.g., Ramit Sethi’s blog or Farnoosh Torabi’s podcast).

Share your ideas in the comments—what topics would you like to see in October’s Financial Literacy Curriculum? I’d love to hear from you!