The Launchpad · Course plan
The course, laid out.
Everything a department chair, a curriculum committee, or a teacher planning a semester needs on one page: what each unit teaches, how long it takes, which AB 2927 topics it covers, how a semester fits together, and how to grade it. Teachers pick and reorder freely; this is the default.
At a glance
Six units, a capstone, and the pieces around them.
The 39 modules add up to about 15 and a half hours of student work. A semester is about 85 to 90 class periods. What fills the rest is built in: a playbook with an opener, discussion beats, and an exit ticket for every module; 24 Real Takes; 13 Advisor cases; Draft Day across the semester; the Arcade; the Flight Plan; and a capstone memo. The pacing plan below shows one way to run all of it in 18 weeks, with about fifteen flex days left for reteaching, your school's calendar, and the things that come up.
| Unit | Modules | Student time in modules | Around the modules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banking & Saving | 5 | 114 min · 1.9 h | 4 Real Takes · 2 Advisor cases |
| Investing | 6 | 185 min · 3.1 h | 7 Real Takes · 4 Advisor cases · Draft Day |
| The College Project | 9 | 185 min · 3.1 h | 3 Real Takes · 1 Advisor case · College High/Low |
| Credit & Debt | 10 | 240 min · 4 h | 5 Real Takes · 2 Advisor cases · Debt or Alive, Sticker Shock |
| Taxes | 3 | 95 min · 1.6 h | 2 Real Takes · 2 Advisor cases |
| Insurance | 5 | 100 min · 1.7 h | 2 Real Takes · 1 Advisor case |
| Wrapping Up | 1 | 15 min · 0.3 h | 1 Real Take · the capstone memo |
| Total | 39 | 934 min · 15.6 h | 24 Real Takes · 13 Advisor cases |
Course description
Personal Finance
- Length
- One semester (18 weeks)
- Grades
- 11 and 12; also runs in grades 9 and 10 with a slower pace
- Prerequisites
- None
- Meets
- California Ed Code § 51284.5 (AB 2927): all 13 required topics
- Materials
- The Launchpad (free web app; students join with a class code, no email). Optional print: The Launchpad Activity Workbook.
- Devices
- Laptops or Chromebooks; several days run on paper
Students learn the money decisions of the next ten years in the order they will meet them: a bank account and a first paycheck, a first investment, the college decision, credit and borrowing, taxes, and insurance. Every module opens with a short quiz and a confidence rating, teaches through real prices, real documents, and real history, and closes with a second quiz on the same ideas, so students and their teacher can see what changed.
Across the semester students build two things they keep: a Flight Plan of real money moves they choose for themselves, with dates, and a passport that records what they learned in every unit. Short Real Takes (predict, see the real numbers, defend a call) and Advisor cases (read one person's situation, decode the numbers, write a committed recommendation) run inside each unit. Draft Day, a semester-long investing game, rewards a thesis over a gamble. The course ends with a memo each student writes to themselves at 25.
Scope and sequence
Every module, its goals, and the AB 2927 topics it carries.
Numbers are the required topics of Ed Code § 51284.5(a): 1 Banking · 2 Budgeting · 3 Employment and net income · 4 Credit and credit scores · 5 Loans and student loans · 6 Insurance · 7 Taxes · 8 Investing and wealth · 9 Consumer protection · 10 Financing college and career paths · 11 Psychology of money · 12 Charitable giving · 13 Other relevant topics. Open a module to see its learning goals. Every module also has a pre-quiz and post-quiz on the same ideas, a confidence rating before and after, and a playbook with an opener and an exit ticket.
Banking & Saving
Weeks 1–2 · 5 modules · 114 minWhere a first paycheck goes, what accounts cost, and a budget built on guardrails instead of 40 categories.
1. Where Does Money Live?1
- Understand how checking, savings, and investment accounts serve different purposes
- Compare real accounts using APY, fees, and FDIC insurance as decision criteria
- Match financial goals to the account type best suited for each
- Distinguish between banks and credit unions and identify which fits your needs
- Recognize when a financial product is costing you money instead of building it
2. Your Banking Blueprint1913
- Understand how to set up direct deposit and allocate a paycheck across accounts
- Split direct deposit between checking and savings so saving happens before spending begins
- Evaluate banking options and select one aligned to your financial habits
- Identify common banking fees and the behaviors that trigger them
3. Your First Paycheck37
- Read and interpret a pay stub including gross pay, deductions, and net pay
- Complete a W-4 accurately based on your filing status and income situation
- Explain when federal income tax withheld from a teen's paycheck comes back as a refund
- Calculate estimated self-employment tax obligations on gig income
- Set up direct deposit and understand your options when the cash hits your account
4. Save Smarter1
- Compare high-yield and traditional savings accounts using objective criteria
- Understand how account fees compound against your balance over time and why they matter more than they appear
- Identify savings products that meaningfully grow money
- Apply automation strategies to make consistent saving the default behavior
5. Build a Budget That Runs Itself213
- Explain why behavioral design outperforms willpower in personal budgeting
- Apply a pay-yourself-first framework before discretionary spending
- Categorize personal expenses into needs and wants
- Identify lifestyle inflation and analyze your personal spending rate against national inflation measures
- Establish account thresholds that prevent overdrafts and idle cash accumulation
Real Takes: Would You Worry About This Family? · Spot the Scam · Which Account Wins? · Your Money GuardrailsAdvisor cases: The Hidden Cost of Free · Where Should Your Savings Live?
Investing
Weeks 3–5 · 6 modules · 185 minWhy invest at all, what goes inside an account, risk and time, and a first move a student can make at 18.
1. Why Invest?8
- Understand that investing is about asset allocation, not stock-picking
- Explain how inflation erodes the purchasing power of money left in low-yield accounts
- Identify the major asset classes and what role each plays in a portfolio
- Explain how compound growth rewards starting early and penalizes waiting
- Develop a personal rationale for beginning to invest based on individual financial circumstances
2. Accounts and Assets8
- Understand that an account holds investments, not an investment itself
- Explain why the same index fund produces different outcomes in different account types
- Understand the power of an employer's 401(k) match and what it means to leave it unclaimed
- Explain when a Roth IRA becomes an option (the year you have earned income)
- Match a savings goal to the right type of account
- Distinguish between Roth (qualified withdrawals are tax-free), tax-deferred, and taxable accounts
3. Know Yourself81011
- Distinguish between risk tolerance and risk capacity
- Explain why a longer time horizon justifies taking on more investment risk
- Identify your investor profile through a structured self-assessment
- Set a financial goal with a target amount, timeline, and required monthly contribution
4. The Long Game8910
- Explain why selling during a market downturn typically reduces long-term returns
- Recognize that past market returns do not predict future performance
- Identify the behavioral traps (panic selling, market timing, chasing trends) that destroy long-term returns
- Develop a written personal rule for how to respond during the next market downturn
5. Your First Move810
- Match an account type to a specific financial goal and timeline
- Compare a starter index fund with individual stocks as a first investment
- Explain how Roth IRA growth compounds over decades, and when Roth withdrawals are tax-free
- Distinguish between goals that belong in a high-yield savings account versus the market
6. Money in Motion8
- Explain how automation can narrow the gap between an investor's returns and their fund's returns
- Define dollar-cost averaging and identify when it is the practical default vs. a mathematically optimal choice
- Design a personal automation rule with account, amount, cadence, asset, and a trigger to revisit
- Distinguish between rebalancing inside tax-advantaged accounts (free) and taxable accounts (a tax event)
- Recognize the moments when professional financial advice (fee-only fiduciary) is worth the cost
Real Takes: Pay Out, or Plow Back? · Buy the Bad News? · Would You Bet It All On One Company? · Luck or Skill? · Follow the Incentive · How to Pick a Broker · The $1,650 ExperimentAdvisor cases: The Holiday Sure Thing · Maya's Roth IRA: What to Actually Buy · Opening a Brokerage Account · Pay It Off or Invest It?
The College Project
Weeks 6–8 · 9 modules · 185 minFit and cost as one decision: who you are, every path after high school, real prices, real aid, and a plan you can afford.
1. All Paths Have Costs310
- Compare post-secondary pathways (four-year, community college, trade, military, work) on cost, timeline, and earnings
- Explain how the California College Promise reduces the cost of community college
- Budget realistic living costs across different post-high-school paths
- Evaluate any path using numbers rather than assumptions or social pressure
2. Why This Matters1011
- Explain why graduation rate matters as much as cost when evaluating a school
- Combine cost, outcomes, and personal fit when assessing any college option
- Understand the financial consequences of enrolling in a school without researching its outcomes
3. Who You Are10
- Identify your academic profile including GPA, test range, and financial context before researching schools
- Rank personal priorities for college (location, size, cost, culture) in honest order
- Use your own priorities as a filter, and recognize why money and time, more than ability, drive many students to leave
4. Real Costs10
- Find and use the Net Price Calculator on any college's website
- Explain why a private university can cost less than a public one for a specific family
- Calculate your family's actual net price rather than relying on sticker price
- Explain why a listed price alone can't tell you whether a school is affordable for your family
5. Outcomes10
- Compare schools using graduation rate, median earnings, and median debt simultaneously
- Explain the financial risk of leaving without a degree when loans are already borrowed
- Evaluate a school's value by combining cost and outcomes rather than reputation alone
- Interpret graduation rate data in context, including what it counts (first-time students who finish where they started)
6. Aid Plan10
- File FAFSA soon after it opens (by October 1), before some state and school aid runs out
- Distinguish between grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans in an aid package
- Understand how Cal Grant eligibility works across UC, CSU, and community college
- Use aid in the order that costs the least: free money first, loans last
- Complete the FAFSA preparation checklist so you can file as soon as it opens
7. Final Three10
- Build a balanced college list with at least one reach, match, and safety school and understand the risk of applying only to reaches
- Classify any school as reach, match, or safety using middle-50% GPA and test data
- Compare three schools on net price, graduation rate, and median earnings before committing
- Select a safety school you would genuinely attend, not just one that would accept you
8. Timeline10
- File FAFSA every fall (it opens by October 1): it does not auto-renew
- Meet the Cal Grant March 2 deadline, planning on it being final
- Add all 18 critical college deadlines to a personal calendar
- Compare award letters using net price rather than total aid package size
9. Launch11
- Compare real net prices across all offers before committing to a school by May 1
- Appeal a financial aid award letter when a competing offer is meaningfully better
- Re-file FAFSA every fall for all four years, not just freshman year
- Calculate your actual net price using your family's income rather than published figures
Real Takes: Sticker Price vs. Real Price · FAFSA: Myth or Must? · The Three PilesAdvisor cases: The Real Cost of College
Credit & Debt
Weeks 9–12 · 10 modules · 240 minWhat borrowing really costs, how a score works, the traps, and the three biggest loans most people take.
1. The Terms Decide4
- Distinguish between credit (access) and debt (obligation) and explain why the difference matters
- Define APR and explain why it is more useful than monthly payment when comparing loans
- Calculate the real cost difference between two interest rates on the same loan
- Classify loans as secured or unsecured and predict the consequences of default for each
- Identify what a purchase does to value over time as part of any debt decision
2. Your Score, Your Future4
- Explain the five factors that determine a credit score and weight them correctly
- Distinguish between behaviors that build credit and those that damage it
- Predict score impact across real credit decisions
- Identify strategies available to teenagers for beginning to build credit history
3. When Debt Is a Trap4911
- Convert a payday loan fee into its true annual percentage rate
- Identify the red flags that distinguish predatory lenders from legitimate ones
- Recognize why people outside the banking system pay more for basic financial services
- Identify cheaper alternatives to payday loans when cash is short
4. Credit Cards 101411
- Explain how paying the statement balance in full each month avoids interest on purchases
- Identify situations where a credit card offers stronger fraud protection than debit
- Calculate how minimum payments extend debt and multiply total cost
- Recognize the structure of deferred-interest promotional offers
- Apply three rules that keep a credit card working as a tool rather than a trap
5. Protect What You’ve Built913
- Pull all three credit reports for free using annualcreditreport.com (or, under 18, have a parent ask each bureau)
- Place a credit freeze across all three bureaus (at 16 or 17 by phone or mail; under 16 through a parent or guardian)
- Identify signs of identity theft on a credit report before damage spreads
- Dispute a credit report error in writing using the correct process
- Set up monitoring that detects new accounts opened in your name
6. The Car Decision5
- Calculate the true monthly payment and total cost of an auto loan before visiting a dealership
- Explain how credit score affects interest rate and total loan cost on identical vehicles
- Evaluate a loan offer using APR rather than monthly payment
- Recognize how loan term length affects total interest paid
- Determine when an auto loan payment exceeds what your income can support
7. Borrowing for College5
- Distinguish federal from private student loans and explain why the distinction matters
- Explain the difference between subsidized and unsubsidized loans and what happens to interest during school
- Calculate what a specific loan amount actually costs by the time it is repaid
- Compare repayment options (Tiered Standard, RAP, PSLF) based on career and income situation
- Research a school’s median graduate debt before applying
8. The Biggest Loan You’ll Ever Take5613
- Explain why early mortgage payments are primarily interest rather than principal
- Compare 15-year and 30-year mortgages by total cost rather than monthly payment
- Calculate a real mortgage payment using current rates before considering homeownership
- Analyze a rent-versus-own decision using break-even as the framework
- Understand how California home prices and rents behave differently from national averages
9. The Invisible Hand513
- Explain how Federal Reserve rate decisions ripple through savings accounts and borrowing costs
- Predict how a rate change affects your own financial decisions differently depending on whether you are saving or borrowing
- Understand the Fed’s dual mandate and its independence from the executive branch
10. The Full Picture4
- Calculate the total cost of a debt over time, not just the monthly payment
- Evaluate whether a specific debt was worth taking on using both math and personal values
- Recognize how your own thinking about debt has shifted across the unit
- Understand that two people with identical loans can make different rational decisions based on their circumstances
- Compare the avalanche and snowball payoff strategies and choose one with a reason
Real Takes: Rank the Debt · What Helps, What Hurts? · Fed Chair for a Day · Pay in 4, or Pay the Price? · Lease or Own?Advisor cases: Alex's First Credit Card · Dylan's Car Decision
Taxes
Week 13 (or whenever W-2s arrive) · 3 modules · 95 minPaychecks, W-2s, filing a first return, and money that arrives with nothing withheld.
1. How Taxes Work712
- Understand how progressive income tax brackets work
- Distinguish between a deduction and a tax credit
- Identify the most common tax forms and what each one means
- Explain why filing a return matters even when you're not required to
2. File Your Taxes7
- Navigate a tax filing simulation from start to finish
- Identify and avoid common upsells in tax software
- Understand which filing option fits your situation
- Know the deadline, what an extension means, and why to always e-file
3. Tax Next Steps7
- Estimate your own federal tax result from a W-2 or pay stub, and decide what to change next year
- Identify the right free filing tool for different situations
- Understand why gig workers face different tax obligations than W-2 employees
- Build a concrete personal filing plan with a tool and timeline
Real Takes: Avoidance or Evasion? · Do You Even Have to File?Advisor cases: Should Alex File? · The Gig Tax Surprise
Insurance
Weeks 14–15 · 5 modules · 100 minHealth and auto coverage, deductibles, what drives a premium, and how to fight a bill.
1. What Is Insurance?6
- Define premium, deductible, copay, and out-of-pocket maximum and explain how they interact
- Walk through a real medical bill from deductible through out-of-pocket maximum
- Distinguish between insurance you are legally required to carry and insurance that is optional
- Explain why paying premiums for unused coverage is not wasted money
- Identify California's minimum auto insurance requirements
2. Health Insurance6
- Plan a coverage transition before turning 26 and losing dependent status
- Calculate the real value of employer health benefits as part of total compensation
- Distinguish between HMO and PPO plans and match each to a patient's situation
- Evaluate the risk of declining employer coverage based on youth or perceived health
- Compare two job offers with different salary and benefits structures using total compensation math
3. The HSA Advantage6
- Explain the HSA's three federal tax breaks, how California taxes it differently, and compare it to a Roth IRA
- Distinguish between HSA and FSA rules, particularly around fund rollover
- Identify what counts as a qualified medical expense for HSA purposes
- Weigh when an HDHP paired with an HSA fits a person's situation versus a lower-deductible plan
4. Your Other Insurance6
- Explain why a landlord's policy does not cover a tenant's personal property
- Distinguish term life from whole life insurance and identify when each is appropriate
- Calculate realistic term life insurance costs for a healthy young adult
- Identify the five standard California auto coverages and which are legally required
- Recognize gaps in your own current coverage and identify which to address first
5. Fight Your Bill6
- Verify a medical bill against the Explanation of Benefits before paying anything
- Identify phantom charges, duplicate billing, and miscoded claims on a medical bill
- Explain what California's surprise-billing law (AB 72) and the federal No Surprises Act protect patients from, and where they stop
- Use a structured phone script to dispute an incorrect medical bill
- Escalate a denied claim to the regulator that oversees the plan (for many California plans, the Department of Managed Health Care) when an insurer refuses
Real Takes: Which Plan Wins? · What Drives Your Premium?Advisor cases: What If You Actually Get Sick?
Wrapping Up
Weeks 16–18 · 1 module · 15 minThe big things, one money rule, and a memo to the student at 25.
1. The Big Things1213
- Explain the reasoning behind six financial decisions with large long-term effects
- Explain what an emergency fund protects you from, including early retirement withdrawals
- Explain the compounding advantage of starting to invest at 18 versus 30 with identical monthly amounts
- Rank the six for your own situation and write your own money rule in one sentence
Real Takes: More or Less?Advisor cases: A Financial Plan at 25
Pacing
One way to run 18 weeks.
Five periods a week, 45 to 55 minutes each. Modules take one period with the playbook's opener, discussion beats, and exit ticket. Real Takes run in 5 to 12 minutes, so two fit in a period, or one pairs with a Flight Plan check-in. Advisor cases take a period with the memo. Draft Day opens a round about every three weeks. About fifteen periods are flex. Reorder units freely; Taxes is built to move to whenever W-2s arrive.
Week 1Banking & Saving
Day one: join the class, the Big Three survey, what a Flight Plan is
Where Does Money Live?
Your Banking Blueprint
Which Account Wins?The Hidden Cost of Free
Your First Paycheck
Week 2Banking & Saving
Save Smarter
Would You Worry About This Family?First moves: an account, an automatic transfer
Where Should Your Savings Live?
Build a Budget That Runs Itself
Your Money GuardrailsSpot the Scam
Week 3Investing
Why Invest?
Accounts and Assets
Buy the Bad News?Luck or Skill?
Know Yourself
Round 1 opens: the first pick and its thesis
Week 4Investing
The Long Game
The Holiday Sure Thing
Your First Move
Opening a Brokerage Account
Follow the IncentiveHow to Pick a Broker
Week 5Investing
Money in Motion
Maya’s Roth IRA: What to Actually Buy
Would You Bet It All On One Company?The $1,650 Experiment
Pay It Off or Invest It?
Round 1 reveal, Round 2 opensInvesting moves
Week 6The College Project
College High/Low
All Paths Have Costs
Why This Matters
Who You Are
Sticker Price vs. Real PriceFlex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Week 7The College Project
Real Costs
Outcomes
Aid Plan
FAFSA: Myth or Must?File the FAFSA or CADAA
Final Three
Week 8The College Project
The Three PilesThe Real Cost of College
Timeline
Launch
Round 2 reveal, Round 3 opens
Flex: One Hour lesson for a visiting class, or reteach
Week 9Credit & Debt
The Terms Decide
Your Score, Your Future
What Helps, What Hurts?Check a credit report
When Debt Is a Trap
Debt or Alive
Week 10Credit & Debt
Credit Cards 101
Alex’s First Credit Card
Protect What You’ve Built
Rank the DebtPay in 4, or Pay the Price?
Sticker Shock
Week 11Credit & Debt
The Car Decision
Dylan’s Car Decision
Lease or Own?Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Borrowing for College
The Biggest Loan You’ll Ever Take
Week 12Credit & Debt
The Invisible Hand
Fed Chair for a DayFlex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
The Full Picture
Round 3 reveal, Round 4 opens
Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Week 13Taxes
How Taxes Work
Avoidance or Evasion?Do You Even Have to File?
File Your Taxes
Should Alex File?
Tax Next StepsThe Gig Tax Surprise
Week 14Insurance
What Is Insurance?
Health Insurance
Which Plan Wins?What If You Actually Get Sick?
The HSA Advantage
Your Other InsuranceWhat Drives Your Premium?
Week 15Insurance
Fight Your Bill
Round 4 reveal, Round 5 opens
The Life Stage Experiment (calculator lesson)
Flight Plan review: what is done, what has a date
Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Week 16Wrapping Up
The Big Things
More or Less?
A Financial Plan at 25: the capstone memo, day 1
A Financial Plan at 25: day 2, draft
Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Week 17Wrapping Up
Round 5 reveal: the receipt, every pick against the S&P 500
Capstone memo: peer review and revision
Passport review: download and keep
Flex: presentations of plans, day 1
Flex: presentations, day 2
Week 18Wrapping Up
Flex: presentations, day 3
Last day: the Big Three survey again, the class next to the national figure
Flex: finals week or your school's calendar
Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Flex: reteach from the dashboard, catch up, or your school's calendar
Assessment and grading
Grade the thinking, never the choice.
The Launchpad produces plenty of gradable work, and the Grade tab on the teacher dashboard collects it: each module's post-quiz score, its one key written response, the confidence lift, and a CSV of everything. None of it has to be graded the same way. One structure to start from:
| What | Weight | How to grade it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exit tickets and module key responses | 30% | Completion, with the key response stamped Thoughtful, Getting there, or Not yet (two of three markers: a specific number from the activity, the student's own words, a real situation). | Every module |
| Post-quizzes | 15% | Score on the post-quiz only. Pre-quizzes are never graded; they are the baseline. | Every module |
| Real Takes and Advisor memos | 25% | Real Takes on the one written call. Advisor memos on the four-part rubric: the situation, a committed recommendation, two reasons tied to the person, one thing to watch for. | As they land |
| Flight Plan | 10% | Moves chosen, with dates. Never grade whether a move is done; a student may not have the money or the paperwork to act yet. | Three check-ins |
| Draft Day | 5% | The thesis, the risk rating, and the check-ins. Never the return. | Each round |
| Capstone memo: A Financial Plan at 25 | 15% | The same four-part rubric, written to the student's future self. This is the summative task. | Weeks 16–17 |
Ground rules
- Grade the thinking, never the choice. A well-reasoned plan for community college, an apprenticeship, or work scores exactly like a well-reasoned plan for a university.
- Never grade content that would require a student to reveal family finances or immigration status. For those pages, grade completion only.
- Spelling, grammar, and length do not affect a grade. That is what keeps the standard fair across language levels.
- The Big Three survey is never graded. It is the course's benchmark, asked verbatim on the first day and the last.
The four-part memo rubric
1. The situationWho the person is, their income and goal, the specific decision. Did the student prove they understand the person before advising?
2. The recommendationOne committed sentence. No hedging, no list. A committed "not yet" counts.
3. The whyTwo reasons, each tied to this person's situation, not to general rules.
4. What to watch forAt least one real risk, trap, or question to check before acting.
Every student
Built for mixed rooms.
- Modules are self-paced, written in short sentences at about a sixth to ninth grade reading level, and every reveal explains why.
- Multilingual learners: give sentence frames for exit tickets ("One number that surprised me was ___ because ___"), pair students to talk before they write, and put the official Spanish aid sites (studentaid.gov/es, CSAC's CADAA materials) on the board next to the English ones.
- IEPs and 504 plans: the pre-quiz and confidence rating are not graded, so a student can start without a penalty; the playbook's minute-level flow makes it easy to split a module across two days.
- No devices: Real Takes, the Advisor Series, and the One Hour lesson run on paper; the Activity Workbook holds all of them.
- A family notice and a parent letter are available in English and Spanish from The Finance Lab.
See it with a sample class.
The teacher demo opens the dashboard, the Grade tab, and the Pacing Calendar with no signup.