My Classroom Economy | Vanguard Canada

What is My Classroom Economy?

My Classroom Economy is a free, financial literacy program that brings financial concepts to life by allowing students at any grade level to experience the pride of earning a paycheck, the responsibility of renting a desk, and the freedom to choose whether to save or spend their extra income. As students gain money management skills, they also learn the importance of long-term planning, responsible budgeting, and delayed gratification.

The basics

A free, experiential, supplemental, and adaptive classroom management system that teaches students financial responsibility through real-world application (simulated microeconomy) while enabling teachers to reinforce positive behaviors and deter negative behaviors in their classrooms.

Experiential

Focuses on financial responsibility, not financial education
Allows students to practice behaviors related to financial responsibility
Students learn by doing (and sometimes by making mistakes)

Supplemental

Free and easy to set-up
Connects to Common Core Education Standards
Designed to overlay and complement, not interrupt your curriculum

Adaptive

Any teacher, any subject, any grade
Teachers can customize the program to meet their classroom's needs
Tailored to the learning ability of your students; program grows with them

A message from Vanguard's Americas managing director

Show transcript

Hello everyone. I'm Kathy Bock, Managing Director of Vanguard Canada, and I'm pleased to tell you about our My Classroom Economy program.

We started our program in 2011 to help students make informed and smart financial choices.

The idea from My Classroom Economy came from one of our employees or crew as we call them when they were asked by their child when will I be able to pay off my mortgage.

This curiosity stemmed from an in classroom economy created by their teacher where students had jobs, paid rent and experienced a micro economy in the class to understand financial basics.

At Vanguard, we are dedicated to helping investors and giving them the best chance for investment success.

This type of in classroom economy seems like a great way to teach money management and budgeting skills.

Our research has shown that adults who have better financial habits and money management skills lead healthier lives, are more financially secure, less stressed, and retire earlier.

So building this knowledge when you were young is no different from building healthy eating, exercise, and social habits.

We partnered with that first teacher and other educators to develop a comprehensive program to supplement classroom activities.

The program has now impacted over 1,000,000 students across North America.

To all educators, we thank you for your dedication to creating engaging learning environments.

Your efforts equip children with essential skills for their future.

Our team at Vanguard created this program to provide students with a hands on experience for money management and to enhance financial literacy.

Students take on jobs, earn salaries, and manage their expenses just like in the real world.

To those teachers who have already used our program, we are excited to have you as partners and look forward to continuing this journey together, making learning fun and impactful for your students.

Thank you again for all that you do to help young Canadians.

We appreciate your interest in the My Classroom Economy program.

Thank you.

My Classroom Economy demo

A digital version of My Classroom Economy is available for free for educators and students.

Learn more

Vanguard’s Mission for My Classroom Economy

To take a stand for all future investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

About Vanguard

There are two free ways to get started:

Sign up to create a digital classroom economy

Teachers can set-up a digital classroom in 15 minutes and customize for any grade and student jobs. Teachers have the option to provide students with access to their own personalized account to manage their classroom finances.

Download paper-based materials

Everything you need to build a classroom economy is available — for free.

View materials

Additional Resources

My Classroom Economy Facebook Group

Teachers have access to private Facebook group for ongoing troubleshooting, crowdsourcing and resourcing.

Join us on Facebook!

Crew Volunteer Blog

How Vanguard Demonstrates the Importance of Financial Literacy to Students

Read the blog

General Questions

If you have any questions, send us an email at myce_canada@vanguard.com

My Classroom Economy for Canadian Educators and Students