Complete Homeschool Edition
Teen Money Independence

A complete personal finance curriculum — budgeting, saving, credit, taxes, investing & more. Works fully offline.

12Weeks
8Units
44Lessons
18Activities
140+Discussion Qs

Click a unit to expand. Click any lesson for teaching notes, vocabulary, objectives, and discussion questions with model answers.

🏆 Curriculum Complete!

You've finished all 44 lessons. Download your certificate of completion and official course transcript.

Family Activities — Homeschool Edition

Designed for 2–3 people. Competitive, hands-on, and connected to real life for ages 13 & 15. Click any card for full step-by-step instructions.

Tax Simulator

Adjust income, state, and filing status to see federal + state taxes calculated in real time. Includes all 50 states. Virginia is set as the default.

Your income & situation
Annual income$32,000
Hours / week20 hrs
Hourly wage (est.)
Filing status
State
W-2 vs W-4 explained

A W-2 is the annual document your employer sends showing total wages earned and taxes withheld. Use it to file your return by April 15.

A W-4 is filled out when starting a job — it tells your employer how much to withhold from each paycheck.

Your employer sends taxes to the IRS throughout the year. In April you file your return to settle the difference — too much withheld = refund; too little = you pay the balance.

Tax breakdown
Sample paycheck (biweekly)
📄 Practice 1040 Walkthrough — live numbers from your simulator above
Printable 1040 tip: For hands-on learning, print a simplified Form 1040 from irs.gov/forms and work through it together using the numbers from this simulator. Writing numbers in by hand — referencing a real W-2 or the paycheck above — makes the filing process tangible and memorable. The walkthrough above shows exactly which line each number belongs on.
Discussion questions — click any question to reveal the model answer

Budget Lab

Enter your real take-home income and build your actual monthly budget line by line. Click any item name or amount to edit it.

Monthly take-home income
$ /month after taxes
Enter income to begin
Budget summary
Savings growth at 7%

If you invest your savings category monthly:

Emergency fund timeline

Based on your needs total as monthly expenses:

Housing Calculator — Rent vs. Buy

Compare the true 10-year cost of renting vs. buying. Adjust any number to see the break-even point.

Renting
Monthly rent$1,400
Annual rent increase3%
Renters insurance /mo$15
Buying
Home price$280,000
Down payment10%
Mortgage rate (30-yr)6.8%
Property tax rate /yr1.0%
Home insurance /mo$120
Home appreciation /yr3%
10-Year Comparison
Monthly payment breakdown (buying)
Key concepts

Equity — the portion of your home you actually own (value minus loan balance). Rent builds zero equity.

PMI — required if down payment < 20%. Adds ~0.5–1% of loan per year until you reach 20% equity.

Break-even — years before buying becomes cheaper than renting would have been. Typically 4–7 years.

The 5% rule — Home price × 5% ÷ 12. If that exceeds your rent, renting may be the better financial choice.

Discussion questions — click to reveal model answer

Quiz Bank

Test knowledge after each unit. Select a unit, answer all questions, then submit to see your score and explanations.

Planning Tools

Insurance cost estimators and a financial aid calculator. Figures are national estimates for educational purposes — actual amounts vary by insurer, state, and situation.

Insurance cost estimator
Your age22
Plan type
Coverage situation
Financial aid estimator (FAFSA / SAI)

Estimates your Student Aid Index and typical aid package. The real FAFSA uses a more detailed formula — this gives a realistic ballpark for planning.

Household adjusted gross income$65,000
Family size4
Parent savings and investments$25,000
Dependency status
Target school type
How this works: FAFSA calculates your Student Aid Index (SAI) — your expected family contribution. Schools subtract SAI from Cost of Attendance (COA) to determine financial need, then build an aid package of grants, work-study, and loans.
Discussion questions

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