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Before you begin

This is CFPB's public-domain survey for students in grades 3-5. Ask an educator or trusted adult for help reading a question if you need it.

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Saving for a game, deciding between two backpacks, keeping earned money safe, and planning a small sale are financial decisions children can meet before they have a bank account or regular income. At this age, financial capability is still developing through everyday choices, adult guidance, practice, and reflection.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) elementary survey, Map your money journey, is designed for students in grades 3–5. Twenty questions look across three building blocks that support later financial well-being:

Building blockWhat it coversItems
Planning and self-controlWaiting, considering tradeoffs, staying with a goal, and controlling an immediate impulse.8
Money habits and valuesSaving, tracking money, setting spending goals, resisting social pressure, and thinking about needs.7
Money knowledge and choicesComparing prices, keeping money safe, and putting steps in a sensible order.5

The survey combines frequency and importance questions with short choice situations. It is not a school exam. The result is meant to notice current strengths, identify something to practice, and help an educator or trusted adult choose useful learning activities. Reading support is appropriate when it helps a child understand the words without steering the answer.

A single result reflects one moment, the child's interpretation of each question, and the experiences available to them. It must not become a grade, ranking, diagnosis, discipline measure, eligibility rule, or prediction of future financial success. Differences in opportunity and family circumstances matter, even though the survey does not measure them directly.

How to Use This Tool:

Give the student enough privacy and time to answer honestly, with a trusted adult available for neutral reading help.

  1. Select Start assessment and let the student answer each of the 20 questions. Do not ask for a name, class, school, account number, or other identifying information.
  2. Read a question aloud when needed, but keep the original choices and avoid suggesting which one earns more points. For a question that genuinely feels unclear, use the available I don't know choice.
  3. Complete every item and use the review step to correct accidental answers. No result is calculated from a partial survey.
  4. Read the Overall money journey result, then compare the three building blocks. Choose one strength to recognize and one practical skill to practice rather than focusing only on the overall level.

Interpreting Results:

Each result uses one of CFPB's developmental labels: Starting out, On the road, or Well on your way. These labels show where the current response total falls on the official worksheet. They do not describe a child's worth or set a permanent level.

ResultStarting outOn the roadWell on your way
Overall money journey40–6061–8990–100
Planning and self-control16–2425–3738–40
Money habits and values14–2122–3233–35
Money knowledge and choices10–1516–2021–25

A stronger overall level can still contain one building block that needs more practice, and a lower overall level can contain a clear strength. The three part totals are therefore more useful for choosing a lesson than the overall number alone.

If the result does not seem to fit the student, review the actual answers and ask whether wording, reading difficulty, unfamiliar situations, or a rushed setting affected them. Repeat use is most meaningful when support and conditions stay similar and enough time has passed for new learning or practice.

Technical Details:

The official worksheet assigns every response an item-specific value from 2 to 5. Most frequency and importance items use 5, 4, 3, and 2 from the strongest endorsed behavior through I don't know. Choice situations are not a simple left-to-right scale: the response judged strongest by the official key receives 5, other substantive choices commonly receive 3, and I don't know receives 2.

Formula Core:

Each building-block total is the sum of its keyed item values. The overall result is the sum of the three building-block totals, with no weighting or rounding.

P=∑i=18pi,16≤P≤40 H=∑i=17hi,14≤H≤35 K=∑i=15ki,10≤K≤25 O=P+H+K,40≤O≤100

P is planning and self-control, H is money habits and values, K is money knowledge and choices, and O is the overall result.

Rule Core:

ResultStarting out ruleOn the road ruleWell on your way rule
OverallO ≤ 6060 < O ≤ 8989 < O ≤ 100
Planning and self-controlP ≤ 2424 < P ≤ 3737 < P ≤ 40
Money habits and valuesH ≤ 2121 < H ≤ 3232 < H ≤ 35
Money knowledge and choicesK ≤ 1515 < K ≤ 2020 < K ≤ 25

All 20 responses are required. The answer-review order changes only how responses are displayed; it does not change item membership, response values, sums, or result labels.

Worked Examples:

One question asks what should happen before buying a backpack. Counting all the money already saved receives the official value 5, while choosing a style or asking friends receives 3 and I don't know receives 2. That value joins the other four money-knowledge-and-choices items; it is not reported as a separate grade. A part total of 20 is On the road, while 21 crosses into Well on your way.

Privacy and Responsible Use:

Responses stay in the current browser tab and are not transmitted, stored, or added to a shareable link. Restarting clears them. Keep the session private and do not enter identifying information in place of a response or while saving any exported result.

Adults should discuss results in a growth-oriented way. Recognize effort and context, avoid comparison between students, and connect a lower part result to a suitable practice activity rather than a label or consequence.

References: