Graduate knowing exactly what to do with your money
The financial lessons school forgot to teach. Money By Design gives high schoolers a real-world money education — from paychecks and credit scores to investing and retirement — so they graduate with confidence, not confusion.
Every student deserves to graduate knowing how money actually works, before life forces them to find out the hard way.— LBD Academy
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Figure out how much your dream life actually costs
- Avoid expensive money mistakes before they happen
- Learn how to make your money work for you
- Understand credit before you need it
- Compare college, trade school, military, and career pathways with confidence
- Build a personalized financial game plan for adulthood
How it works
Your roadmap to financial confidence
Learn the money skills most adults wish they had learned sooner—from budgeting and credit to investing and planning for your future.
Design your dream life
Start by imagining the life you want. We'll help you calculate what that lifestyle actually costs and identify the financial habits needed to get there.
Learn how money really works
Understand paychecks, taxes, budgeting, credit, loans, FAFSA, investing, and retirement through simple lessons designed for real life—not a textbook.
Build your personal money plan
Leave with a practical financial roadmap, savings goals, and the confidence to make smart money decisions as you enter adulthood.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
12 modules · 35 lessons
Your Dream Life Costs Money
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Every financial journey starts with a destination. Before students can learn how to manage money, they need a reason to care. This opening module connects personal ambition to financial literacy by anchoring every future lesson in the student's own dream life. Students discover that the life they want — travel, independence, a home, a business — has a real price tag, and that understanding money is the first step to affording it. The tone is motivating, visual, and personal.
- 1.1What Do You Actually Want Your Life to Look Like?Included
- 1.2Why School Didn't Teach You ThisIncluded
- 1.3The Language of MoneyIncluded
What Money Actually Is
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Before students can manage money wisely, they need to understand what money actually is — not just physically, but conceptually. This module covers the history of money, how it functions in society, and the role it plays in everyday life. Understanding money as a tool (not a measure of worth) sets the philosophical foundation for everything that follows. This module is kept concise and engaging — a mental warm-up before the practical skills begin.
- 2.1From Barter to Bank Account — A Very Short History of MoneyIncluded
- 2.2How Money Moves Through SocietyIncluded
- 2.3Why Society Needs Money — and What Happens When It Breaks DownIncluded
Understanding Income & Paychecks
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. This is where financial literacy gets real and immediately useful. Students learn exactly what happens between the moment they earn money and the moment they can spend it. Gross pay, net pay, taxes, deductions, W-2s, and the different ways people earn income are all covered here. By the end of this module, no paycheck stub should be a mystery. This module directly addresses one of the course's core target outcomes.
- 3.1Gross Pay vs. Net Pay — The Money That's Actually YoursIncluded
- 3.2Taxes — What They Are and Why They ExistIncluded
- 3.3Types of Income — More Ways to Earn Than You ThinkIncluded
Budgeting Without Hating It
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Budgeting is the engine of financial health, but it has a reputation problem. This module reframes budgeting not as a restriction but as a permission slip — a plan that tells your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Students learn to distinguish needs from wants, explore multiple budgeting frameworks, and build their own real-life monthly budget. This is one of the most hands-on, practical modules in the course and includes two signature activities.
- 4.1Needs vs. Wants — The Line That Changes EverythingIncluded
- 4.2Budget Frameworks That Actually WorkIncluded
- 4.3Real Life Budget — Making the Numbers WorkIncluded
Interest — Friend or Enemy?
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Interest is the most powerful force in personal finance — and it works in two directions. When it's working for you, compound interest quietly builds enormous wealth over time. When it's working against you, it turns small debts into crushing burdens. This module gives students a deep, intuitive understanding of how interest works using stories, visuals, and hands-on math so they can recognize it in the wild and use it to their advantage.
- 5.1Simple Interest vs. Compound Interest — The BasicsIncluded
- 5.2The Time Value of Money — Why Starting Early WinsIncluded
- 5.3When Interest Works Against You — The Debt TrapIncluded
Credit Scores & Credit Reports
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Credit follows students into every major adult financial decision — apartments, car loans, mortgages, and sometimes even job applications. Yet most young people have no idea how credit works until something goes wrong. This module teaches students to understand, build, protect, and monitor their credit proactively. By the end, reading a credit report and interpreting a credit score should feel completely manageable — not mysterious.
- 6.1What Is Credit — and Why Does It Matter?Included
- 6.2How Credit Scores Are CalculatedIncluded
- 6.3Reading a Credit ReportIncluded
Credit Cards Without the Horror Stories
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Credit cards are neither evil nor magic — they are tools. Used correctly, they build credit, offer purchase protections, and even earn rewards. Used carelessly, they trigger the compound interest debt trap students learned about in Module 5. This module teaches students how credit cards actually work, how to use them strategically, and how to get their first card without getting burned. The goal is confidence, not avoidance.
- 7.1How Credit Cards Actually WorkIncluded
- 7.2Using Credit Cards as a Tool, Not a LifelineIncluded
- 7.3Getting Your First Credit Card — Without Getting BurnedIncluded
FAFSA, Scholarships & Student Loans
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. For students considering college, this module is one of the most financially consequential in the entire course. Decisions made during the college funding process can shape a student's financial life for a decade or more. This module empowers students to pursue free money first, understand the FAFSA process without fear, and borrow student loans only with full knowledge of the long-term cost. The module is also designed to be valuable for students NOT planning on college — providing context for any large, loan-funded decision.
- 8.1Free Money First — Scholarships & GrantsIncluded
- 8.2FAFSA — DemystifiedIncluded
- 8.3Student Loans — Borrow Smart or Don't BorrowIncluded
Banking & Emergency Funds
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Banking is where financial life happens day to day — and yet many students have never opened an account, read a bank statement, or thought about why different types of accounts exist. This module covers the fundamentals of banking, the mechanics of checking and savings accounts, and the critical importance of an emergency fund. By the end, students should be fully prepared to open and manage their first bank account and begin saving with intention. This module also compares and explains differences between credit unions and banks.
- 9.1Banking 101 — Where Your Money LivesIncluded
- 9.2Emergency Funds — Your Financial SeatbeltIncluded
- 9.3Saving with a Purpose — Goals, Habits, and AutomationIncluded
Investing & Retirement
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Investing is where wealth is actually built — and the earlier students start, the more powerful compound interest becomes. This module introduces the fundamentals of investing, the major retirement account types, and the concept of building wealth slowly and steadily. The approach is intentionally beginner-friendly: no day trading, no complex strategies, no overwhelming jargon. The message is simple, clear, and empowering: anyone can invest, and starting young is the single biggest advantage you can have.
- 10.1Investing Basics — Putting Your Money to WorkIncluded
- 10.2Retirement Accounts — 401(k), Roth IRA & Traditional IRAIncluded
- 10.3Building Wealth Slowly and SteadilyIncluded
Insurance & Protecting Your Future
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. Building wealth is only half the job — protecting it is the other half. Insurance is the financial world's risk management system, and understanding how it works (and when you need it) is a critical life skill. This module covers the core concept of insurance, the types students will encounter as young adults, and how to think about coverage decisions without overpaying or leaving themselves exposed. The tone is practical and reassuring — insurance is not something to fear, it's something to understand.
- 11.1How Insurance Works — The Big IdeaIncluded
- 11.2Types of Insurance You'll Actually NeedIncluded
- 11.3Insurance Decisions — Avoiding the Gaps and the TrapsIncluded
Build Your Personal Financial Plan
Disclaimer: This course is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation. This is the capstone module — the place where every skill, concept, and habit from the previous eleven modules comes together into one personalized, actionable financial plan. Students don't leave this course with just knowledge; they leave with a document they can actually use. The tone is celebratory, empowering, and forward-looking. This module validates how far students have come and equips them to walk into their financial future with confidence.
- 12.1Financial Goal Setting — Short, Medium & Long TermIncluded
- 12.2Putting It All Together — Your First Financial PlanIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
😬 "Nobody taught me this"
Perfect for those who feel overwhelmed by money, credit, taxes, budgeting, and financial decisions.
💰 "I finally have a paycheck"
Learn exactly where your money goes and how to make every dollar count.
🏠 "I want to move out someday"
Understand the real costs of adulthood before they surprise you.
🎓 "I'm figuring out my next step"
College, trades, military, work, or entrepreneurship—learn the money side of every path.
📈 "I want to build wealth"
Discover how ordinary people build financial security through smart habits and long-term investing.
👨👩👦 "I want my teen prepared"
Help your student enter adulthood with confidence instead of confusion.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
LBD Academy
Hi, I'm Jessica.
Before we get started, I want you to know something:
You are not supposed to already know this.
Most adults were never taught how money actually works either.
Schools teach algebra, history, and science, but many students graduate without ever learning how to read a paycheck, build credit, compare student loan options, understand investing, or create a financial plan.
That's exactly why I created Money By Design.
As a business owner, mediator, and parent, I've seen firsthand how financial decisions affect opportunities, stress levels, relationships, and long-term success. I've also seen how many people are forced to learn these lessons through expensive mistakes that could have been avoided with the right information.
My goal isn't to tell you what path to choose.
My goal is to give you the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions for yourself.
Whether you're planning on college, trade school, military service, entrepreneurship, or jumping directly into the workforce, understanding money gives you more options and more control over your future.
This course won't make you a financial expert overnight.
But it will help you understand the concepts, tools, and decisions that many adults wish they had learned years earlier.
So let's get started.
Your future self will thank you.
— Jessica Dolin Founder, LBD Academy
— LBD Academy
Start your journey today
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- 12 modules, 35 lessons
- AI-adaptive lessons tuned to your level
- Quizzes & checkpoints to lock in progress
- Your own AI learning coach
- Learn on any device, at your pace
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