Florida B.E.S.T. MA.912.FL.4.3
The Standard
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of various retirement savings plans using spreadsheets and other technology.
Florida B.E.S.T. Standards for Mathematics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use spreadsheet formulas to test how contributions, employer matches, fees, taxes, and time affect retirement savings. They weigh access rules and tax timing before recommending a plan for a specific worker.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can use formulas to project contributions, employer matches, fees, taxes, and growth under the same assumptions. They can recommend a plan for a worker and support the choice with numbers and tradeoffs.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume the plan with the highest projected balance is always best, ignoring taxes, fees, vesting, and withdrawal rules. They also confuse Roth tax treatment with traditional account tax treatment or compare plans using different assumptions.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Give students a completed spreadsheet comparing a matched 401(k) and a Roth IRA. Ask them to recommend one using one numerical result and one limitation.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have pairs build a spreadsheet that projects $200 monthly contributions under a 401(k), Roth IRA, and traditional IRA for 30 years.
Ask students to write which plan best fits a worker expecting higher future tax rates and what tradeoff supports their choice.
Run a scenario-card game where teams pair workers with plans, then earn points for naming one benefit and one drawback.
Use an anonymized employer benefits page to calculate the full match, check vesting rules, and recommend a contribution amount.
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