NGPF is celebrating Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 - Oct. 15) by highlighting Latinx/Hispanic leaders and educators via dedicated posts, Speaker Series’, and student activities on the NGPF blog.

This week, we’re highlighting the work of The Finance Twins, Camilo and Francisco Maldonado! Raised by a widowed mother in Minnesota, both twins got jobs at the age of 15 to help pay the family’s bills and taught themselves everything they know about finance! Their website is dedicated to focusing “on money matters and how to avoid making costly mistakes that can set you back. [They] also review many different finance companies and products so that you can see which services and companies are worth using.” You can learn more about them here!

Featured Resource and Activity Idea: The Finance Twins Instagram Account

The Finance Twins Instagram account caught our attention because it is filled with infographics and images that deliver powerful, concise personal finance messages that are easy to understand and fun! Take a look at some of them below! 

Please note that NGPF did not screen every single post in The Finance Twins Instagram feed to ensure they are all student-friendly. Please advise students accordingly.

Activity Ideas: 

Because the Instagram account covers such a wide variety of personal finance topics, we’ve come up with a few ideas you can use with your students! 

• Post Booklet or Slide Deck: Have students find their favorite post from The Finance Twins that has to do with each unit you’ve covered in your personal finance course. Or, have students simply pick their top 5 or 10 posts from the account. Students may pick the ones they find are funniest, or maybe it’s a reminder for something important they learned in that unit. Once students have chosen their posts, they can print them out to create a booklet or even copy/paste the images into a slide deck to create a personal collection of things they’ve learned! Have students include reflections on why they chose the posts they did. 

• Instagram Post: Have students create their own post that they think the Finance Twins would like to have published on their feed! The account features a wide range of post types including motivational quotes and messages, personal finance strategies, infographics, and more - students should choose one “type” of post to create. 

• Comprehension Questions: Ask students to select one post from The Finance Twins feed and write five accompanying questions for that post. These can be comprehension questions and/or discussion questions that extend the conversation the post started. Bonus: Collect students’ work and have a classwide discussion using some of the questions students generated. 

PS: NGPF will be featuring Latinx/Hispanic financial leaders and educators in many of our weekly Speaker Series and Virtual PDs this month! Sign up for the session, Personal Finance on Social Media: Highlighting Latinx Creators, that’s happening on October 11th at 1pm PT/4pm ET. 

Learn more here on how NGPF is celebrating Latinx/Hispanic Heritage month!

About the Author

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!