Everyday Money Habits · Classroom packet

Giving & what you leave.

Money has a life beyond you in two directions: what you send out on purpose while you're here, and what you leave behind. Neither happens by default — skip the first and giving stays a leftover; skip the second and a court, or a form you forgot, decides for you. This packet walks a group through both in one sitting, drawing on the site's guides to giving and to estate planning: sort out who actually decides, find each person's next box, and everyone leaves with one move.

Classroom
Beginner
Parent

Name

Date

Audience: For a leader running a group on giving and estate basics
Time: About 30 minutes
Materials: No prep · no math background · a pen each

Objective

Lead a group through giving on a set rate and the estate basics everyone needs (beneficiary forms, a will, a guardian), and name one move each.

Use this when

You're running a class, small group, or kitchen-table session for adults and want a no-prep handout on giving intentionally and leaving things in order.

For the leader

Anyone can run this — a teacher, a small-group or mentorship leader, a parent at the kitchen table — for two people or a full room. No math background needed. Four beats:

Open with the question — don't name the idea yet; let the room argue it first, then reveal the sentence.
Sort the list: for each thing, what decides where it goes — your will, a form, or a default?
Everyone ticks the personal check; the first unchecked box is their next move.
Before you close, everyone names one move — set a rate, check a form, start a will — and a date.

A 30-minute pace

0–4 Open with the question; then name the idea.
4–14 Sort it — will, form, or default.
14–21 Find your spot — tick the personal check.
21–27 Talk it through.
27–30 One move each.

A line to open with

"A man remarries and updates his will to leave everything to his new wife. But his old 401(k) form still names his ex. When he dies, that form wins: the account pays the ex, and the up-to-date will doesn't get a say. Today we make sure that doesn't happen to us — and that our giving doesn't wait for a 'someday' that never comes."

A heads-up to expect

The surprise is the form column: retirement accounts and life insurance, usually most of the money, pay whoever's on the account form, and that form overrides the will. Keep giving concrete and personal to each person's own values; this is stewardship, leaving things in order for the people who depend on you, not a lesson about who anyone should give to.

The line this session won't cross

This is education, not legal advice. Wills and the other documents are governed by your state's law, and the signing rules differ from state to state. Use the session to know what to ask for; point people to a licensed attorney (or a reputable state-specific service) to make anything official.

1 · The whole idea, in one sentence

Before we name it

If you did nothing — no will, no beneficiary forms, no plan — who decides where your money goes when you are gone? Are you comfortable letting that default answer stand?

Money has a life beyond you in two directions: what you give on purpose, and what you leave — and neither happens by default.

Giving fails the same way leaving does: by being left to chance. Giving that waits for "whatever's left over" stays last in line, and last in line usually means never. And the savings you mean to leave behind can land on the wrong person because a form you forgot, not your will, has the final say. Both are fixed the same way: by deciding on purpose, in advance. The sort makes the stakes visible.

2 · Who actually decides?

Go down the list together. For each one, tick what really controls where it ends up: your will, a form on the account (a beneficiary form naming who gets it, or a transfer-on-death form), or a default that takes over when you've set nothing. A few can move columns depending on whether you act — that's the lesson.

Your 401(k) or IRA savingsWillFormDefault

This year’s giving to a cause, a place, or a family you care aboutWillFormDefault

A life insurance payoutWillFormDefault

Your homeWillFormDefault

Your bank and brokerage accountsWillFormDefault

Who raises your young children, if you’ve named a guardian in a willWillFormDefault

Your furniture and personal belongingsWillFormDefault

Everything you own, if you never write a will at allWillFormDefault

3 · Find your spot

Now make it personal. Tick what's already true for you. The first unchecked box, reading top to bottom, is your next move. Most of these are free and take an afternoon; none of them require being wealthy.

I’ve set a giving rate (a percentage of my income, not whatever’s left at month’s end) and automated the transfer.
On every account with a beneficiary form (401(k), IRA, HSA, and life insurance), I’ve checked who’s named and added a backup.
I have a will, and if I have children, it names a guardian to raise them.
I’ve added a transfer-on-death or payable-on-death form to my bank and brokerage accounts (a five-minute account-settings change), so they skip probate (the court process for settling an estate).
The names on all of those forms still match my life today: no ex-partner, the right people.
I’ve told the person who’ll settle my estate where to find the documents.
If I give and I hold investments that have grown, I give the tax-smart way (appreciated shares, or once I’m 70½, a direct transfer from a Traditional IRA) rather than cash from my take-home.

The last box is a "later, not never" — a way to give more per dollar once you have investments that have grown. The first six are the ones that matter for everyone, wealthy or not.

4 · Talk it through

Someone says, "I’ll give more once the debt’s gone." That usually becomes "once I have an emergency fund," then "once I’m saving for retirement," then never. What does setting a small rate now protect that waiting doesn’t?
A friend has a brand-new will leaving everything to their spouse — but an old 401(k) still names a parent as beneficiary. When they die, who gets that account, and why doesn’t the will fix it?
Which life events should send you back through both lists — your giving rate and every beneficiary form?
Of everything today (a giving rate, a beneficiary form, a will, a guardian, telling someone where it all lives), what’s the one box you’d check this week, and what’s stopping you from doing it today?

Optional · five more minutes

A case to argue

A friend's parent recently died and left them an investment account — stocks they didn't pick, some bonds, a little cash. The brokerage asked, "How would you like to receive the funds?" and their finger is hovering over "send me a check." "Should I just cash it out and be done with the paperwork?" they ask.

What would you tell this person?

5 · One move, this week

The outcome is a single line: my next move is X. Do that one thing this week — set a giving rate and automate the first transfer, pull up one account and check who's named on the beneficiary form, or start the will you've been meaning to. Most of these are a five-minute form or a free afternoon. Go around the group; each person names their move and a date.

My next move is

The one thing I'll doset a rate, check a form, start a will

The date I'll do it by

Answer key · for the leader

Keep this page back, or hand it out after the sort. The point isn't a perfect score — it's the two surprises: the form beats the will, and a "default" is quietly deciding both what you leave and whether you give at all.

Your will decides (Part 2)

Your home
Your furniture and personal belongings
Who raises your young children (its guardian clause is the only place you get to say)

The will covers what passes through your estate, your home and your belongings, and it's the only place you get to name who raises your children.

A form decides — not the will (Part 2)

Your 401(k) or IRA savings
A life insurance payout
Your bank and brokerage accounts (once you add a transfer-on-death form)

This is the surprise, and it's usually where most of the money is. Retirement accounts and life insurance pay whoever's named on the account form, and that form overrides whatever the will says. A perfect, up-to-date will and a stale 401(k) form sends your savings to the wrong person. Bank and brokerage accounts get the same treatment once you add a transfer-on-death form, a free five-minute change; otherwise they detour through probate.

A default decides — the two flavors (Part 2)

This year’s giving — set a rate, or it defaults to a leftover of zero
Everything you own, if you never write a will — your state’s order and a judge decide

Same disease, nothing set on purpose, with two different faces. Giving with no rate defaults to your own leftover of zero; the intent was never the problem, the order was. An estate with no will defaults to a court's rules and a judge, including who raises your kids. Both are fixed the same way: choose, and put it on paper.

The tax-smart giving box (Part 3, item 7)

A "worth knowing, not today's homework" note. Once someone has investments that have grown, they can give more per dollar by handing over the appreciated shares directly (skipping the tax on the gain), by bunching several years of giving through a donor-advised fund (a charitable account you fund now and grant from later), or, at 70½ and older, by sending money straight from a Traditional IRA. The first move for everyone, though, is just setting a rate; the tax tools come later. And the reason to give is never the tax break — treat that as a footnote.

A strong answer to the opening (Part 1)

Any answer that names the two directions and the default works — e.g. "I give on a set rate so it isn't a leftover, and I keep my forms and will current so a stale form or a court doesn't decide for me."

The optional case

A strong answer slows the call down to one question: what kind of account is it? The wrapper — a taxable brokerage account, a Traditional IRA, or a Roth — sets the tax bill and the deadline, and "send me a check" can turn an inherited retirement account into a taxed, can't-undo distribution before they knew they had a choice. Reassure first: inheriting isn't taxable income, and nothing has to happen this week. A taxable account carries a hidden gift — step-up basis, which erases the gain built up during the parent's life, so selling near the date of death is nearly free; the mistake is panic-selling at a low. An inherited IRA comes with a ten-year clock (Traditional withdrawals taxed, Roth tax-free). For a retirement account, the safe move is a custodian-to-custodian transfer into an inherited IRA — never a check. Drawn from the "I inherited a portfolio" Moment (M21) on the site.

Based on the giving and estate-planning guides.