Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! We can't thank you enough for the powerful role you play in equipping students with knowledge that benefits their families, their communities, and their futures. Today, we celebrate you by sharing eight inspiring anecdotes from the NGPF teacher network that show how the personal finance lessons you teach make a lasting difference.

For every one of these anecdotes, there are thousands more that go unsaid. Know your lessons are valued.

One student went home after our budgeting lesson and helped her mom create a weekly meal plan and grocery budget. They ended up cutting their grocery bill by almost $100 that month.

Her mom later emailed me to thank me and said it opened the door to more money talks at home.

Sami Jo Culbertson

One of my students shared that after learning about the dangers of high-interest loans in our class, he helped his mother avoid taking out a payday loan. Instead, they worked together to create a budget and find other ways to cover expenses without falling into a debt trap. 

Shawn Brigham

One student told me, “I was able to read my W-2 and understand what it says because we learned about it in class!”

Melissa Gordon

Last year, I received emails from five former students who had just graduated from college. They each thanked me for helping prepare them for the real world. They also asked if I could send them the NGPF CREATE: A Salary-Based Budget assignment so they could use it to set up their real world budgets.

Theresa Miller

One of my former students, who currently works at Google, came in to speak to my students last semester about the importance of personal finance education and how my class inspired him to start saving and investing at an early age. This enabled him to finance two masters degrees to further his career and get a mortgage on an apartment in NYC all before the age of 32!

Hiro Shinohara

A student had various [college] options and considered going to an institution out of state until we looked at all the costs they would incur. After looking at everything, the student decided to go to an in-state institution using the Tennessee Hope and Tennessee Promise Scholarship and didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket, saving the student and the family thousands of dollars.

Dr. Wally Luckeydoo

The past students that I hear from have been so thankful that they took my class. Some have said they were better prepared for college budgeting; others have made better choices in buying their first car; while others have even made their first house purchase after thinking (prior to my class) that was something they would never be able to do.

Mary Miller

Shady Sam is the most popular interactive with my students. They tell me they pass on their learnings to family members so that, in turn, they can save money by paying more than the required monthly minimum payment that they owe on any bill.

Cindy Schultz  

About the Author

Hannah Rael

As NGPF's Marketing Communications Manager, Hannah (she/her) helps spread the word about NGPF's mission to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.