Money Smarts. Where personal finance begins.
Twelve animated lessons. Six mentors. One toolkit your kid keeps for life. By the end of Money Smarts, your child understands how to earn, save, give, spend smart, and grow — the foundation every other CashQuest track builds on.
Twelve short videos. One foundational skill at a time.
Each episode is 45 to 180 seconds. Pair it with the worksheet, run the family-night conversation, and your kid builds a real money habit before bed.
Your kid meets the six mentors. Sets the mindset that money is a tool, not a goal.
Three ways to earn money as a kid — chores, gigs, businesses. First dollar earned.
The single habit wealthy adults wish they'd started at 8. Save before spend.
Pause the cart. What is this for? The rule that prevents adult debt traps.
Save / Spend / Give. Allocate every dollar a job before it can wander.
Compare price. Compare value. The 24-hour rule kids actually use.
Why generosity multiplies wealth. Becoming a kid who lifts others.
Goal-setting that sticks. Pen to paper beats screen-tap every time.
Unit price math kids can do at the store. The shopper's edge.
Why borrow-now-pay-later kills futures. How to spot it before you sign.
The bridge from parent-given to self-earned. The teen pivot.
Capstone. Your kid graduates Money Smarts and unlocks Investor Lab.
Open one full episode — student, parent, and teacher.
Here's exactly what a complete Money Smarts episode looks like inside the membership. Below is EP 01 — Welcome to Money Smarts — the same three PDFs every episode ships with.
Three companion PDFs — free preview
Click any to download the real, full-quality sample. The same audience-banded set lands with all 12 episodes.
Four learning channels. One lesson reaches all.
Money Smarts wasn't built for the kid who already sits still and reads. Every episode delivers the same concept through four channels so the lesson sticks — not just plays.
Visual
Chibi-Pixar animation. Color-coded jars. On-screen money math the kid can pause and re-watch.
Auditory
Kid-voiced mentor characters. Catchy rules ("Pay yourself first.") that stick in the head the way song lyrics do.
Kinesthetic
Three-jar exercise with real coins. Coloring book that maps the concept. Family-money-night activities that involve moving real things.
Reading + Writing
Worksheet with sentence stems. Parent guide with discussion script. Teacher lesson pack with full 5E plan.
Same 12 episodes. Four ramps up the difficulty.
Money Smarts isn't one-and-done. Your 5-year-old colors the Three Jars; your 16-year-old runs a real budget on a paycheck. The same mentors. Deeper questions. New formats per grade band.
"What is a dollar? What does save mean?" Coloring book + sticker chart + the Three Jars exercise. Money habits form by age 7 — this is where it starts.
"How much did I really save this week?" Tracking worksheets + parent-led dinner-table prompts + first real allowance management.
"Run a $200 month for a fictional teen." Real spreadsheet thinking. Comparison shopping at the store. First introduction to compound math.
"Open a real bank account. Run a real paycheck through a real budget." Apex projects bridging into Investor Lab + What's a Tax tracks.
The research is loud. Most parents have never heard it.
These aren't our numbers — they're from Cambridge, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, T. Rowe Price, Greenlight, and NEFE. Money Smarts is built around what they actually found.
By age 7, the money mind is set.
Cambridge University researchers found that children's core money attitudes and saving behaviors are firmly established by age 7. Trying to install them at 17 is uphill. Money Smarts starts at 5.
Source: Whitebread, D. & Bingham, S. (2013), Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children, University of Cambridge, Money Advice Service.
Kids whose parents talk money save 2.5× more.
CFPB research shows kids whose parents discuss money twice a week or more develop savings behaviors at 2.5× the rate of peers. Money Smarts ships a parent script with every episode — the conversation is the curriculum.
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Building Blocks of Financial Capability in Youth.
87% of parents wish they'd learned this earlier.
Greenlight's 2024 Family Money Report: nearly 9 of 10 parents say they would have made better financial decisions if they'd been taught money skills before age 18. Don't let your kid repeat the regret.
Source: Greenlight, 2024 Family Money Report; aligned with NEFE 2023 Financial Wellbeing Pulse.
Only 4% of US families discuss money weekly.
T. Rowe Price's annual Parents, Kids & Money Survey finds that despite parents wanting to teach money, only 4% do so on a weekly cadence. Money Smarts makes it impossible to skip the conversation.
Source: T. Rowe Price, 2023 Parents, Kids & Money Survey.
The avg student-loan burden Money Smarts kids dodge.
Average US graduate now leaves college with $37,718 in student debt. Adults who completed K-12 personal finance education take on smaller loans, choose better aid options, and pay them off ~40% faster. Money Smarts is where that path begins.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel (2024); Urban et al. on financial-education outcomes.
76% of high schoolers fail a basic money quiz.
Most American teens cannot pass a baseline financial-literacy quiz, even at graduation. Schools alone aren't closing the gap. Money Smarts gives families the structured, no-prep curriculum schools were supposed to deliver.
Source: National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE); Stash Learn Financial Literacy Survey.
Money Smarts isn't a gamified app. It's a curriculum.
Compared to the most-recognized "kids money" platforms, Money Smarts is the only one built like a real K–12 personal-finance course.
App-side mini-game
- 30-min gamified missions
- Requires debit card
- No printable worksheets
- No parent or teacher guides
- No K–12 scaffold
In-app gamified lessons
- Per-child subscription
- Debit-card-gated
- Light "missions," not curriculum
- No family conversation script
- No grade differentiation
General-ed app, light on money
- Free but un-paid for a reason
- Personal finance is a thin layer
- No mentor-led narrative
- No parent dinner scripts
- Not a K–12 PF pathway
A real K–12 PF curriculum
- 12 mentor-led video lessons
- 3 PDFs per episode (Student / Parent / Teacher)
- K–2 / 3–5 / 6–8 / 9–12 scaffolded
- Parent dinner-table script
- 5E lesson plans & rubrics
- One family membership · no banking app required
Give your kid the Money Smarts head start their school won't.
12 episodes. 37 worksheets. Six mentor characters your kid will quote at dinner. One $9.99/mo family membership covers every kid in your house.
Lock in All-Access · $9.99/mo or $49.99/yr →7-day money-back guarantee · cancel anytime · one membership covers your whole family