LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – The ability to manage finances is a lifelong skill.

All Michigan high school freshmen are now getting a much-needed crash course in personal finance. Getting that knowledge early could lead to financial success later in life.

“It’s probably one of the most valuable classes any student can take in high school. I love teaching other classes, but this class is, I think probably really useful for life right off the bat,” said Lothar Konietzko who teaches personal finance at Waverly High School.

Konietzko says requiring Michigan students to take a personal finance course readies them to enter the real world, aware of how to manage their money and avoid debt.

“Get kids to be able to step out into the real world without hopefully making the financial mistakes that previous generations have made with their money management or mismanagement decisions,” said Konietzko.

Laura Lutterbeck, CFO for Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes says the organization spent the past year working with policymakers and educators to make the requirement possible. Helping schools build a program based on its needs.

“We often will partner with teachers who are providing what they might term as practical math, in some schools we partner with business teachers, career readiness teachers, it just depends on where that best fit is,” said Lutterbeck.

Dan Shanahan, bank manager with Eaton Community Bank has volunteered for several schools in Mid-Michigan. He says students learn the basics of what they need to know to handle their money.

“Budgeting and how to save and kind of pay yourself first. What is credit, how do you get a credit score, how do you earn credit, how do you make some mistakes that can cause bad credit,” said Shanahan.

Requiring a personal finance course helps all students build a foundation that leads to financial stability that lasts a lifetime.

Beginning this school year, all incoming freshmen will be required to take a semester-long course on personal finance for credit to walk the stage and receive their high school diploma.

Junior Achievement is always looking for additional volunteers to work in the schools to teach personal finance courses to students.

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No two roads to financial literacy are the same. Some learn lessons in school, some from parents, others through trial and error.

In this episode of “Financial Freestyle,” host Ross Mac is joined by Brandon Copeland, a former NFL player turned professor, author, and entrepreneur. Copeland, a 10-year NFL veteran, shares the motivation behind his financial literacy journey. “As I went into the league, it was all about startup capital,” explains Copeland. “It was all about how to take this opportunity to make some money and how to flip it.”

Copeland recounts his early experience with day trading, which he began during the early years of his NFL career. Armed with knowledge from his internship at UBS, he dives into the lessons learned, including a costly Nike-options trade that faltered due to geopolitical tensions in Greece. “I learned a tough lesson there, which was one don’t get greedy,” said Copeland. “I need to learn how to better understand leverage and de-risk some of my trades… I need to find things to invest in that I control.” That lesson ultimately led him to real estate investing.

Today, Copeland and his wife, Taylor Copeland, are the founders of BTC Investments, which is a real estate investment portfolio holding $203 million.

“Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac” on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth.

This post was written by John Tejada.

The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is an index of 500 companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges. It’s a prestigious achievement for any company to be admitted into the index, and only the highest-quality names make the cut.

Selection is at the discretion of the Index Committee, but companies must be profitable, and they also need a market capitalization of at least $18 billion. That figure rises over time, because the S&P 500 is weighted by market cap, which means the largest companies in the index have a greater influence over its performance than the smallest.

As a result, technology has become the largest sector in the index with a weighting of 31.4%. It includes trillion-dollar giants Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia.

Meet the S&P 500 Growth index

The S&P 500 Growth index holds around 231 of the best-performing stocks in the regular S&P 500, and excludes the rest. It selects those stocks based on factors like their momentum and the sales growth of the underlying companies.

Therefore, it’s no surprise the tech sector has a whopping 50.2% weighting in the Growth index. Nvidia, for example, grew its revenue by 262% year over year during its most recent quarter, and its stock has soared 200% over the past 12 months alone.

But here’s the best part. The Growth index rebalances every quarter, which means it removes stocks that no longer meet its criteria for inclusion and replaces them with more suitable candidates. As a result, this index has typically outperformed the regular S&P 500 over the long term.

The Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF tracks the S&P 500 Growth index

The Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VOOG) is designed to track the performance of the S&P 500 Growth index by holding the same stocks and maintaining similar weightings.

The below table shows the top five holdings in the Vanguard ETF, and how their weightings compare to the regular S&P 500:

Data source: Vanguard. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of July 31, 2024, and are subject to change.

The Vanguard ETF delivered a return of 36.5% over the past year, comfortably outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 30.2%:

There were two factors at play:

1. The five stocks in the above table have delivered an average return of 76.7% over the past year, and since they have a much higher weighting in the Vanguard ETF relative to the S&P 500, that contributed to the outperformance of the ETF.

2. As I mentioned earlier, the Growth index (and by extension, the Vanguard ETF), only holds the top-performing stocks from the S&P 500 and excludes the laggards, which also contributed to the higher return in the ETF.

Story continues

The Vanguard ETF can outperform the S&P 500 over the long term

The Vanguard ETF has delivered a compound annual return of 15.9% since it was established in 2010, beating the average annual gain of 13.7% in the S&P 500 over the same period. While that 2.2 percentage point difference each year doesn’t sound like much, it makes a big impact in dollar terms thanks to the effects of compounding:

Calculations by author.

If technologies like cloud computing, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence continue to drive the tech sector forward, the largest holdings in the Vanguard ETF are likely to remain constant in the coming years. In that scenario, I predict the ETF will continue outperforming the S&P 500.

However, even if there is a shift in market leadership, the Growth index will rebalance as necessary. Therefore, if the Vanguard ETF does suffer a period of underperformance relative to the S&P 500, I think it’s likely to be very short-lived.

Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard Admiral Funds – Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF right now?

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Prediction: This Unstoppable Vanguard ETF Will Keep Beating the S&P 500 Over the Long Term was originally published by The Motley Fool