Having been through public school myself, and now having raised three children, one of the complaints I often hear is how public schools should spend more time on life skills, like personal finance for teens. I often hear from my own children when it comes to math beyond Algebra, “Why do we even need this?” While I believe there is a place for upper math, I do not believe everyone should be tortured with it.

{Disclaimer: I received a free access to Beyond Personal Finance and was compensated for my time in writing this review.  All views are my own and I was not required to write a positive review. Please see my full Disclosure Policy for more details.}

Most teens are clueless about how expensive being an adult is. Meet my son… he walks in the door recently after being at the grocery store and comments on how expensive everything was. He had come home with some snacks. I had to keep from rolling my eyes and gently put in my parental comment about how much it costs to actually feed a family, or even one person. At 19 and graduating from college, he still has lessons to learn. I’ve actually found some great ideas to talk over with him from using this Personal Finance for Teens Curriculum – Beyond Personal Finance, with my daughter.

About Beyond Personal Finance

Beyond Personal Finance prepares your teen for adulting by arming them with information and then goes a step further by letting them practice making adult choices with adult money. After taking this class, your teen will be more aware of the choices that lie ahead and better equipped to make those choices!

Instead of lecturing to students about what choices they should make, Beyond Personal Finance lets them make their own choices, letting the numbers teach the lesson. A student could be trying to decide between two careers paths, Having them make a budget and play them both out will help them see for themselves what each career may mean for their financial future.

You are putting your teen in the driver’s seat, letting them design their life by making choices like career, car, apartment, spouse, house, investment, etc all while creating 20 budgets to see how those choices will impact their financial picture.

A look inside

Beyond Personal Finance is primarily an online self paced course, but it also includes a paper student workbook. It is broken down into 3 Units – 20 Lessons.

In the online class portal, each lesson has:

• an instructional video
• lesson material
• links for the lesson homework

 Students begin by completing your budgets using Google Sheets or the PDF provided.

In addition to a budget, there are Reflection Questions that ask you for the choice you made and why you made that choice. (I find this part to be so cool! And crucial to really getting the most out of this course.) It is important your child makes the choice that is true to what they would actually choose and not just the cheapest option.  For example, if they like to eat out, they shouldn’t choose the “eat at home” option just because it is the cheapest. This is a chance for them to try out being an adult, to see if it is going to work like they expect, and to better understand how they can make choices to help steer them to the outcome they desire. 

At the end of each lesson, there is a checklist to make sure students are clear on what needs to be done to complete that lesson.

Two Options for this Personal Finance for Teens Curriculum

1. Individual Self Paced Personal Finance for Teens 

This individual self paced option is the option we are using. All the teaching is pre-recorded and my teen is overseen by me, so I have access to the teacher portal. It has been a comprehensive look at how earlier life choices like college and career have an impact down the road.

2. Group Self Paced Personal Finance for Teens 

The content for this self paced group option is the same as it is for the individual. The cool thing about working through Beyond Personal Finance in a group is that kids get to see how each other’s financial choices are turning out and they learn about how each choice leads to a different outcome.

If you can get a few homeschool teens together and Host Your Own Group then I highly recommend it. Not only will it give your teens a chance to interact with other teens, but it will offer a greater picture into different life choices and how they impact financial futures.

More Help for Raising Teens