Student Resources

For the last several years, a committee of Money Smart Week® partners have sponsored competitions for students to see if they are "Money Smart." What's the secret to the winners' success? Take a look at some past questions and some winning essays and then set your mind to being the next winner!

In the future, a close friend gets into credit card debt and cannot make their payments. Your friend comes to you for advice. What are the potential solutions to this problem? In answering the question, make sure to address all of the following points.

1. What step(s) should your friend take first?
2. What needs to be done to resolve the problem?
3. What is/are the best way(s) to prevent the problem from happening again?

What is a career you think you may be interested in pursuing? What are the costs and benefits of this choice? How would you prepare financially and educationally now, in order to achieve your career goal(s) later?

The current U.S. economy is facing significant challenges. Please describe some of these challenges and briefly discuss some of the steps that your family and other families can take to meet these challenges.

Your dream is to attend college, however your family does not have enough money to pay for college along with all the other bills. Together, you and your family need to find ways to afford college. What are potential solutions to this problem? In answering the question, make sure to address all of the following points:

1. Why would you want to attend college?

2. What are some of the ways you and your family could pay for college?

3. Which way or ways do you think are best and why?

What is the most important lesson that people should learn from the recent “credit crunch” and the decline of the housing market? In answering the question, make sure to address all of the following points:

1. Explain the current situation.
2. How will this impact the community?
3. How will this affect consumers, business and the community in the future?

Your family faces a financial emergency - flooding has ruined your refrigerator and it needs to be replaced. Your insurance will not cover the cost of a new one, so your family needs to find ways to adjust other spending.

1. What changes in the family's spending would you recommend to help replace the refrigerator...and why?
2. How does a budget help a family prepare for a situation like this?
3. What action might you take to assist your family in this crisis?

To read some of the winning essays, take a look to the right.