Student loans, real budgets, building assets, and launching something real.
Ages 15–16
The one idea
Assets pay you while you sleep; liabilities charge you while you sleep. Everything you buy is one or the other.
Fifteen and sixteen year olds are within a couple of years of decisions worth tens of thousands. This is the last easy window to run the numbers together.
One per pillar. Each has what to teach, a ten-minute thing to do, and the exact words you can say — so you can start right now without preparing anything.
One income is one point of failure. A job, plus a skill you sell, plus something you own that pays — that's three. You don't need them to be equal; you need them not to fail at the same time.
Do this
Map their current and possible income sources. Identify which could survive losing the main one.
Say this
"If your main income vanished tomorrow, what's left? That answer is your actual risk."
$30,000 borrowed at 6% over ten years costs around $40,000 to repay. The degree may well be worth it — but you should know both numbers before signing, not after.
Do this
Run a real loan calculator: total repaid, monthly payment, and total interest for a realistic amount.
Say this
"You borrow $30,000 and repay about $40,000. What does the extra $10,000 buy you? Is the degree worth it anyway?"
Rent, food, transport, phone, insurance, savings. Run a real one for a month using local prices, before anyone is depending on you getting it right.
Do this
Build a full monthly budget using actual rents and prices in your area, on a realistic starting salary.
Say this
"That's a real salary and those are real rents. Does it balance? What has to give?"
Adults who give consistently decided what they cared about early and stopped rethinking it. Pick the thing, set the percentage, and let it run for decades.
Do this
Write one paragraph on the cause you'd fund for the next ten years, and the percentage you'll commit.
Say this
"What problem would you want less of in the world? Start there, and start now while it's small."
An asset puts money in your pocket. A liability takes it out. A car you drive is a liability; a car you rent out is an asset. The same object can be either — what matters is which direction the money flows.
Do this
List ten things people buy. Sort them into assets and liabilities, and argue about the ambiguous ones.
Say this
"Does this put money in your pocket or take it out? That's the only question."
Every skill on this page is theory until you sell something to a stranger. Do it once — properly, with real numbers — and everything above stops being abstract.
Do this
Set a 30-day deadline. Ship something. Charge for it. Write down what actually happened versus what you expected.
Say this
"Thirty days. What can you actually get into someone's hands and get paid for?"
8 questions. You get the reasoning either way — being wrong is where the learning is.
Borrow $30,000 at 6% over 10 years. Roughly what do you repay?
Which is an asset?
You own $5,000 and owe $2,000. Net worth?
Why build more than one income stream?
Income $2,000, expenses $1,700. Monthly cash flow?
When should you decide what cause you support?
What turns all of this from theory into skill?
A budget on a real salary doesn't balance. What's the right response?
Move the sliders and watch what each jar becomes. Only the Grow jar is invested, so only Grow compounds — that is the whole reason the numbers separate.
$234 a year → $2,340 after 10 years
$468 a year → $4,680 after 10 years
$156 a year → $1,560 after 10 years
$702 a year → $10,378 after 10 years
You put in
$15,600
You end up with
$18,958
Grew on its own
+$3,358
That extra $3,358 is money nobody worked for. It came from the Grow jar earning 7% a year on a balance that keeps getting bigger.
For parents: About $30 a week, or nothing at all if they're earning. By now the goal is a genuine budget with real obligations, not pocket money.
The 7% is a rough long-run stock market average used for illustration. Real returns vary, some years are negative, and nothing here is investment advice.
Defined the way a 10th grade child would explain them — not the way a bank would.
This week's mission
They find out whether the life they're imagining actually fits the salary they're imagining.
"I built it, I sold it, and here are the real numbers."
What it costs to start
Whatever cap you set — most good first launches are under $100
What to charge
Charge from day one. Free users teach you almost nothing about whether it works.
The business lesson underneath
A deadline turns an idea into a product. Without a date, the idea stays an idea indefinitely.
The money lessons only stick if these are running underneath them.
Ask which direction the money flows. Applied consistently over decades, this single question does most of the work.
Loans, leases, contracts. Total cost, monthly cost, and total interest — before the signature, not after.
Ideas without dates don't ship. A date is the difference between something you did and something you meant to do.
Tick these off through the year. If one is still open in June, that's the lesson to go back to.
Everything on this page is free and always will be. If you want structured worksheets to go alongside it, the 10th Grade packs cover the whole year across maths, reading and writing, and study skills.
Assets pay you while you sleep; liabilities charge you while you sleep. Everything you buy is one or the other. Concretely: calculates the total repayment cost of a realistic loan; sorts purchases into assets and liabilities correctly; builds a full monthly budget on a real net salary and real local prices. The six lessons on this page cover each of those, and the money check tells you which ones have landed.
Around $30 a week is a reasonable starting point at ages 15–16. About $30 a week, or nothing at all if they're earning. By now the goal is a genuine budget with real obligations, not pocket money. The calculator on this page lets you try different amounts and splits.
The Thirty-Day Launch: "I built it, I sold it, and here are the real numbers." Startup cost is whatever cap you set — most good first launches are under $100. A deadline turns an idea into a product. Without a date, the idea stays an idea indefinitely.
Yes — all 6 lessons, the 8-question check, the vocabulary, the mission, the starter business, the allowance calculator, and the milestones are free with no signup. The 10th Grade printable packs in the shop are optional.
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