PEM Life - Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Homeschooling high school can feel overwhelming, but it does not need to be.  We recently had the opportunity to review Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition from PEM Life.  This is a great addition to any homeschool.  We have been able to check off electives, and help prepare the girls for a good financial future.
Most students are graduating and entering the world with no real understanding of how money works.  They do not realize the debt cycle that can ruin their financial life for many years.  PEM Life has created the Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition that allows students to study and learn the best path to being efficient and financially stable in their lives.

The Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition gives students the Personal Economic Model (PEM).  This illustration shows students how if they fill the wrong sections, it could put them at risk for their finances not working correctly.  But if they fill the correct areas, then the "motor" (which is how Caty explains it) will be running properly.  

There are 18 different units (or chapters) inside of this online course, that equals out to be more than 64 lessons.  Each unit is broken down into textbook reading (which is located inside of the course and in PDF format), video lessons, written assignments, and even quizzes over the material being learned.  Using Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition could easily be considered an Economics credit for students in high school.

Some of the many topics discussed include:

• Lifetime Capital Potential
• Lifestyle Regulator
• The Tax Filter
• Opportunity Cost
• Debt - What is it?  What is it not?
• Pay Cash or Finance
• Access to Capital
• Why Go to Work?

There is a good mixture of required reading and also video based lessons.  This makes it a great program for multiple learning styles. There is a large amount of online and interactive resources placed inside of your classroom area.  These are available to really help students see the impact certain decisions can make in your life, such as a mortgage calculator.  The longer the mortgage, the lesser the payment but the higher amount you pay for your house in the end.

This was something that I really did love about the Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition course.  All of the resources needed to complete the course are in one location.  We did not need to go searching for answers or resources and outside materials.  

We are working our way through the Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition in a slower rate.  The material is very thorough.  I would suggest that this course be tackled in Junior/Senior year of high school.  If you can, make sure to check in with your students to make sure they are truly understanding the topics that are being presented.  They are being explained in a great way, but as your student works their way through the Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition the open discussions that can be had are wonderful.  This is the time that you can really share your personal experiences with your students.  We all have made not so smart financial decisions.  While going through this program, we can openly speak with our students about these choices, and they can see not only from our own experiences but also from the written material what directions are best.  

I did find that some areas of the program were adaptable.  Lydia is considered a Freshman, and Caty is still in Middle school.  I wanted to go through this program with them.  We have been reading the material together.  But with the girls, I have not been requiring in-depth written assignments.  This is one way I am able to adapt to their individual learning struggles.  We can openly discuss the material being looked at, and the topics for the writing assignments.  If you do have a student who has struggles, you can break down the lessons and take your time.  We currently are working on Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition two days a week.  I work with them one day, and then assign them work for other days.  I really do like the material for even my own personal refreshers.  We can all use a swift kick of reminders on how to do things better than we are.  

The PEM Life mission is to provide individuals with firm financial concepts to build their lives and their families lives on a solid standing.  Their Personal Economic Model or PEM was developed to help people tackle those hard to understand financial topics, and make it easy to tackle in their own lives.  I think that they have done a wonderful job creating this program for students to tackle those topics about money that sometimes we as parents do not always have a firm grasp on.

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review Personal Finance Illustrated® Homeschool Edition from PEM Life.  Click on the link below to see how they used this program in their homes, and how they felt about the material presented.