Money Audit: Where You Actually Stand
No lecture, no slides. Just one question: what do you actually know about money? Then a real money audit, a shared vocabulary for income, assets, and net worth, and a first pass at mapping your dream career to what it actually pays.
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Your First Trade
You get a live simulated portfolio today: real tickers, real prices, held for the rest of the cohort. Stocks, futures, forex, and the one skill most investors never learn, how to not panic-sell when the number turns red. By the end of the unit this becomes a full equity research pitch, DCF model included, defended in front of the room.
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Budget Like You Already Got the Job
Pick the career you actually want. Look up what it really pays. Build a real monthly budget around that number, not a textbook example. Then argue, out loud, whether 50/30/20 or zero-based budgeting actually fits your life.
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The Score They Never Explained
Nobody teaches you how a credit score actually works, so we do. The five factors behind a FICO score, why credit access split along racial lines in the first place, and a real plan to build credit from zero without falling into the traps.
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The Interest Rate Trap
A $30,000 loan doesn't actually cost $30,000. We run the real math on what debt costs over time, break down good debt versus bad debt, and cover the three strategies people actually use to pay it off.
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Jobs You've Never Heard Of (That Pay Well)
Financial planner. Investment banker. Actuary. Fintech product manager. A tour through finance careers most high schoolers never hear about, what they actually pay, and how someone lands the first interview. Some of the people in this room show up again at Demo Day, on the other side of the table.
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Where Did My Paycheck Go?
Your first paycheck is smaller than you think, and this is why. W-2s, 1099s, deductions, and FAFSA, explained without the jargon. You'll read a real pay stub and finally understand the difference between what you earn and what you keep.
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Build the Venture You'll Pitch at Demo Day
Business registration, basic accounting, and the mindset shift from employee to owner. Whatever you build this week is what you defend on stage, in front of real judges, in the season finale.
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Rent, Buy, or Uber?
The decisions that quietly define your twenties. Students run the real ten-year cost of renting versus owning in Phoenix, and weigh a car payment against just taking transit.
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Sticker Price Is a Lie
The listed tuition and the actual cost of a degree are almost never the same number. Students read a real financial aid award letter, compare two schools side by side for the same major, and learn how loans, grants, and work-study actually stack up before a single application gets submitted.
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The 1 in 3 Problem
The same investing unit that built an active portfolio in Session 2 builds a retirement one here. Roth IRA versus 401(k), index funds versus individual stocks, and the real math on what starting at 18 instead of 28 is worth by retirement. This is the session that explains why 1 in 3 Americans retire with zero savings, and how to not be one of them.
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Demo Day
Every student pitches the venture they built in Session 8, live, to a panel of local Arizona entrepreneurs and financial experts. The judging is the same two questions a real investor asks: is the plan sound, and is the business actually financially viable. No participation trophy. Judges push back, students defend the numbers on the spot, and someone's plan wins.
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