Competitions · Business and economics · NPFC
NPFC, the National Personal Finance Challenge.
The final hands your team a fictional family and two hours. Work out what they should do with their money, then defend it to a panel. It is the most practical finance competition here - and it is only open to students at US schools.
Read this first
You compete for a US state.
NPFC is built state by state, and that determines who can enter. Check this before anything else.
You must be enrolled in the state you represent
Students must currently attend a high school, or be homeschooled, in the state they are competing for. A student outside the United States has no state to represent.
And a teacher has to register you
Every team must be sponsored by a teacher or adult sponsor from its school, and the teacher registers the team. There is no individual entry route.
One champion per state
Each participating state selects a single champion team to send to the national final. The state round is the real competition.
Teams may cross schools
Students from different schools may team up, and high school students may enter in more than one year.
At a glance
What the challenge is.
NPFC is run by the Council for Economic Education, the same organisation behind the National Economics Challenge. It tests what a young adult actually needs to know about money rather than economic theory, and drew close to 20,000 high school students before the pandemic.
- Organiser
- The Council for Economic Education (CEE)
- Who can enter
- Students at a high school, or homeschooled, in the US state they represent. The published material also refers to a middle school division - confirm which applies
- Team
- Three to four students, registered by a teacher or adult sponsor
- The six topics
- Earning income, spending, saving, investing, managing credit, and managing risk
- State round
- An online test - 35 minutes, 30 rapid-fire multiple-choice questions, 10 marks each
- How the team score works
- The sum of the best three students’ scores, so a team of four drops its lowest
- Tiebreak
- The team that used less time on the online exam. If still level, the fourth student’s score and time decide it
- National final
- In person, usually in early June
- Final format
- A case study - a fictional family scenario, two hours to prepare, then a presentation to judges
- Presentation
- Up to 15 minutes, then 5 minutes of questions
- Where
- The published material gives two different venues - see the note below
The state round
Thirty questions, and your worst score is dropped.
The online test is short and fast, and its scoring rule changes how a team should be built.
Thirty-five minutes, thirty questions
Just over a minute each. Ten marks for each correct answer, sat individually online.
Only the top three count
A team of four has its lowest score discarded. That makes a fourth member pure insurance - there is no downside to adding one.
But time is the tiebreak
Level teams are separated by total time spent on the exam, so a student who finishes accurately and quickly is worth more than one who finishes accurately and slowly.
And the fourth member breaks a deeper tie
If time does not settle it, the fourth student’s score and time are used. So the fourth member does matter, just not in the main score.
The national final
A family, two hours, and two rounds of judges.
The final is a live case study, and its structure means the strongest teams present twice on the same day.
A fictional family scenario
Teams are given the situation and have two hours to build a plan for it. Everything is prepared on the day - there is nothing to bring in.
Fifteen minutes, then five
Up to fifteen minutes to present the plan, then five minutes of questions. Scored on personal finance content knowledge, teamwork, and presentation skills.
Four panels, four winners
Teams are split across four judging panels. Each panel ranks its own teams, and the top team from each panel goes through.
Then a second presentation
Those four teams present again to a completely new panel, which ranks them one to four to decide the national champion. The judges’ decision is final.
The awards
All four finalists are paid.
Prize money is awarded by the organiser to the four teams that reach the final round.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| First | $2,000 |
| Second | $1,000 |
| Third | $500 |
| Fourth | $250 |
On the venue: the published material places the national final at Voya’s headquarters in Atlanta and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in consecutive sentences. Both cannot be right, and the venue is announced each year - so treat any stated location as provisional.
NPFC and NEC
Same organiser, opposite subject.
The Council for Economic Education runs both, and they suit different students.
NEC is economics
Microeconomics, macroeconomics and international economics, sorted into divisions by the courses a student has already taken. It has a China region and a global stage.
NPFC is personal finance
Income, spending, saving, investing, credit and risk - what a person needs to manage their own money. No economics course is assumed.
And only one of them is open here
NEC runs a China region and global stages in the US, Asia and the UK. NPFC is state-by-state within the United States.
Which makes the choice simple
For a student outside the US, NEC is the available route. NPFC is worth knowing about if the student moves to a US school.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares an NPFC team.
For an eligible student, the two rounds ask for almost unrelated things.
Covering all six topics
Earning income, spending, saving, investing, managing credit and managing risk. Credit and risk are the two school courses rarely touch, and they are a third of the syllabus.
Practising at speed
Thirty questions in thirty-five minutes, with time as the tiebreak. Accuracy at pace is worth more here than in most tests.
Rehearsing the two-hour build
Being handed a family scenario and producing a defensible plan in two hours is a process - divide the work, agree the recommendation, build the slides, rehearse once. Teams that have practised it finish; teams that have not, do not.
And preparing to present twice
The four panel winners present again to a fresh panel. A team that peaks in the first presentation has nothing left for the one that decides it.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for NPFC at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for NPFC is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Case and submission pack
The same material our own NPFC students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFPast cases and question sets
- PDFA worked example of a full submission
- PDFEvent categories and the judging criteria, broken down
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Bai
Master's in social entrepreneurship from Hult International Business School in San Francisco and a business administration degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, with an exchange at Texas A&M's Mays Business School. Accredited by the College Board, Cambridge International and the IBO, a certified intermediate economist, and a judge at the 2020 Diamond Challenge global final and the 2021 NEC China final.
Zhang
Master's in engineering management from NYU and a double degree in finance and supply-chain management from Syracuse. Nearly nine years overseas and in finance, including at a well-known venture firm - experience that feeds scenario-based teaching. College Board-accredited.
Jiang
Master's in business analytics from the Schulich School of Business, a finance and business economics degree from York University and a software engineering degree from the Harbin Institute of Technology. Years in North America, university teaching before returning, and long experience across the whole economics curriculum.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for NPFC, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
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Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
NPFC, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
Can a student outside the United States enter?
No. Students must currently be enrolled at a high school, or homeschooled, in the US state they represent, and each state selects one champion for the national final.
Who runs it?
The Council for Economic Education, which also runs the National Economics Challenge.
What does it cover?
Six topics: earning income, spending, saving, investing, managing credit and managing risk. It is personal finance rather than economics.
How big is a team?
Three to four students, registered by a teacher or adult sponsor from the school. Students from different schools may team up.
What is the state round?
An online test - 35 minutes, 30 rapid-fire multiple-choice questions, 10 marks for each correct answer. The team score is the sum of the best three students’ scores.
Is there any benefit to a fourth member?
Yes. The lowest of four scores is dropped, so a fourth member can only help. Their score and time are also used as a deeper tiebreaker.
How are ties broken?
By the total time the team spent on the online exam. If that is level too, the fourth student’s score and time decide it.
What happens at the national final?
Teams are given a fictional family scenario and two hours to prepare a plan, then present for up to fifteen minutes with five minutes of questions. Judges score personal finance knowledge, teamwork and presentation.
How is the champion decided?
Four judging panels each rank their own teams and the top team from each advances. Those four present again to a new panel, which ranks them one to four. The judges’ decision is final.
What are the prizes?
$2,000 for first, $1,000 for second, $500 for third and $250 for fourth.
When and where is the final?
Usually early June. The published material names two different venues in consecutive sentences, so check the announcement for the current year.
Related
Other economics and finance competitions.
What students enter instead, or alongside.
NPFC enquiries
Check the state requirement first.
NPFC runs state by state inside the United States, so for most students here the useful question is what to enter instead. Tell us where the student studies and an advisor will say plainly whether this is available and, if not, what is.