Aug. 2, 2025Updated Aug. 6, 2025, 4:37 p.m. ET
You might think you know a lot about credit and banking, taxes and insurance. Four teenagers from Scripps Ranch High School probably know more.
A four-student team from the San Diego school won the 2025 National Personal Finance Challenge, a financial literacy contest that ended in June in Atlanta.
If you feel like testing your own financial literacy, take our 10-question quiz, below. It’s an abbreviated version of the contest’s final round.
But first, take a minute to read about how the San Diego students won.
The event, which started with nearly 18,000 students, is part of a national campaign to encourage personal finance study in school. It seems to be working: 38 states now require personal finance for graduation, up from 23 states in 2022.
“This is a real discipline with a real set of things you need to know,” said Christopher Caltabiano, chief program officer at the Council for Economic Education, which runs the contest. “This is stuff you use every single day of your life.”
What is ‘negative equity’? These students knew
For the Scripps Ranch students, the trip to Atlanta ended in high drama. They won the contest by a single point, edging out a talented team from Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Scripps Ranch would have lost by a point. The team persuaded contest judges to change their minds on two quiz questions it had missed.
One question asked for the term for a home or car loan whose balance exceeds what the asset is worth. The team’s answer was “negative equity,” which is correct. But the judges were looking for “upside down,” which is a colloquial term for negative equity.
“So, initially, they didn’t give it to us,” said Robert Schumann, 17, who is a rising Scripps Ranch senior this fall. “From what we’ve seen, nobody has ever won a challenge, so we were stressing out a little bit that we got it incorrect.”
The second challenge came on this question: What is the first thing you should do if you think you’re the victim of a scam? Freeze your assets, the Scripps Ranch team replied. The correct answer: Call your bank.
“We said it’s kind of inferred that you’d call your bank,” whose first move would be to freeze your assets, Schumann said. The judges ultimately agreed.
They learned financial literacy from YouTube and AI
Scripps Ranch High sits in California, one of the states that now requires personal finance education. But the mandate doesn’t take effect until 2027.
“These students really self-learned and self-taught themselves,” said Ian Rasmuson, a Scripps Ranch teacher who coached the winning team. Rasmuson himself teaches history.
Students revived the school’s idle entrepreneurship club last year, hoping to invite guest speakers to talk about business and finance.
“We kind of just wanted to teach people about these topics,” said Ryan Langsam Williams, 17, a rising senior who joined the team. “What I had in mind was to do competitions like these, and to have everyone in the club involved.”
He found the National Personal Finance Challenge online. To prepare, the team reviewed coursework on the Council for Economic Education website, studied past contests, watched YouTube videos and used artificial intelligence to generate practice quizzes.
“We don’t have a personal finance class at our school,” Schumann said.
Take a 10-question quiz from the Personal Finance Challenge
Here are 10 questions from the final round of the 2025 National Personal Finance Challenge. You’ll find the answers below.
“I think you should feel pretty darn good about yourself if you get seven out of 10,” Caltabiano said.
- What is the term given to the amount in an account that is separate from any earnings or interest that has accrued?
- What is the name given to a digital credential that allows users to sign in to apps and websites without using a password?
- Insurance companies evaluate risk for the purpose of issuing insurance coverage. This process is called what?
- A system where people earn money by providing services or goods on demand, usually through digital platforms, is called what kind of economy?
- What credit card transaction requires you to pay interest every day, including the first day of the transaction, until it is repaid in full?
- On your way to work, you get caught in a hailstorm that damages your car. What type of car insurance covers the damage?
- Steven contributes pretax dollars to an account managed by his employer for his health care expenses. If he does not spend all of his money by the end of the year, he will forfeit it. What kind of plan does he have?
- Fred does not believe in banks and keeps his money in a sock buried in the backyard, under a new concrete patio. He faces little risk of having the money stolen, but his sock money is subject to what kind of risk?
- You buy bonds from a corporation and notice that the company can buy the outstanding bonds from you before the maturity date. What is this feature called?
- What is the name given to a stock that pays a higher-than-average dividend?
The answers: 1) Principal. 2) Passkey. 3) Underwriting. 4) Gig. 5) A cash advance. 6) Comprehensive. 7) A Flexible Spending Account. 8) Inflation risk. 9) A call feature. 10) Income stock.
