Want to teach your teen about money? Check out this review of my new favorite personal finance homeschool curriculum!
I’ll never forget watching my mom break down and cry while looking at her finances. As a single mom, I can only imagine the pressure she felt trying to provide for us.
Every month she sat down at her desk, grabbed her bank statements and a pencil, and got to work. And some months everything was fine.
We stayed on budget and it was all smiles and high fives. But some months… we didn’t stay on budget and it was tears, stress, and worry.
Watching her during those moments taught me the importance of managing your finances and managing them well. It’s a skill everyone should have before heading off into adulthood.
I was compensated for my time reviewing Beyond Personal Finance and writing this post. This post reflects my personal opinion about the information provided.
Why Your Child Needs a Personal Finance Homeschool Curriculum
With so many other things to worry about teaching our teens, personal finance might have gotten pushed to the back burner. You might be worried about your teen learning how to drive or stressing over college requirements and applications.
(I currently have some legit panic over teaching my daughter how to drive in the next few years, so I get it!)
But the truth is, our teens will head into a world where financial literacy is key. Learning how to be responsible with their money is arguably more important than finishing their Geometry homework or reading Shakespeare.
I have never once referenced Hamlet or used proofs in my life, but every single month I have to sit down and address our finances.
Personal finance is a life skill
Personal finance is more than just “nice to know.” It’s a life skill that helps set your child up for success in the future.
Here are some of the things they’ll gain from taking a personal finance homeschool curriculum:
- Learn money management: They’ll learn to budget, save, and make smart financial choices.
- Planning for the future: Your teen will learn to set and achieve financial goals like saving for a dream car or college fund.
- Future-proofing: Your child will get a head start on building a secure financial future. This knowledge is an investment that will pay off for years to come.
Learning how to manage your money is one of the best ways to set our children up for success as adults.
So it’s important to teach them now while we can. And using a personal finance homeschool curriculum is one of the easiest ways to do it.
The Personal Finance Homeschool Curriculum I Wish I Had Taken as a Kid
Although watching my mom overcome her financial struggles was an effective way to learn personal finance skills, I won’t lie – it was a little traumatizing.
I want to take a different approach when teaching my children about managing their finances. I want to empower them to manage their money instead of scare them into it.
So I was super excited when I heard about Beyond Personal Finance (13+) Self Paced, Online Curriculum. It’s a personal finance homeschool curriculum designed to help your child demystify money management.
They’ll learn:
- The impact of the career they choose – including college costs, salary, future growth potential, and more.
- How to budget and manage their money over time.
- The importance of saving for the future and how to handle the plot twists life throws your way.
- What the future lifestyle they want looks like financially and what they’ll need to earn to achieve it.
Beyond Personal Finance is like a financial road map for teens. It offers a crash course in what finances look like as an adult while teaching money management skills they’ll need to build a secure financial future.
In short, what every parent hopes their child understands about money before they leave the house!
Prefer videos? Watch my review of Beyond Personal Finance here:
What’s included with Beyond Personal Finance
Beyond Personal Finance is an online video-based program. With your purchase, you get:
- A 1-year online membership to the Student and Parent Portals.
- 20 Self-paced video lessons
- Full-color Student Workbook
- Electronic and hard copy of student assignments
They also include a teacher resources section with videos and all the links available in the student portal.
This allows you, the teacher, to keep up with what the student works on throughout the course.
They also have a Teacher Workbook with the answers for the Student Workbook if you want to follow along and grade their work.
The Student Workbook functions more as a note-taking tool as students follow along with the videos. As long as the student pays attention to the video, they won’t have any trouble filling in the Student Workbook as they go along. None of the questions are difficult.
Age range
Beyond Personal Finance is intended for students 13-18. They also suggest students have a working knowledge of decimals, percentages, and basic algebra.
I think this age range is pretty spot on. My daughter was tickled to find that the skills she had been learning in math applied to real life.
When we started, I planned on having my younger daughter (10 years old) follow along and I would help her. However, it ended up being too much work on my part.
Beyond Personal Finance has a course for kids 8-12 called Beginners Guide to the Future. This would be more her speed and I’m considering getting it for her once we finish Beyond Personal Finance.
Price
At this time, Beyond Personal Finance costs $150. Extra Student Workbooks and the Teacher Workbook are additional costs.
Considering the valuable life skills learned in the course, I think the price is more than worth it. However, if you’re on the fence, they do offer a Money Back Guarantee.
If your student hasn’t learned from the course after 8 lessons (60 days) you can return the books and get a full refund.
Learn more about their pricing and return policy here.
How Beyond Personal Finance Works
Beyond Personal Finance homeschool curriculum works like most other self-paced courses.
- Your student logs on.
- Watches the video lesson.
- Completes the assignment.
- Moves on to the next lesson.
The lessons are designed for the student to work independently. However, you, the parent, will need to review their assignments.
No grading component is included with the course, so the only way to know if they’re on the right track is to understand the focus of each lesson.
Personally, I found it works best to sit with my daughter while she watches each lesson. The videos are around 20-25 minutes each.
Then I make sure she understands the assignment and let her work through it on her own.
I also like this approach because any time she’s unsure about something or it sparks some real-life applications we can pause the video and talk about it right then.
Course Pace
Because the program is self-paced, you can work through it at your own pace. On top of my daughter’s other schoolwork, we’ve found once a week works best for us.
Since each lesson takes us about an hour to get through between watching the lesson, talking about it, and then finishing the assignment, this pace has kept us moving along without feeling overwhelmed.
However, you can work at whatever pace is best for your schedule.
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Why This is My New Favorite Personal Finance Homeschool Curriculum
So, no question, this tops the list right now as my favorite personal finance homeschool curriculum. Even before starting to write this post, I’ve told all my friends who homeschool teens about it.
After just a few lessons my daughter gushed about how excited and capable she felt about handling her finances as an adult. Her exact words were:
“I feel like I can actually do this!!”
And she said it like 8 times. That’s pretty much a win in my book.
Here are some other reasons why we’ve both enjoyed this program:
Started by a real mom
One of the things that caught my eye is that Beyond Personal Finance was created by another mom. She worked on a program to help her own child be prepared to handle their finances as an adult.
And after seeing the results, other moms asked if she would teach their kids how to do it. And then more parents, and more parents.
Next thing she knew, she found herself leading regular classes and the program grew from there.
As a parent who values teaching these skills to my kids, I love knowing this curriculum was developed from the same desire to help prepare our kids for success in the real world.
Realistic
Another feature of Beyond Personal Finance I love is how realistic the assignments are. Your child won’t do vague guesswork on what their budget will look like.
In lesson 2, my daughter had to make decisions on things like:
- How often she would eat out.
- Whether she would live by herself or with a roommate.
- What vehicle she would drive.
- How often she would buy clothes.
And even taxes! She also had to make sure that at the end of the year, she had extra money left over.
If her career couldn’t afford the lifestyle she wanted, she had to get a part-time job or change her lifestyle. These are real-life decisions people need to make every day.
I feel like being able to simulate this now will help her immeasurably when she’s responsible for her own finances.
Plot twist generator
Speaking of being realistic, one of the features I love is the Plot Twist Generator. Periodically, students have to spin the wheel and see what plot twist life sent their way.
One time my daughter got a plot twist that required braces and cost her over $5,000. She was so mad! LOL.
I appreciate that features like this are included in the program because that’s real life.
Thorough
Another feature of Beyond Personal Finance I love is how thorough the program is. Your student will get way more than just an overview of basic information about personal finances.
In the first lesson, my daughter had to:
- Pick a career.
- Research that career and find out how much money it makes and what education is required.
- Then she had to look up a college and find out how much it cost.
- Next, she had to talk to me and find out how much our family would pay for college.
- Then she had to find out how much in student loans she would need and how long they would take to pay off.
She decided to go to a community college for the first 2 years and then transfer to our local state college to cut down on her student loans.
I appreciate how my daughter gets real practice navigating different financial scenarios and making informed decisions. It’s more than just knowledge, she also gets to practice applying it.
That practice helps make the knowledge more effective and really sets this program apart.
Independent Work
Another feature I love about Beyond Personal Finance is the focus on the students doing the work. I admit I’m one of those parents who can easily get sucked into helping my child.
If I know the right answer or way to do something, it’s hard for me to let them make a mistake.
With this personal finance homeschool curriculum, I can step back and let her make her own decisions. The information is realistic but doesn’t come with real-life consequences.
She can make mistakes or poor decisions, see what happens, and go back and make better ones. All without worrying that she’ll do something irreversible that could negatively affect her future.
It’s been good practice for both of us as we continue through the teen years.
So many good conversations
The last thing I loved about Beyond Personal Finance is all the conversations that have come up throughout the course. Throughout every lesson, we have at least 2-3 side conversations about something she’s learned.
We’ve talked about debt, why we have income tax and sales tax, the pros and cons of used vehicles vs newer ones, and so much more. It’s created several opportunities to discuss important things that will help prepare her for the future.
A Few Things to Consider Before Purchasing
As much as I love Beyond Personal Finance and will 100% recommend it to every teen parent, I think there are a few things to consider before you buy. If any of these are deal breakers for you, be sure to do some extra research.
Time intensive
Beyond Personal Finance homeschool curriculum does take a bit of time to complete. As I said, we spend around an hour to an hour and a half for each lesson.
We sit down once a week and knock it out. If that’s too long for you and your teen to work on the course at one time, you could easily break it down into smaller units.
The course is self-paced, so you can create whatever timeline works best for your family.
Guesstimation, but not exact
Something else to consider is that the numbers used for things like salary and budgeting are guesstimations based on the average numbers for the country. They might not be accurate compared to where you live.
The instructor has done this to make things simpler and as realistic as possible, but it’s not exact.
I haven’t found this to be a problem as we go through the course. All the principles learned will still apply even if the numbers are a little different.
But I think it’s something to keep in mind before you get started.
State Standards
Something else to consider if you homeschool is whether or not your state has any specific standards for financial literacy for students. For example, my state, Louisiana, requires all high school freshmen to complete a course in Financial Literacy to qualify for state scholarships.
They also have a pre-approved list of courses students can take. Beyond Personal Finance isn’t on the list.
However, I looked through some of the courses listed and this one is considerably more thorough. I feel my daughter will have a way better understanding of how to manage her money after this course than those.
I’m prepared that she might have to take another course to meet the requirements if they don’t allow exceptions.
It’s worth double-checking your state homeschool requirements before enrolling in the program.
Best for high school and up
The other thing I would consider before buying Beyond Personal Finance is whether or not your child is ready for the course. As I stated above, they recommend students be at least 13 years old and have a working knowledge of decimals, percentages, and basic algebra.
The assignments don’t require expert math skills, but they will need the above skills to easily complete the lessons. I think younger kids would struggle through the course without a lot of adult help.
Having a lot of parent help isn’t the end of the world, but it does take away from a lot of the impact of the course. Being able to calculate interest rates, taxes, and savings over time is part of managing your finances.
It’s probably best to wait until they’re ready to work through the course more independently.
Who Would Benefit From Beyond Personal Finance
I knew as soon as I read about Beyond Personal Finance this curriculum is designed for families like mine. I want to help my children develop strong personal finance skills and be able to confidently and successfully manage their money as adults.
Here are some other families who would benefit from this personal finance homeschool curriculum:
- You want your children to be financially stable. This course will give them the skills they need.
- You have the skills but you don’t have the time. This is the case for a friend of mine. She loves how everything is planned out for her and she doesn’t have to do it.
- You don’t have strong personal finance skills. Plenty of parents weren’t taught about this growing up and they don’t teach it in high school. This program can help fill those gaps.
- You want an extra high school credit. Your state might allow you to use this as a Math credit or as a Financial Literacy credit. Or worse case, it might count as an elective.
FAQs About Beyond Personal Finance
Still got some questions about this personal finance homeschool curriculum? Read through this list of FAQs and don’t forget to check out the FAQs on Beyond Personal Finance’s website.
Isn’t personal finance just common sense?
Common sense is a good place to start, but true Financial Literacy goes deeper. Children need to understand credit and debt, mortgages, planning for future goals, interest rates, and more.
Isn’t this something they’ll learn in college?
To better prepare your children, I think it’s best if they learn about personal finance before college. Picking a major, choosing which car to drive, and deciding if they want to live on campus or off are all things they’ll do before college even starts.
They need to understand the financial implications of those decisions before they make them.
Is this just about math?
Beyond Personal Finance is about way more than math. Yes, math skills are included in things like budgeting and tracking expenses, but it’s also about things like financial responsibility, goal setting, and planning for the future.
Is Beyond Personal Finance religious?
As far as I can tell, Beyond Personal Finance is a secular curriculum. However, I couldn’t find anywhere on their website that stated their position.
Is there any interaction or live instruction?
The course I reviewed is online and completely self-paced. We watched video lessons but didn’t interact with anyone live.
However, they have resources to support teachers and parents hosting their own classes. I think this program would be wonderful for a homeschool co-op class for teens.
Does the program require any special software?
No special software is needed. As long as you have internet access and access to Google Sheets you can complete the course.
How much parent involvement is needed?
Parents will need to spend a few minutes watching the parent video for each lesson. You’ll also need to review their assignments to make sure they completed them correctly.
Beyond that, the amount of parent involvement is up to you. Personally, I have found that the discussions that arise from the course are one of my favorite parts, so I highly recommend being as involved as possible.
Where can I learn more?
To learn more about Beyond Personal Finance, head to the website by clicking the button below!
Final Thoughts on Beyond Personal Finance Homeschool Curriculum
I’m sure it’s clear by now that Beyond Personal Finance is my new favorite personal finance homeschool curriculum. I’m blown away at how thorough and realistic the course is.
When she finishes, I feel like my daughter will have a strong foundation in personal finances and be able to make good decisions when managing her money as an adult. I love my mom for the hard work she went through to raise me and teach me how to manage my finances.
Without the things she taught, I probably wouldn’t be able to appreciate how much this program has to offer. If you want to help prepare your teen for their financial future, I highly recommend Beyond Personal Finance.
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Candice is a mom of 3 who has been homeschooling since 2013. She has an A.A.S. in Early Childhood Studies and cares deeply about helping other parents get the information and resources they need to help them homeschool their children with confidence.