Required (embedded)

New Mexico Personal Finance Standards & Graduation Requirements

New Mexico requires personal financial literacy for graduation only as content folded into the mandatory Government/Economics course within the Social Studies block, not as a separate standalone required course.

Request Demo See the curriculum

New Mexico at a glance

Requirement: Required, embedded in another course
Legislation or authority: HB 171 (2024), 'Public School Graduation Requirements' (signed Feb. 9, 2024), carrying forward the embedded personal-financial-literacy language first added by HB 126 (2023); Social Studies Standards at 6.29.11 NMAC (2022)
Passed: HB 171 signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Feb. 9, 2024; HB 126 signed in 2023
Takes effect: HB 171's requirements apply to students entering 9th grade in 2025-26 — the operative framework for current 9th/10th graders
First graduating class affected: Class of 2029
Course length: No statewide standalone credit; personal financial literacy is embedded within the required Government/Economics course, part of the 4.0-credit Social Studies block. Schools must additionally offer a standalone Financial Literacy course, but students are not required to take it
State standards: New Mexico Social Studies Standards (2022; 6.29.11 NMAC) — Anchor Standard 10: Personal Financial Literacy within the Economics strand

Read the official New Mexico standards

What New Mexico requires

New Mexico's Social Studies graduation requirement grew from 3.5 to 4.0 credits under HB 171 (2024), covering U.S. History and Geography, World History and Geography, and a Government/Economics course whose content must contain civics and personal financial literacy. Every student is thus guaranteed some in-class exposure to budgeting, credit, saving, and other topics through the required economics coursework, but no student is statutorily required to complete a dedicated personal finance class.

Schools must also make a standalone Financial Literacy course available as a math or general elective, and HB 171's two local graduation credits give districts an opening to require one locally — Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Tatum have done so. A prior attempt at a true statewide standalone mandate, HB 246 (2024), was postponed indefinitely in committee. Content is anchored in the 2022 NM Social Studies Standards (6.29.11 NMAC).

Last reviewed against official sources on 2026-07-15.

How Rapunzl maps to New Mexico standards

Rapunzl's curriculum is built on the Council for Economic Education's six pillars. Here is how they line up with the New Mexico framework.

New Mexico strand	CEE pillar	Rapunzl modules
Income	Earning Income	Taxes & Income Careers In Finance
Spending and budgeting	Spending	The Basics Of Banking Buying Your First Home Paying For College
Saving	Saving	Saving Versus Investing The Basics Of Banking
Credit	Managing Credit	The Power & Risks Of Credit How To Make Loans Work For You
Investing	Investing	Welcome To The Stock Market What Makes A Good Stock?ETFs & Mutual Funds
Financial decision-making	Financial Decision-Making	Financial Statistics Top Investor Strategies

Educators can request a full New Mexico standards crosswalk through the Educator Dashboard.

Standards alignment details: how Rapunzl covers New Mexico's personal finance standards

A standard-by-standard look at the New Mexico framework. 12 standards are covered across 10 Rapunzl modules; each links to its lesson so you can preview exactly what students learn.

New Mexico Personal Finance Standards

New Mexico standard	Aligned Rapunzl modules
46. Explain how and why people make choices to improve their economic well-being.	Taxes & Income
47. Compare the costs and benefits of saving, using credit, and or making certain types of financial investments.	Welcome To The Stock Market The Power & Risks Of Credit Insurance & Retirement
48. Evaluate how and why individuals choose to accept risk, reduce risk, or transfer risk to others.	Welcome To The Stock Market What Makes A Good Stock?Diversification & Risk Insurance & Retirement
49. Investigate ways that personal information is fraudulently obtained.	The Power & Risks Of Credit Taxes & Income
50. Identify voluntary (e.g., retirement contributions) and involuntary deductions (e.g., payroll taxes) and how they impact net income.	Insurance & Retirement Taxes & Income
51. Prepare a budget or spending plan that depicts varying sources of income, a planned saving strategy, taxes, and other sources of fixed and variable spending.	Saving Versus Investing Taxes & Income
52. Evaluate options for payment on credit cards and the consequences of each option.	The Power & Risks Of Credit
53. Describe how a credit score impacts the ability to borrow money and at what rate.	The Power & Risks Of Credit
54. Identify various strategies students can use to finance higher education and how to access student aid through completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).	Paying For College
55. Calculate the total cost of repaying a loan under various rates of interest and over different time periods.	The Power & Risks Of Credit How To Make Loans Work For You
56. Explain what a mortgage is, why most Americans require one to finance a home, and the challenges of financing mortgages on tribal land.	How To Make Loans Work For You Buying Your First Home
57. Explain how investing may build wealth and help meet financial goals (e.g., stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement savings options, real estate).	Welcome To The Stock Market Saving Versus Investing How To Make Loans Work For You Insurance & Retirement

Standards alignment for New Mexico is provided for planning and is updated annually. Educators can request a formatted New Mexico standards crosswalk through the Educator Dashboard.

Why New Mexico schools choose Rapunzl

New Mexico guarantees personal finance through the required Government/Economics course in the Social Studies block, not a standalone class, and HB 171 makes that the framework for students entering grade 9 in 2025-26, the class of 2029. Schools must also offer a standalone Financial Literacy course, even though students aren't required to take it, and the two local graduation credits give districts room to require one. Rapunzl fits both the embedded and the optional-standalone paths: students manage a $10,000 portfolio in a live-market simulator, and the modules run as embedded content or a full course. Districts like Albuquerque and Santa Fe that require it locally are choosing materials now.

100,000+students have completed Rapunzl's curriculum
93%average financial literacy scores on national test over past 5 years, 24% above average
31interactive modules that can be customized into a course progression for your classroom
20+hours of gameplay in 2 interactive mini-games alongside our investment simulator and financial calculators

Teachers get a dashboard that exports grades and crosswalks each lesson to New Mexico's personal financial literacy anchor standard, with materials in English and Spanish that work with a screen reader. Rapunzl's January scholarship competition gives students a reason to keep managing their portfolio whether the content is embedded or its own course.

New Mexico personal finance requirement FAQ

The requirement is set by HB 171 (2024), 'Public School Graduation Requirements' (signed Feb. 9, 2024), carrying forward the embedded personal-financial-literacy language first added by HB 126 (2023); Social Studies Standards at 6.29.11 NMAC (2022).

Takes effect: HB 171's requirements apply to students entering 9th grade in 2025-26 — the operative framework for current 9th/10th graders.

No statewide standalone credit; personal financial literacy is embedded within the required Government/Economics course, part of the 4.0-credit Social Studies block. Schools must additionally offer a standalone Financial Literacy course, but students are not required to take it.

New Mexico's requirement is an embedded requirement.

In practice that means the personal finance content lives inside another required course, so every graduate covers it without a separate class on their schedule.

The Class of 2029 is the first graduating class that has to meet it, so earlier classes are not held to the requirement.

Timeline: HB 171's requirements apply to students entering 9th grade in 2025-26 — the operative framework for current 9th/10th graders.

If you are planning a course now, that timeline is the window to have curriculum in place before New Mexico starts holding students to it.

New Mexico Social Studies Standards (2022; 6.29.11 NMAC) — Anchor Standard 10: Personal Financial Literacy within the Economics strand.

Rapunzl is built on the Council for Economic Education's six pillars: earning income, spending, saving, investing, managing credit, and managing risk. New Mexico's Anchor Standard 10 for personal financial literacy covers the same topics, so the crosswalk above ties each to the modules that teach it.

Yes. Whether personal finance is embedded in Government/Economics or offered as the standalone course, Rapunzl's six-pillar modules map onto New Mexico's Anchor Standard 10.

Students learn by investing a simulated $10,000 in real market conditions, and teachers manage the class from a dashboard with grade export, bilingual materials, and screen-reader support.

Ask for a demo and we'll send the New Mexico crosswalk along with classroom access so you can see how it fits the embedded or standalone path.

Bring Rapunzl to your New Mexico classroom

Explore the curriculum and real-time simulator free for 30 days. Tell us about your school and we'll send your all-access demo along with the New Mexico standards crosswalk.

Request Demo