Curriculum · Renting & Major Purchases Unit
Renting & Major Purchases — A 5-Day Personal Finance Unit
A teacher-ready 5-day unit on the two commitments that empty a young adult’s account first — a place to live and a car to get to work. Students survey the housing options open to them, read a lease before signing it, add up the cash it takes to move in, total what the place really costs every month, and then point the same questions at a major purchase of their own.
Works well for personal finance, life skills, consumer math, CTE, senior seminar, and adult education programs.
5-Day Unit Overview
A complete week on what a place to live and a car really cost
Day 1 surveys the housing options a student will actually choose between. Day 2 reads the contract that decides what a tenant pays. Days 3 and 4 are the heart of the unit — the cash it takes to get in, then the cost of staying in. Day 5 asks the same questions about something that is not a home, which is how you find out whether the idea transferred.
The unit has one idea, and Day 5 tests whether it stuck: the price is the smallest number you will pay.
Everything you live in or own has three numbers — the price on the sign, the cash it takes to get in, and the cost of keeping it. An apartment advertised at $860 a month takes $2,150 in cash to walk into and costs $1,075 a month to stay in. A $7,200 car costs $3,600 a year to keep on the road — half its price, every year — two years of keeping it costs exactly what the car did. Same three questions, different object.
Day 1
Where you’ll live: rent, buy, or something else
Students compare living with family, sharing a rental, renting alone, and buying — on monthly cost, cash needed up front, length of commitment, and what they would now be responsible for fixing.
Day 2
Read the lease before you sign
A lease is the rare document where not reading it is the expensive choice. Students find the term, the late fee, the deposit terms, who pays which utilities, the notice period, and the renewal clause.
Day 3
The cost to get in: move-in money
First month, deposit, application fee, utility deposits, moving. On an $860 apartment that is $2,150 in cash — two and a half months’ rent — before a key changes hands.
Day 4
The cost to stay in: rent plus the bills
Electricity, gas, water, internet and renters insurance turn $860 into $1,075 a month — a quarter more than the sign, and $2,580 a year that never appeared in the advertisement.
Day 5
Major purchases: the car that costs more than its price
The same three questions, pointed at a car — then at a major purchase each student chooses. Insurance, fuel, maintenance and registration cost half the car’s price again, every year.
What Students Take Away
Outcomes for the 5-day unit
- Name the housing options realistically open to them and compare those options on cost, commitment, and responsibility.
- Explain why a refundable security deposit is still money you must have in hand.
- Locate the term, late fee, deposit terms, utility responsibility, and notice period in a rental agreement.
- List every cost that falls due before a tenant holds a key, and total it.
- Express a move-in total as a multiple of one month’s rent — and work out how long it would take to save.
- Total a month’s real housing cost including bills and renters insurance, and mark each line fixed or variable.
- State the yearly housing cost that never appeared in the advertisement.
- Apply the same three questions — price, cash to get in, cost to keep — to a major purchase that is not housing.
Free Download
A printable PDF teachers can use today
The free pacing guide lays out all five days — objectives, the linked lesson for each day, the classroom activity, a teacher note, and an exit ticket. Days 3, 4 and 5 each carry a ready-to-use figure box, so the worked example is in your hand rather than something you have to invent. Every resource it points to is already live on MoneyInstructor.
It also carries the teaching notes that make the week work: how to introduce the up-front-versus-monthly split on Day 1 without repeating it later, why the clean fractions are deliberate and should be named as examples, and what to say when a student asks about the loan payment.
4 pages · no login required · free to print and share with your department. A free pre-quiz and vocabulary sheet come with it, and the full teacher kit — teacher guide, student packet, post-quiz, unit project, final assessment, editable slides, Teacher Reference and the complete-kit ZIP — is included with Full Membership — see everything in the unit.
Day 2 · Featured Lesson
Read a Lease / Rental Agreement
A lease is usually the first legally binding contract a young adult signs, and it is signed in a hurry, standing at a counter, with somebody waiting. It decides far more than the rent: what the deposit can be deducted for, what happens if rent lands two days late, which utilities are the tenant’s, whether guests or pets are allowed, how much notice ending it requires, and what the renewal does automatically.
Students work a labeled anatomy page first, then hunt specific terms down in the agreement, then find the clauses that would quietly cost a tenant money. It sets up the rest of the week directly: everything they find in the lease is a cost, and Days 3 and 4 add those costs up.
A free sample is available with a free Money Instructor account, so you can preview it and use it in class, and the complete printable pack — full color and low-ink — comes with Full Membership.
What the lesson includes
A labeled anatomy of a rental agreement, a plain-language glossary of the clauses that matter, a Find It in the Lease scavenger page, a Spot the Problem page built on clauses that cost real money, and a teacher answer key — in both full-color and low-ink printing.
Resources Used
Every resource is already live on MoneyInstructor
This unit sequences lessons that already exist on the site rather than asking you to buy anything new. Every lesson listed below is free to read in full — objectives, teaching procedure, and discussion prompts — and the 5-day pacing guide, the pre-quiz and the vocabulary sheet are free downloads with no account required. The pacing guide carries the worked figures for Days 3, 4 and 5, so you can teach the week from free resources alone; the printable student packet, teacher guide, post-quiz, unit project, final assessment, editable slide deck and Teacher Reference come with Full Membership.
The ready-to-hand-out printable worksheet or worksheet generator on each of those lesson pages is a Full Membership resource, as are the complete lease and utility-bill packs. Their free samples need a free Money Instructor account. The table below says which is which for every resource.
| Day | Resource | Lesson / printable |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Housing Alternatives | Free to read Printable: Membership |
| Day 1 | Buying a House (optional stretch) | Free to read Printable: Membership |
| Day 2 | Read a Lease / Rental Agreement | Free sample: free account Full pack: Membership |
| Day 3 | Renting an Apartment | Free to read Generator: Membership |
| Day 3 | Renting an Apartment Worksheet Generator (optional extra practice) | Full Membership |
| Day 3 | First Apartment Budget (member deep-dive) | Free sample: free account Full pack: Membership |
| Day 4 | Read a Utility Bill | Free sample: free account Full pack: Membership |
| Day 4 | Paying Bills | Free to read Generator: Membership |
| Day 4 | Fixed and Variable Expenses | Free to read Generator: Membership |
| Day 4 | What Is Renters Insurance? (optional) | Free to read Printable: Membership |
| Day 5 | Buying a Car — Loan Introduction (the financing side; a pointer, not part of the day) | Free to read Generator: Membership |
| Day 5 | Car Insurance Worksheet Generator (optional extra practice) | Full Membership |
What This Unit Does Not Cover
Four things this unit deliberately leaves to other lessons
Housing and big purchases touch nearly every money topic at once. This unit stays narrow on purpose, so it does not half-teach material that is taught properly elsewhere on the site.
- Loans and interest. The unit assumes the car is paid for and the apartment has no mortgage. What borrowing costs — payments, interest, the loan-term trap — is the Credit & Borrowing unit and the Buying a Car lesson.
- Income and affordability. This unit adds costs up; it never divides them by a paycheck. Gross versus net pay is the Budgeting & First Paycheck unit, and the First Apartment Budget workbook runs the affordability check against take-home pay.
- How insurance works. Renters insurance and car insurance appear as cost lines only. Coverage types, premiums and deductibles are the renters insurance lesson and the car insurance generator.
- Unit pricing and comparison shopping. “Major purchases” here means one big commitment priced properly, not two small items compared. Price per unit is Cost Comparison and Unit Pricing.
What’s in the Full Unit
Every asset that comes with the Renting & Major Purchases Unit
The pacing guide, pre-quiz, and vocabulary sheet are free to any teacher, with no account required. The teacher and student materials are included with MoneyInstructor Full Membership.
| Asset | Access |
|---|---|
| 5-day pacing guide PDF — 4 pages, with the worked figures for Days 3, 4 and 5 | Free |
| Pre-quiz — 10 questions, diagnostic, about 15 minutes | Free |
| Vocabulary sheet — 21 terms, using the shared course wording | Free |
| Teacher Guide PDF — daily plans, discussion prompts, misconceptions, math notes, differentiation, and the four scope boundaries | Full Membership |
| Student Packet PDF — ready-to-print worksheets for Days 1–5, plus end-of-unit reflection and self-assessment | Full Membership |
| Post-quiz — 15 questions, 30 points, including a 6-point transfer question | Full Membership |
| Teacher Reference — every answer, the Unit Project’s six-dimension rubric and the full Final Assessment key, plus grading guidance for the quizzes and the packet | Full Membership |
| Unit Project PDF — “Three Numbers”, 9 pages: an applied project that prices a place to live on all three numbers, then transfers the same three questions to a major purchase | Full Membership |
| Final Assessment PDF — 4 pages, 27 questions, 100 points, cumulative across all five days | Full Membership |
| Editable slide deck — 9 slides, 16:9, opens in PowerPoint and imports into Google Slides | Full Membership |
| Complete Kit ZIP — every file above in one download | Full Membership |
Free downloads
No account needed. Print them, share them with your department, and teach the week from them.
Full Membership downloads
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Start teaching the unit this week
Download the free pacing guide — no account needed — and teach Day 1 tomorrow. Every lesson it links to is free to read; the printable worksheets and the full lease and utility-bill packs come with Full Membership.
Download Free Pacing Guide Learn About Membership →More Curriculum
Continue building your personal finance instruction
This unit prices what living costs. Budgeting & First Paycheck shows what is left after deductions to pay for it. Saving & Emergency Funds is where the move-in cash actually comes from. Careers & Paying for Education answers where the income starts. Credit & Borrowing prices the borrowing this unit deliberately only names. Banking & Checking covers the account all of it runs through.
Unit
Budgeting & First Paycheck
Needs versus wants, fixed and variable expenses, reading a pay stub, gross versus net pay, and the 50/30/20 rule. Grades 9–12.
View the Budgeting Unit →Unit
Saving & Emergency Funds
Why saving is hard, simple and compound interest, sizing an emergency fund, and choosing where to keep money. Grades 7–12.
View the Saving Unit →Unit
Careers & Paying for Education
Career paths and what they require, getting hired, comparing job offers on total compensation, and reading a financial aid award letter. Grades 9–12 and adult ed.
View the Careers Unit →Unit
Credit & Borrowing
Credit cards versus debit cards, credit scores, APR and interest, the minimum payment trap, and reading a statement. Grades 9–12.
View the Credit Unit →