31+ Free Personal Finance Homeschool Resources

Need FREE personal finance homeschool curriculum (and lessons for kids)? One of these 31 free homeschool resources below should cover you.

Do you homeschool your children?

Perhaps there are certain requirements you’ve got to meet when it comes to personal finance homeschool curriculum, and you want some resources to cover your bases.

Or, maybe you’ve just realized how important it is to send your child into this world with a real money education (bravo, you!), so you’re looking for some great homeschool subjects or resources that they can work through under your wing.

The other day, it dawned on me that there are lots of homeschooling parents out there on the front lines of teaching our youth about personal finance.

And that it would probably make your life a lot easier if you knew where to find free personal finance homeschool curriculum.

Well, look no further for one of the most important online homeschooling curriculum you can find!

Free Personal Finance Curriculum

I’ve got 31+ free homeschool personal finance resources for you, including personal finance curriculum for high school, financial literacy lesson plans middle school, and financial literacy activities for elementary students. 

And I’ve personally emailed each one to ask whether or not a homeschooling parent can sign up for their free resources as well (unless it specifically addressed this on their website – which many times it did not).

FYI: these are in no particular order, so scroll through, click around, and stay awhile!

Free Money Resource #1: Money Prodigy

Let’s not forget about my work with kids and money!

I’ve got loads of free resources created to add some fun into those critical money lessons your child needs to learn.

Grab your free printables here:

• Financial Literacy Worksheets and Games: Here's 15 financial literacy activities for high school students pdf, 19 free financial literacy games for high school students, banking activities for kids, credit card games for students, and much more.
• Entrepreneurship Lessons: Let your child take a consultant position to beef up their entrepreneur skills by hosting this fun Winter Beverage Taste Testing Competition. Or, teach your child important entrepreneurial skills by running your own Take Your Child to Work Day in your small biz. Enroll them in one of these youth entrepreneurship program, or teach kids about stocks.
• Set and Reach a Savings Goal Lessons: Help your child distill all their wants vs. needs (their be/do/have) list down to just one savings goal with these goal setting activities for kids. Here's 100 goals for a teenager to pick from.
• Money Games with Money Life Skills: Did you buy a cash register for your child? Start them off with this free starter Money Play Kit for it. Or try one of the best cash register games I created, called More than, Less than. Are your kiddos a bit older? Here’s 6 game-changing ways to play Monopoly so that they pick up money life skills.
• Open Up Money Conversations: I’ve got 50 free money conversation starters for you.

Free Money Resource #2: EverFi Financial Literacy

Age Range: elementary, middle and high school students

This animated curriculum platform is trying to produce financially capable kids by making financial literacy fun again (sounds a lot like what I’m trying to do!). EverFi breaks down complex topics – such as investing to making entrepreneurship relevant – to teach your kids.

And yes, you can sign up for a free account as a homeschool teacher! You can find your school listed by state, with the title “HomeSchool” (see image for an example – here’s an educator quick start guide).

Lesson Topics include:

• Grades 4-6: Decision Making, Income & Careers, and Savings & Investing.
• Grades 6-8: Financial Values and Goal-Setting, Budgeting & Opportunity Costs, and Risk vs. Return.
• Grades 7-10: Thinking Like an Entrepreneur, Building a Team and Managing a Business, and Creative an Effective Business Pitch.
• Grades 9-12: Credit Cards and Interest Rates, Financing Higher Education, and Saving and Investing

Curriculum Alignment: They currently align with the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.

Free Money Resource #3: Practical Money Skills by Visa

Age Range: Pre-K all the way to college

Practical Money Skills provides lesson plans and hands-on activities to help you instill good financial values and knowledge to your homeschooled children. This curriculum also offers variations of lessons with accommodations for students with special needs as well!

Each lesson, broken down by grades, comes with a Teacher’s Guide, Student Activities, PowerPoint, and Presentations.

There are way too many lessons to outline them all here; I’ll give you a sampling by listing out lessons for Grades 3-6:

• Allowances and Spending Plan
• Money Responsibility
• Saving and Investing
• Comparison Shopping

Pssst: these guys also have lots of online games, 4 free video games about money + free money comic books you can get in the mail (you don’t even pay shipping!). Here’s my Money Metropolis review – one of their games – plus money conversations to add to it for improved learning.

Curriculum Alignment: Check out how this curriculum aligns with your state’s standards here.

Free Money Resource #4: MoneySKILL®

Age Range: Middle School, High School, and College

Access 37 free modules (in both English and Spanish) with pre/post-tests that teach lots of personal finance concepts like expenses, and income, insurance, and credit.

To gain access, homeschoolers will need to select “teacher” in the registration form + explain that you’re a homeschooling parent.

Money Lessons Include:

• Earned Income and Skill Demand
• The Consumer Life Cycle
• Other Deductions from Pay
• Paying for What We Buy
• Earned Income and Skill Supply
• Lifetime Plan
• Preparing to Acquire a Vehicle

Curriculum Alignments: They currently align with all national standards for personal finance curriculum in grades K-12, including the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.

Free Money Resource #5: Money Teach (UPDATE: Retired, as of 5/1/2020)

Age Range: Grades K all the way through to Adult

Money Teach is sponsored by places like the National Endowment for Financial Education. They provide financial literacy curriculum for homeschoolers and other educational providers.

I like how you can search their lessons by the topic you want to teach (see below), the age range, the material type (activity, worksheet, visual aid, etc.), and time it will take to complete.

Topics you’ll find free lessons on:

• Spending and Saving
• Investing
• Credit Cards and Debt
• Employment and Income
• Risk Management and Insurance
• Financial Decision Making

Note: many of the lessons you find will be from other sites, and you’ll get a link for where to go. They currently partner with The National Endowment for Financial Education’s® (NEFE®) High School Financial Planning Program (HSFPP®), The University of Arizona’s Take Charge Today, PwC's Earn Your Future, The FDIC's Money Smart, the Mu$eum of American Finance, and Next Gen Personal Finance. For example, I was looking for a 30-60-minute activity for Grades K-6 on Credit and Debt, and one of the results is for The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Money Smart program.

Free Money Resource #6: NEFE High School Financial Planning Program

Age Range: Grades 8-12

The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) provides online curriculum aligned with national standards to help teens take real world concepts and apply it to financial situations.

Workbooks are also available at no cost to you if you prefer physical curriculum.

Money topics include:

• Money Management: Manage Your Cash Flow
• Borrowing: Use, Don’t Abuse
• Earning Power: More than a Paycheck
• Investing: Money Working for You
• Financial Services: Care for Your Cash
• Insurance: Protect What You Have

Curriculum Alignment: program content is aligned with the Jump$tart Coalition National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education, and other national academic standards related to personal finance.

Free Money Resource #7: FDIC Money Smart

Age Range: Grades K-12

Grab your four free financial literacy lesson plans, provided by the guys who make sure your savings account balance stays safe – the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). In fact, one of their goals is for youth to create positive relationships with financial institutions!

The four lesson plans are broken down by the following age groups: Pre-K through 2^nd grade, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12.

Example money lessons for Grades 3-5 include:

• Buying Decisions
• Setting Goals
• Budgeting
• Saving
• Payment Options
• Introduction to Investing
• Charitable Giving
• Exploring Careers and Income

Free Money Resource #8: H&R Block’s Budget Competition

Age Range: 14 years and older

Do you want to show your young adults how financial mistakes can have real consequences? H&R Block’s Budget Competition allows you to test these out on the “open road”, while giving your child a chance to enter for a scholarship.

This is a 10-week “online simulation tool that replicates real-world budgeting and personal finance decision-making”, available to both teachers and to homeschool educators.

Kids play by getting a regular paycheck over those 10 weeks, a checking account, and a 401(k) savings. They also must pay bills and balance everything.

Real-World Ready Rankings/Scores are determined by:

• Behavior
• Knowledge
• Skill

Students can get up to a possible 400% (and can track their Real-World Ready rankings). And at the end of each semester? The top 5 students get a $20,000 scholarship!

Free Money Resource #9: Vanguard’s My Classroom Economy

Age Range: Grades K-12

This financial literacy program simulates a microeconomy, including activities like students paying rent for their desk and getting “paid” for hours spent learning.

Topics for high school students also include learning the foundations of investing money and why you’d want to purchase insurance.

Curriculum Alignment: Courses align with the Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.

*** Waiting to hear back from them if they accept homeschooling families.

Free Money Resource #10: The Actuarial Foundation

Age Range: High School

The Actuarial Foundation provides the “Build You Future” series to allow your high schools to explore a wide range of financial concepts, from checking and savings accounts, to exploring paths to employment.

Money topics include (you can download both the student and the teacher pdfs):

• Savings accounts/Checking Accounts
• Taxes
• Credit Cards
• Loans and interest
• Home loans
• Bonds, stocks, mutual funds
• Inflation
• Path to employment
• Making a living
• Retirement

Curriculum: aligns with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy.

Free Money Resource #11: Compare Cards Education Center

Age Range: 6-18 years

This curriculum helps students learn the basics of building credit, what your credit entails, and using credit cards wisely.

The lesson plans are broken down by the following grades: Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5, Middle School, and High School, and 18+.

Money lessons include:

• What Money Can Do
• Money in the Real World
• Middle School – Building Credit
• High School – Intro to Credit Cards
• First-Time Credit Card Owner
• Basics of Investing
• Bull and Bear Markets
• How to Choose Stocks
• Work of a Stockbroker
• Other Types of Investments

Psst: here are 3 credit card games for high school students, and 15 free financial literacy activities for high school students PDFs.

Free Money Resource #12: Banzai!

Ages: Banzai Junior (8-12), Teen (13-18), and Plus (16+)

Banzai is an online platform backed by banks and credit unions to discuss how to successfully deal with real life financial dilemmas for all ages.

I contacted them specifically to ask about homeschoolers, and YES, you can sign up for an account and use their resources as a homeschooler! The only catch is, as a homeschooler, you can use their platform but you won’t be able to order their free materials.

A bit more from them:

“Teachers will sign up, creating an account. Once they're signed up, they are able to create as many classes as needed with each class having its own class code. They will have their students sign up as well (making sure to select “Students”) where they will put in a username and password and will need that class code which the teachers will give them. Once students are signed up, they will see the four different parts of the program on their page (Pretest, Life Scenarios, Game, Posttest). They will go in order completing the program. It is all online, with the booklets only need on one portion of the program (the Life Scenarios). In one setting, students can take anywhere from two to three hours to complete. If completed 30-45 minutes each day, it normally takes about a week to finish.

Students will encounter real life scenarios that show them what it's like to save and spend your money once you're on your own. They will even have a chance to save $2,000 for college in the game and know how hard it is to accomplish that.”

Curriculum Alignment: Scroll way down on this page and click on your state to see curriculum alignment with your state.

Free Money Resource #14: Saveandinvest.org

Age Range: Middle School and High School

You’ll find different money simulations, lesson plans, and games about topics covering things like the true cost of owning a car and the concept of breaking even on business ventures.

In their series Money Math for Teens, lessons teach APR, APY, and compound interest for middle and high school students.

Other money lessons include:

• The Emergency Fund
• Dividend-Paying Stocks
• Opportunity Costs
• Credit Score
• Debt Elimination: Power Tools for Building Wealth

Free Money Resource #15: Take Charge Today

Age Range: Grades 7-12

This is free decision-based curriculum developed by the University of Arizona to help educators foster a thinking environment in regards to personal finance and decision making.

As an educator, you can access assessments, course guides, and active learning tool suggestions.

Money lessons include:

• Introduction to Spending Plans
• The Basics of Taxes
• Time Value of Money Magic!

Curriculum Alignment: Lesson plans were designed, tested, and edited with university researchers, financial industry experts, and our own Master Educator Teams, and are aligned to most state and national standards.

Free Money resource #16: We the Economy

Age Range: All ages

This is personal finance education by short film!

Well, actually, it’s all about the economy – which is definitely tied to personal finance.

There are 20 free, mini-films that cover tough topics such as income wage inequality and health insurance. And there are even well-known producers and movie stars in each of the films.

Films are 5-8 minutes long.

Mini-films Include:

• What is the Economy?
• GDP Smackdown
• Supply & Dance, Man
• Lemonade War
• A Bee’s Invoice: The Hidden Value in Nature
• Fed Head
• Recession
• The Ebola Economy
• And lots more!

Here’s a sign-up form for a limited number of free DVDs available to educators.

Curriculum Alignment: Classroom materials align with Common Core, C3, and Subject Area Standards (ELA, Social Studies, Math, Science, etc.).

Free Money Resource #17: In Charge

Age Range: High School

You’ll find 14 free lesson plans + teacher guides + presentations that discuss everything from living on your own to consumer privacy. These are targeted for teens, with additional worksheets for comprehensive learning.

Specific Money lessons Include:

• Making Personal Finance Decisions
• Making Money
• The Art of Budgeting
• Living on Your Own
• Buying a Home
• Banking Services
• Credit
• Credit Cards
• Cars and Loans
• The Influence of Advertising
• Consumer Awareness
• Saving & Investing
• In Trouble
• Consumer Privacy

Are you a teacher who is not comfortable teaching personal finance? This site also offers some support for you, with a free Teach Money Financial Literacy Workbook to brush up on your skills.

Free Money Resource #18: PwC’s Earn Your Future

Age Range: Grades K-12

PwC’s Access Your Potential curriculum teaches both Financial Literacy and Technology Skills (the tech skills are geared towards middle school students, fyi).

Money Lesson Include:

• Budgeting the Bottom Line
• Building Wealth
• Career Exploration
• Charitable Giving
• Consumer Fraud
• Creditworthiness
• Filing a Return
• Evaluating Financial Information
• Income vs. Monthly Payments
•  

Something else I love about this site/company? They offer a Career Village, where your child can get their career questions answered for free by professionals!

Curriculum Alignment: Content is aligned with Council for Economic Education standards.

Free Money Resource #19: Kids Who Discover Online

Age Range: Specific one not given

This site offers some free interactive lesson plans for science and social studies (also lots of paid lessons).

You’ll specifically want to check out the following free guides for money education:

• KIDS DISCOVER Saving and Spending: This guide covers things like trade-offs, opportunity costs, work kids do around the world, growing human capital, etc.
• KIDS DISCOVER Money: Your kiddos will learn about ancient forms of money, how to identify counterfeit bills, history of the U.S. Dollar, gambling/robberies, etc.
• The Costs and Benefits of Tourism

You’ll receive a Power Vocabulary guide for each teaching guide you download, and it includes vocabulary from two different word groups – what they call “brick words” and “mortar words.” Brick words are key ideas and mortar words “hold the key ideas together”.

Aside from the teaching guides are a couple of free online money lessons include a lesson on counterfeiting money, and the topic “Economics” (lessons include: Making Choices, Goods, Services, and Resources, and Money and Currency).

Free Money Resource #20: Small Business Administration: Young Entrepreneurs

Want your child to learn how to create + finance a basic business? The Small Business Administration offers a 30-minute video course as an intro.

They’ll learn to do things like write down their business idea/plan, that entrepreneurs need to be flexible and persistent, that they need to size up the competition, picking a business model, etc.

Free Money Resource #21: PBS Learning Media

Age Range: Pre-K to 13+

There are tons of videos with varying age ranges + lesson plans for your kiddo to pick up on some entrepreneurial lessons/skills. Videos include interviewing entrepreneurs in various fields, becoming a social entrepreneur, learning about historical figures who were entrepreneurs, etc.

Curriculum Alignments: Each lesson is broken down by the National Standards it covers.

Free Money Resource #22: EntreEd

Age Range: Grades 3-12

The National Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education offers lots of videos with PDF lesson plans to go along with them to teach entrepreneurial skills.

Entrepreneurship Lessons include:

• Success V. Challenge
• Common Business Structures
• How Far Does that Paycheck Go?
• What Do You Know about Entrepreneurship?
• Inventors V. Entrepreneurs
• Risk
• Teamwork
• Making Money through Social Media
•  

Curriculum Alignment: Here’s how EntreEd aligns with national standards of education.

Free Money Resource #23: Alison

Age Range: All ages

This site has over 1,000 free courses (not all geared towards kids). A few that pop out to me about money and entrepreneurship are:

• Sustainable Business
• Key Elements of Entrepreneurial Success
• Starting a Business or Social Enterprise – the Stone Soup Way

various learning paths you’ll definitely want to check out:

• Entrepreneurial Skills
• General Finance
• Personal Finance

Something cool about this site – aside from the fact that it is free education? You can become an Alison Graduate and earn actual Certificate of Achievements for mastering courses.

Curriculum Alignment: Alison has its own Alison Academy that accredits the courses. Here’s much more info on their accreditation.

Free Money Resource #24: Foundation for Economic Education

Have your kiddo go through the Economics of Entrepreneurship series, a collection of great courses.

And homeschool co-ops can receive a free classroom kit!

Your kit includes:

• 50 copies of the Iconic Books: Economics in One Lesson, I, Pencil, Great Myths of the Great Depression, and The Law.
• Study Guides for each book
• Lesson Plans

Money Lessons Include:

• What is Entrepreneurship?
• What is the Entrepreneur’s Role in Creating Value?
• What Do Profit and Loss Tell Us?
• How Do I Become an Entrepreneur?

Curriculum Alignment: Upon completion of a FEE course, your child receives a certificate of achievement they can print and/or share on social media outlets.

Free Money Resource #25: Teen Business

Age Range: Tweens/Teens

Would you love for your child to become a TeenVestor?

Here’s an impressive collection of videos with specific entrepreneurial lessons for teens.

Educational tracks include:

• Profit Series
• Marketing Series
• Business Plan Series
• Finding Funds Series
• Business Plan Series
• Inspiration and Motivation Series

Free Money Resource #26: Biz Kid$

Age Range: 6-12 years+

Your kid can start with the Biz Kid$ 65+ videos on topics such as

• Careers
• Credit & debt
• Entrepreneurship
• Financial markets & the economy
• Financial planning and personal finances
• Saving & investing.

You can sort videos by lesson topic or by grade level, and there are also Spanish videos!

Curriculum Alignment: Biz Kid$ episodes are based on national standards for financial literacy and entrepreneurship education.

Free Money Resource #27: EconEdLink

Age Range: All Grades

The Council for Economic Education offers tons of valuable economics lessons. For money education, you’ll specifically want to check out these:

• Grades 6-8, 9-12: Better Money Habits
• Grades 6-8, 9-12: Math in the Real World
• Grades K-5: Economics in Children’s Literature

Curriculum Alignment: You can choose lessons by standards, either CEE's Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, CEE's National Standards for Financial Literacy, or Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts.

Free Money Resource #28: Minecraft Opportunity Cost Lesson

Age Range: Grades 3-5

How cool – someone created a lesson on opportunity costs and trade-offs based entirely around Minecraft!

Free Money Resource #29: Next Gen Personal Finance

Age Range: High school

NGPF provides curriculum to help your older homeschoolers learn about financial topics such as checking accounts, investing, insurance and financing their way into college. They’ve got a total of 65 lessons, 200 activities, and 400 curated videos, broken down into 12 different units.

12 Units include:

• Checking
• Saving
• Types of Credit
• Managing Credit
• Paying for College
• Budgeting
• Investing
• Financial Pitfalls
• Career
• Taxes
• Insurance
• Bonus Section

Create a free account (the free teacher account is available for both parents and homeschoolers as well – I checked), and you can get access to personal summative and comprehension assessments to give your child  + their answer keys for teachers – this will help you figure out what they do and do not know about personal finance (though I think they correspond to the lessons).

Two online money games worth mentioning as well: Payback, and Cat Insanity.

Curriculum Alignment: Each project states that it’s “Common Core Standards-aligned”.

Free Money Resource #30: Sesame Street

Age Range: For kids who love Sesame Street

This “Finances for Kids Toolkit” includes videos for your child that teach money lessons through their fave Sesame Street characters: Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Money lesson videos include:

• Learning to Wait
• Three Jars
• Making Choices
• Elmo’s Savings Jar
• Elmo Makes a Choice
• Learning to Save

You’ll find teacher/educator/parent resource guides that include questions to ask your child after they watch the videos, educator’s guide, Children’s Activity Book, and more.

Free Money Resource #31: Scholastic’s Adventures in Math

Age Range: Grades K-8

I used to love those Scholastic catalogues we got at school – my Mom would always let me order a few books (and I gobbled them down a month or so later).

It’s great to know that Scholastic also has a decent library of money lessons you can use to teach your child personal finance.

Money lessons include:

• Money Matters
• Plans and Goals
• Saving Money for Your Future
• Finding the Better Buy

Curriculum Alignment: Here’s a complete breakdown for how the money lessons correspond with Common Core State Standards Initiative.

There you have it – plenty of resources to go along with or become your personal finance homeschool curriculum so that you teach your child the critical money life skills they’ll need.

Free Money Resource #32: VentureLab

Age Range: Grades 1-12

This is a youth entrepreneurship curriculum that's available for free to homeschoolers, non-profits, and for any other non-commercial uses. Curriculum is separated into lower elementary, middle elementary, and high school levels.

Lessons are prep-free, as they come with the lesson plan, slides, teaching tips, instructions, etc. Lessons are centered around building skills needed for entrepreneurs, such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication and collaboration are explicitly taught.

Pssst: do you offer free money lessons to homeschooling parents? Reach out to me with your resource for possible inclusion to the list.