Phase 1 · Financial Foundations
Week 1: Your Money Story and Mindset
Help participants understand how experiences, values, emotions, and habits influence everyday money decisions. Participants distinguish needs, wants, and responsibilities, and create one specific financial-learning goal.
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Audience
- Ages 16–26
- Phase
- Financial Foundations
- Format
- Facilitator-led, discussion-based, judgment-free, and activity-centered
Learning objectives
By the end of the session, participants should be able to:
- Identify at least two influences on financial decisions.
- Explain the difference between needs, wants, and financial responsibilities.
- Describe how habits and emotions may influence spending decisions.
- Write one specific and manageable personal financial-learning goal.
Session plan
Open any part of the session to review the full detail. Everything below is designed to run without collecting private financial information.
Overview90-minute agenda
- Welcome, expectations, and privacy boundaries10 minutes
- Connect: Money messages reflection10 minutes
- Learn: Money mindset, values, emotions, and habits15 minutes
- Practice: Needs, wants, and responsibilities sorting activity20 minutes
- Apply: Competing-priorities scenario15 minutes
- Act: Personal learning goal10 minutes
- Knowledge check and confidence reflection10 minutes
10 minutesWelcome, expectations, and privacy boundaries
“Welcome to the Ascend Money Confidence Program. This is a judgment-free learning environment. You will never be required to disclose your income, debt, account balances, family finances, or other private information. You may use fictional examples during every activity. The purpose of today’s session is to understand what influences money decisions and begin identifying the skills you want to strengthen.”
10 minutesConnect: Money Messages
Participants respond privately to one of these prompts:
- What is one message about money that people commonly hear while growing up?
- What emotion can influence a financial decision?
- What is one financial skill you would like to understand better?
Sharing remains optional, and written responses are not collected.
15 minutesLearn: Concepts to teach
- Money mindset
- Beliefs and attitudes that influence how a person thinks about money.
- Values
- Principles or priorities that guide decisions.
- Habit
- A repeated behavior that may occur with little conscious thought.
- Need
- Something essential for basic living, safety, or an important responsibility.
- Want
- Something desirable but not essential in the immediate situation.
- Financial responsibility
- A financial obligation or commitment that a person is expected to address.
Context matters. The same item may be a need for one person and a want for another.
20 minutesPractice: Needs, wants, and responsibilities sorting
Participants categorize each fictional scenario card and explain how context could change the classification.
- Groceries
- Concert ticket
- Transportation to work
- Streaming subscription
- Medication
- Required school materials
- Birthday gift
- Minimum loan payment
- Replacement work shoes
- Restaurant meal
Not every scenario has a single universally correct answer. Facilitators should invite reasoning rather than score responses.
15 minutesApply: Competing-priorities scenario
“Jordan has $120 available until the next payday. Jordan needs transportation to work, promised to contribute toward a household bill, wants to attend a concert, and needs groceries.”
Participants are asked to:
- Identify the needs, wants, and responsibilities.
- Decide what Jordan should address first.
- Explain which values influenced the decision.
- Identify one possible trade-off.
10 minutesAct: Personal learning goal
Participants privately write one SMART-style learning goal using this sentence starter:
“During this program, I want to improve my ability to ______ so that I can ______.”
10 minutesKnowledge check and confidence reflection
Five knowledge-check questions
- Which statement best describes a money mindset?
- Which factor can influence a financial decision?
- What is the clearest difference between a need and a want?
- Which example is a financial responsibility?
- Which goal is most specific and manageable?
Feedback is immediate and encouraging. Only completion and score are stored where appropriate, and the answer key stays inside the protected staff and facilitator area.
Confidence reflection
“How confident are you in recognizing what influences your everyday money decisions?”
- 1. Not yet confident
- 2. Slightly confident
- 3. Somewhat confident
- 4. Confident
- 5. Very confident
Before Week 2Take-home action
Track financial choices for seven days, using fictional amounts if preferred. For each choice, record:
- What was selected
- Need, want, or responsibility
- What influenced the decision
- One emotion connected to the decision
- Whether the participant would make the same choice again
MaterialsSession materials
- Participant worksheetIn development
- Facilitator guideIn development
- Needs, wants, and responsibilities scenario cardsIn development
These items are not yet available for download. Files will be published here once they are approved.
Financial-education disclaimer
Ascend Youth Initiative provides general financial education only. Nothing in this session is individualized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and no financial products, providers, or investments are recommended. Participants are never asked to share income, debt, account balances, account credentials, or family financial details. Read the full disclaimer.