After leaving high school, 88% of U.S. adults were left feeling unprepared to manage finances, according to Ramsey Solutions. Statistics such as this drove Indiana lawmakers to change the high school diploma requirements to include a class to teach students the skills that will help them better prepare for the real world.

Carmel has offered a personal finance class for quite some time, but only recently has it become a diploma requirement in order for students to graduate. At Carmel, starting with the Class of 2029, all students must complete this course rooted in preparing them for the real world with skills like managing their spending habits, making big purchases and paying their taxes. 

Sophomore Holden Fingerhut currently takes the Personal Financial Responsibility class. He said was very interested to see how he could apply the course to his day-to-day life. 

Fingerhut said, “We learned a lot of stuff about taxes. We learn about investing, and saving and how I can plan for my future financially.”

Freshman Arya Shah, who took the class in seventh grade, reiterated the learning targets. “(The class) taught us about a bunch of financial skills and things that you need to know, like interest,” she said.

Indiana code 20-30-5-19 states that Indiana schools have to integrate personal financial literacy into the high school curriculum as a part of the diploma. It requires one semester of the course to fulfill its math requirements, and students like Shah can take it in middle school as well, to count for their high school diploma.

Statements from Fingerhut and Shah connect to the studies conducted by Ramsey Solutions sourced above, “U.S. adults who took a personal finance class are five times more likely to say they graduated from high school fully prepared for handling money in the real world.”

Daniel Brunette currently teaches the personal finance class. He said the skills learned in the class will impact these students in life after high school.

“A lot of adults in the United States have these (financial) problems, and they don’t have any training or any awareness of what to do,” he said. “And then they rely on somebody else. I think it’s important for them to have some kind of confidence and awareness.”

Brunette said he hopes the class will give its students a sense of financial freedom. Instead of depending on someone else to help make financial decisions, he said, by learning the skills in this class students will be much more independent after leaving the safety net of their parents’ home.

According to Brunette, adding this class to the high school curriculum can also help students improve their spending and saving habits now, not just in the future. A lot of students are beginning to get jobs and earn more money than they’ve ever had before, but aren’t incorporating spending habits that will help them in the long run.

Brunette said, “A lot of students are casually going to Starbucks or casually going to Chipotle and making those decisions. If they didn’t, they could invest that money or they could save it.”

Brunette said in the personal finance class students are not only being taught about how saving or investing money is a better idea, but also how to actually invest that money in a way that will benefit them later in their lives.

According to the study by Ramsey Solutions report, “Eighty percent of adults said they would’ve had a better start with money if they’d learned more about personal finance in high school,” the report stated.

All in all, Brunette said he believes that the decision to make the personal financial class, a required one is a great idea by the state.

“So many of those (financial decisions) are things that you’re going to deal with, once you turn 18, maybe some of them 21, maybe not till 25 or 30,” he said, “But you’re going to face these things in life, so I think it’s really important. I think it’s a great decision by the state to make sure everyone takes this class.”