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The course is about 7.5 hours of instructional video and 25-30 hours of actual 'doing' exercises called "warm-ups".
Instructional videos are broken into 5-20 minute lessons with a few longer lessons. Most lessons follow with a "warm-up" exericse to put new knowledge to the test.
"Warm-up" exercises vary in length with most taking 15-30 min and others taking 1-2 hours, where concepts are brought together. About 80% of the course is DOING. This is where the magic happens - when students apply their new knowledge in real life!
It is self-paced with no required deadline. This allows each family / high schooler to workout their own course schedule that works for their teen’s schedule and family dynamics. We have 3 Sample Schedules - 1 Week Intensive, 6 Week Sprint and 12 Week Semester - you can use as a guide. Click here for more detail or email us at [email protected] to get the Sample Schedules delivered to your inbox.
If your high schooler has limited time, email us at [email protected], and we can help you decide the most relevant lessons for your teen. They will still get SO much out of the course, and we firmly believe it is still worth every penny.
High schoolers can watch the instructional videos independently. Some of the mini exercises following each lesson involve parental participation, such as a conversation about a financial decision you might have made. You can have these conversations over dinner or in the car. We recommend incorporating these conversations into your everyday life and being open about successes and mistakes, so that our teens can learn from us!
We emphasize making decisions that work for your specific situation. Every person has different needs, wants, goals, and parameters they’re working with. Instead of giving your high schooler conflicting advice, we focus on teaching them to critically THINK for themselves and make financial decisions that work in their unique situation.
And we do this through natural motivation. Most teens are pumped to drive a car for the first time! We channel that enthusiasm by teaching them personal finance fundamentals through the lens of having a car.
It’s really quite beautiful. There are many reasons we teach through the lens of a car –
1. Teens care about cars. Why swim upstream when you can ride the current? Let’s use natural motivation to our advantage.
2. On average, Transportation is the second largest spend category for families (behind housing). To have the biggest impact, let's start with the areas that matter most.
3. It makes the topic concrete. Teens can wrap their head around it.
4. Starting with one topic gives teens an opportunity to build their skills and therefore their confidence.
5. So many key concepts related to cars can be applied across the personal finance spectrum. Think about it …
Owning v. Leasing? You have to think about this with a house as well!
Paying in cash v. taking out a loan? You have to think about this with a house plus every time we decide to swipe a credit card or delay paying that balance at the end of the month.
Insurance, taxes, maintenance? Hello house again!
Opportunity cost of our money? Every time we decide to spend a dollar we are deciding not to spend it somewhere else and that includes on savings and investments. Want to buy or lease a more expensive car that guzzles gas? That’s money you won’t be spending on something else, saving or investing for the future.
Flexibility. Your high schoolers are busy – they have classes and activities and sports and friends and video games. Carting them to an in person class or adding one more scheduled activity to your family calendar is a punishment to you We created this course to be flexible and work WITH your family’s schedule. Need ideas on how to motivate your teen to take the class even though it’s digital? Check out our instagram post here for ideas!
Sara! She is beyond thrilled to work with High Schoolers, empowering them with the knowledge, practice and real life application to make more informed and wise financial decisions. Sara has an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management as well as a Masters in Economics and a BS in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Alabama. She spent over a decade working at a Top 3 Management & Strategy Consulting firm, advising Fortune 500 executives on how to manage their businesses.
It's helpful to have taken or be taking Algebra! Topics like time value of money require some knowledge of algebra. Email us at [email protected] if you have a unique situation you'd like to discuss before buying the course.
