Summary
Supporting a college student's financial success starts with meaningful conversations and practical guidance. Parents practice budgeting decisions through a simulation, explore strategies for talking with their student about money, and identify resources to help their student manage expenses. Participants leave with concrete tools for setting financial expectations with their student and supporting long-term financial well-being.
Essential Question
How can I support my college student with financial literacy?
Learning Objective
Identify practical strategies to support your student’s financial literacy development.
Snapshot
Engage
Parents participate in a Question Formulation Technique activity, generating and prioritizing questions about college student finances based on visual prompts.
Explore
Parents play MYOB: Mind Your Own Budget to experience financial decision-making from a student perspective and reflect on budgeting challenges using the S-I-T strategy.
Explain
Parents watch a video framed as a conversation-starter for talking with their student about budgeting, discuss how to set shared expectations around financial support, and complete a CUS and Discuss activity to identify what they and their student already know, don't know, and can work on together.
Extend
Parents use the Note Catcher to explore college student discounts and cost-saving resources they can share with their student.
Evaluate
Parents revisit the questions they generated during the Engage phase and collaboratively discuss answers, reflecting on their new understanding of supporting their student's financial literacy.
Materials List
Note Catcher (attached; one copy per participant)
Helping Build Smart Financial Habits (attached; one copy per participant)
Computers (robust enough to play MYOB)
Pens or pencils
Stickies
Preparation
30 Minute(s)
Make sure participants have access to a computer to be able to play Mind Your Own Budget (MYOB).
Each participant must have access to a K20 Games account.
Print attachments for each participant.
Engage
20 Minute(s)
Use the attached session slides to facilitate this presentation. Introduce yourself and display the Title, Essential Question, and Learning Objective on slides 2-4.
Move to slide 5 and introduce the Question Formulation Technique. Explain that parents will see several pictures on the next slide which should inspire questions that they should write down. If you like, pass out the Note Catcher handout now and have parents write on the back of the page. Parents will have five minutes to brainstorm and write down their questions. Display slide 6 and start the timer on the page.
Ask parents to identify briefly and mark their top three questions. Discuss their questions as a group and ask them to keep these questions in mind during the session to ensure that they are answered.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 7. Show participants how to log in to and play the K20 online game MYOB: Mind Your Own Budget. Explain the goal to save $1,000 in three months’ time. Allow participants time to play the game while you monitor their progress; they should need about 20 minutes.
After an appropriate time has elapsed, show slide 8 and explain the S-I-T strategy. Pass out stickies so that parents can write their responses. As a group, discuss the issues that are either the most pressing or of greatest interest.
Explain
15 Minute(s)
Introduce the video “How to Budget in College (in Four Easy Steps)” on slide 9 as a conversation starter that parents can use with their student. For instance, “If you're not sure how to begin talking about money with your student, this video offers one example. Feel free to adapt the language to fit your family." Encourage families to watch the video together before college to build a shared understanding of concepts like zero-based budgeting and giving every dollar a job. Play the video, stopping at 4:27 to omit the Ramsey Solutions app promotion.
After the video, discuss the "$50 your mom gives you" example to help families talk about expectations for financial support and the value of agreeing on those expectations before college.
Move to slide 10 and pass out the Helping Build Smart Financial Habits handout. Explain the CUS and Discuss strategy to participants: circle what the student doesn't know, underline what the student does know, and star those things that both parent and student can do. Allow time for silent reading. Then, have parents work in small groups to talk with each other about what they do and don’t do. After a few minutes of discussion, reconvene the whole group for a brief share out.
Extend
10 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 11, explaining that sometimes expenses may seem overwhelming. Indicate that college students do have access to discounts that, while not income, is a strategy to keep so much money flowing out the door. Pass out the Note Catcher if you haven’t already and invite parents to explore some of the information and websites on their handout.
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 12. Invite participants to review the questions they wrote down in the Question Formulation Technique strategy. Optionally, unhide slide 13 and set the timer. Have them revisit their top three questions and discuss in small groups or conduct a whole-group discussion where participants collaboratively answer the questions.
Research Rationale
First generation students have lower financial literacy knowledge than their peers. Because of this, they tend to make less informed decisions when it comes to paying for college. They use financial aid, grants, loans (federal and private), credit cards, and jobs (Rehr et al., 2022). Very rarely do they ask their parents to help pay for their college (Rehr et al., 2022; Noh, 2022). Students learn financial literacy from their parents, and for first-generation students, those interactions and conversations rarely occur (Noh, 2022). Increasing their financial literacy can increase positive financial decision making in both students and their families.
Resources
EveryDollar. (2025). How to budget in college (four easy steps) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnBkc-CfaHU
K20 Center. (n.d.). CUS and discuss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/162
K20 Center. (2021, September 21). Five-Minute timer. YouTube. https://k20.ou.edu/5min
K20 Center. (n.d.). Game-Based learning. Strategies. https://games.k20center.ou.edu/login
K20 Center. (n.d.). MYOB: Mind your own budget. Game. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/game/739?rev=30214
K20 Center. (n.d.). Question formulation technique. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/5188
Noh, M. (2022). Effect of parental financial teaching on college students’ financial attitude and behavior: The mediating role of self-esteem. Journal of Business Research, 143, 298-304. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296322000649
Rehr, T. I., et al. (2022). Financial wellness of first-generation college students. College Student Affairs Journal, 40(1), 90-105 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1336579.pdf