What we discovered when we went looking is that there is no textbook for a truly high-school-level Consumer Math/Financial Literacy course.
Maybe financial literacy courses help students make better decisions, but I don't know of evidence for or against this hypothesis. The research cited at
Are Financial Literacy Programs Effective?
http://studentlendinganalytics.type...ancial-literacy-programs-effective-.html is inconclusive.
I am surprised at how little bright college students (many that I know are pre-meds) know about financial markets. They don't know the difference between a stock and a bond, for example.
While efficacy is debatable,
ignorance surely isn't a good idea, I think we can all agree.
I also saw that anecdotally with many college students; they really had no idea how loan repayment schedules worked, how a lease worked on an apartment, what a 401K was, or how credit card interest was calculated.
Knowing may not prevent people from making poor decisions, certainly. But
not knowing virtually guarantees bad decisions, I think.
Personally, this is kind of a hobbyhorse of mine. I truly believe that kids at the lowest SES need the information the most, because they are least likely to be exposed to the information elsewhere.
Back onto the topic at hand; most of the basics of consumer mathematics and financial literacy require Algebra I skills. The only reason that my daughter's school offers this course is that the state requires three years of high school math, including and beyond Algebra I. Too many of them can't possibly pass Algebra II (which covers the
entire textbook, trig subjects included)-- ergo, "Consumer Math."
It's a nice idea, even if the course itself wasn't very good; thus our search for a supporting text. Most of what we found was either a college-level or so basic that my DD could have managed it in 3rd or 4th grade.
We tried:
AGS Consumer Math (about fourth grade level in our opinion, and BADLY dated in places), but it did cover household budgeting and consumer purchasing in ways that the college texts did not.
Garman and Forgue's "Personal Finance" -- this is the lowest-level college text I could find. Bearing in mind that my DD had already taken high school Econ, she found this text to be quite enjoyable. It addressed the kinds of things that I think Bostonian has in mind-- markets, different financial products, etc. It did
not address many of the more basic consumer mathematics ideas, however (renting vs. leasing vs. buying, price comparisons, calculating basic interest and compound interest, loan repayments, etc.).
Hopefully that helps someone else. It was quite frustrating to search for a text on this subject. I felt a bit like Goldilocks after a while.
