Investing
Investing Worksheets and Lesson Plans for Teachers
Lesson plans, worksheets, and teacher resources for introducing stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and retirement basics. Grades 6–12 and adult education.
About This Section
This section brings together MoneyInstructor investing lesson plans, worksheets, and activities for teaching stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, risk and return, ROI, the Rule of 72, and retirement planning — for Grades 6–12 and adult education.
You’ll find free lesson plans, video lessons, and member-supported worksheets to help students understand how investing works and how saving grows over time.
Featured Interactive Tool · Grades 6–12
The MI Investing Simulator
A stock market simulator for students that is not a stock-picking contest. Each student opens a virtual investment account with $1,000 in practice money, builds a portfolio from index funds, individual stocks, bonds and cash, then manages it through five market years of contributions, dividends and fees.
- One class period — 25–40 minutes, no outside market data required
- Scored by an Investment Skills Score built on seven investing behaviors — diversification, staying calm in a downturn, fee awareness, avoiding concentration, rebalancing — and never on the biggest balance
- Every student faces the same market, so your debrief compares decisions rather than luck
- A teacher results dashboard shows the class summary and each student’s decisions
Featured Resources
Investing resources for the classroom
A selection of worksheets and lesson plans from the MoneyInstructor investing library — organized from foundational concepts to retirement and long-term planning.
Foundations of Investing
Rule of 72 Worksheet Generator
Make Rule of 72 practice — students divide 72 by a rate to estimate doubling time, find the rate a goal needs, and follow money through several doublings, with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Compound Interest Worksheet Generator
Make compound-interest worksheets — students apply FV = PV(1 + I)N to find the interest earned and the future value of an investment, with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Risk and Return Worksheet Generator
Make risk-and-return worksheets — students weigh a safe investment against a risky one, finding the gain or loss and total for each return (including losses), with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Return on Investment (ROI) Generator
Make return-on-investment worksheets — students find the gain or loss and the ROI percent for each investment, working with both gains and losses, with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Investing & Long-Term Growth — 5-Day Curriculum Unit
A complete teacher-ready week on how a dollar of pay actually becomes a share of something — which money can wait, where it goes, why money sitting in an investment account is not invested, and what leaves without you noticing. Free printable pacing guide.
Grades 9–12 + Adult · 5-Day Unit · Free Pacing GuideBeginner Investing Challenge
A one-class-period classroom simulation where students grow a pretend $500 over 10 years — picking a portfolio, riding a market drop, and learning why diversification and staying calm beat chasing hot stocks. A behavior-based Challenge Score, not a stock-picking game. Practice money only.
Grades 6–12MI Investing Simulator
Students open a virtual investment account, choose what to buy, and manage their own portfolio through five market years of contributions, dividends and fees. Scored on investing behavior, not the biggest balance.
Grades 6–12 & Adult · 25–40 min · Full Membership
MI Brokerage Simulator
Students open a practice brokerage account the way a real one opens — application, investor profile, disclosures — then fund it, place orders that preview before they confirm, collect dividends, and read a quarterly statement. Scored on behavior, never on the ending balance.
Grades 9–12 & Adult · A full class period · Full Membership
What Is the Stock Market?
A free lesson on what stocks are, how shares of ownership work, how prices move, and why diversified index funds are usually the better choice for most investors.
Grades 9–12
Return on Investment (ROI)
The standard percentage measure of investment gain or loss — formula, worked examples, and a customizable worksheet generator for Full Members.
Grades 7+Investing in Practice
Stock Market Simulation Teacher Packet
The printable record sheets for running the simulation — portfolio transaction form, weekly tracker, price graph, journal and final report. Free sample; full packet for members.
All grades · 10 sheets · Free sample
Stock Market Simulation
A free, adaptable lesson plan for running a multi-week classroom simulation — built around learning, not winning the largest portfolio.
All grades
Buying Bonds
An introduction to corporate bonds plus a customizable worksheet generator — kid-friendly version included.
Grades 3+Stock Market Deep Dive
Reading Stock Market Tables
Learn the seven standard columns of a stock listing — ticker, name, volume, hi, low, last, change — and how to use the data.
Grades 7–12
Buying Stocks
Stock shares as ownership in a company, plus a customizable worksheet for the price-times-shares math. Uses real recent stock prices.
Grades 3+
Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
The most common simple stock-valuation tool — formula, interpretation, growth stocks, and the limitation that P/E does not work for companies with no earnings.
Grades 7–12
Common Stock Valuation
The advanced lesson — three deeper methods for valuing stocks: present value of dividends, free cash flow, and growth opportunities (PVGO).
Grades 9–CollegeLong-Term Saving & Growth
Saving for Retirement
An introduction to why retirement savings matter, how compound growth works over time, and the importance of starting early.
Grades 9–Adult
What is Compound Interest?
How compound interest works — earning returns on returns — and why time in the market matters more than timing it.
Grades 9–Adult
Saving & Compound Interest
A print-and-do packet on saving without interest, simple vs. compound interest, the Rule of 72, and why starting to save early can beat saving more later.
Grades 6–12 · Printable · Free Sample / Full MemberInvestment Math — Printable Worksheets + Answer Keys
Reading a Stock Table Worksheet Generator
Make reading-a-stock-table worksheets — a stock table plus questions students answer by reading it (reads, differences, buy/sell gains, percent change), with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Stock Price Change Worksheet Generator
Make stock-price-change worksheets — students find the dollar change (new − old) and the percent change (gains and losses), with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio Worksheet Generator
Make P/E ratio worksheets — students divide the stock price by the earnings per share to find the price-to-earnings ratio, with clean answers and a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
How Many Shares? Worksheet Generator
Make “how many shares?” worksheets — students divide a budget by the price per share and round down to the most whole shares, with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Time Value of Money Worksheet Generator
Make time-value-of-money worksheets — students find a future value (add the interest) or a present value (divide by 1 + the rate), both directions, with a built-in answer key.
Full Members · Generator
Investment Options Lesson
Students learn to split money between two interest-bearing options to hit a target return — using I = prt and algebra — with a printable worksheet and answer key.
Grades 8–12 · Lesson + worksheet + answer key · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Risk and Return Lesson
An advanced lesson on the mathematics of investment risk — variance, covariance, diversification, and beta — with a worksheet and answer key.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worksheet + answer key · Free Lesson / Member WorksheetAdvanced Financial Math (College / AP)
Annuities and Perpetuities
Students learn annuities and perpetuities and calculate the future value of an annuity — an advanced financial-math lesson with worked examples.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Present Value
Students learn present value — the most important idea in finance — and use it to judge investments, with worked examples leading into NPV.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Net Present Value
Students build the net-present-value formula and use it to evaluate whether a project adds value — the core of capital budgeting, with worked examples.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Using NPV for Investment Decisions
A capstone that applies NPV to real capital-budgeting decisions — initial cost, incremental cash flow, depreciation tax benefits, and equivalent annual cost.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
NPV vs. Other Investment Models
Compare NPV with payback period and IRR for evaluating investments, with worked examples.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Modern Portfolio Theory
Markowitz’s model — expected return, risk, and how diversification builds an efficient portfolio.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked examples · Free Lesson / Member Worksheet
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
The bridge from portfolio theory to a single number — how beta and the market risk premium set a stock’s expected return, with two worked examples.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked example · Free Lesson
Standard Deviation: Measuring Investment Risk
Turn “this feels riskier” into a number — build the standard deviation formula step by step and compare two funds with equal returns but very different risk.
Grades 11–12 / College · Lesson + worked example · Free LessonGrade Level Guide
Investing resources by grade level
What investing is, why people invest, and how saving money can grow over time — introductory concepts with no assumed prior knowledge.
Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, risk vs. return, ROI calculations, and practical exposure to stock market concepts.
Retirement planning, 401(k) and IRA basics, and practical long-term investing for adult learners building financial security.
These resources are part of the full MoneyInstructor library
Members get unlimited access to worksheets, lesson plans, and teacher resources across every financial literacy topic — investing, budgeting, taxes, credit, banking, and more.
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Taxes
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Money Math
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Investing terms students meet first