What Should You Say In Class? 3 Key Elements And A Real-Life Example

The inspiration for TalkingInClass.org came from my own personal experience speaking to my son’s 5th grade class.

I didn’t do anything special for my talk. There weren’t any PowerPoint slides or fancy visuals. I didn’t write and memorize a script. I just wrote down a few points of what I wanted to say and gave a little thought as to the order in which I should say it.

You can find sample templates and a real-life example to help you craft your talk in the TalkingInClass.org Starter Kit. It also has ideas for what to talk about and how to reach out to teachers for those who want to get involved but don’t know where to begin. Click on the link to download it.

Meanwhile, here a look at how I set up my chat. It broke down into three basic pieces:

  • A brief introduction (Who I am and what I’m going to talk about)
  • Some real-life, relatable examples of what I’m talking about (What it is, why it matters and so on. Personal anecdotes are extremely effective here.)
  • A simple takeaway of what you’d like them to remember from the conversation.

That’s it. Use those three pillars to frame your conversation and it’ll be great.

Below is the exact outline I used to frame my talk with the class:


  1. Intro
    1. My job is to help people make smart decisions about how they use their money… and specifically credit cards. I talk on TV, I talk to newspaper reporters, I talk to website writers
    2. I know y’all have been studying debit cards and credit cards. Who can tell me the difference?
      1. That’s the difference between debit and credit: With debit and checking accounts, you’re taking real money from an account that you have; with credit, the bank is saying “Here’s the extra money that you can spend. But if you don’t pay it all back every single month, we’re going to make you pay extra.”
    3. Anecdote about my son and me at Target and how it turned into a teachable moment
  2. Real-life relatable examples
    1. Say you want to buy an Xbox; they’re about $250
      1. If you buy it with a credit card and only pay the least amount that you have to each month, it’ll take you about a year and $30-35 in interest
    2. Let’s make it an iPhone; the iPhone 7 is $650
      1. If you buy it with a credit card and only pay the least amount that you have to each month, it’ll take you about 3 years and more than $200 in interest
  3. Here’s the whole key: Spend less money than you have
    1. Sounds simple, right? It’s not. I had to learn it the hard way, and so have millions and millions of Americans.
    2. A credit card lets you spend more money than you have, but you don’t have to use it that way. (Save your money, buy something with the card and then pay it off with the saved cash.)
    3. And a debit card lets you spend all the money that you have. Say you have $250 in your checking account and you REALLLLLY want that Xbox. You can still buy it. You just won’t have any money left over to buy food, which is kind of a big deal.
  1. Less than you have means less than your net income – not your gross income
    1. What’s the difference between gross and net income?
    2. Super-important because if you don’t know the difference, you can end up spending way too much
    3. Millions of adults make that mistake every day; I talk about it all the time
  2. Any questions?

It is pretty simple, but it was more than enough to fill the time and to generate questions from the class. The kids actually had far more questions than I expected, and it was amazing.

If you need help building your own outline, I’d love to help. Fill out the form below and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible.