Build the personal finance app you've always wished existed
No CS degree, no developer salary required — just a clear, step-by-step path from blank screen to a fully working budgeting, saving, and investing app that lives on your phone or browser.
I built this curriculum because the gap between 'I wish this app existed' and 'I built this app' is a lot smaller than anyone told you.— Freddy Foster
What you'll learn
What you'll be able to do
- Design and wireframe a personal finance app with distinct budgeting, saving, and investing modules
- Build a working data model to track income, expenses, savings goals, and investment portfolios
- Develop interactive budget dashboards with real-time spending categorization and alerts
- Implement a savings goal tracker with progress visualization and automated milestone notifications
- Integrate a basic investment tracker that pulls live market data and calculates portfolio performance
- Deploy and publish your finished app so it runs on your phone or browser and is ready to share
How it works
A school that adapts to you
This isn't a set of static videos. Every lesson is generated live and tuned to where you actually are.
We learn your level
A quick placement check tailors your starting point so you're never bored or lost.
Lessons adapt as you go
Each lesson is written for your pace and your goal, adjusting as your skills grow.
Your AI coach keeps you moving
Checkpoints, feedback, and gentle nudges turn progress into a real result.
The curriculum
What's inside your school
6 modules · 25 lessons
App Blueprint: Design Thinking for Your Finance App
Translate your financial goals into a concrete app concept by wireframing all three core modules before writing a single line of code.
- 1.1Define Your App's Purpose and ScopeIncluded
- 1.2Wireframe Your Budgeting ModuleIncluded
- 1.3Wireframe Your Saving and Investing ModulesIncluded
- 1.4Choose Your No-Code/Low-Code ToolstackIncluded
Data Foundations: Building Your Finance Data Model
Create the structured database that stores every dollar — income, expenses, savings goals, and investment holdings — powering all app features.
- 2.1Introduction to Data Modeling for Non-DevelopersIncluded
- 2.2Build Your Income and Expense SchemaIncluded
- 2.3Model Savings Goals and MilestonesIncluded
- 2.4Model an Investment PortfolioIncluded
- 2.5Connect and Test Your Complete Data ModelIncluded
Budget Dashboard: Real-Time Spending Tracking and Alerts
Build an interactive budget dashboard that categorizes transactions automatically and fires alerts when spending thresholds are reached.
- 3.1Create Your Budget Input InterfaceIncluded
- 3.2Build Spending Categories and Auto-Tagging RulesIncluded
- 3.3Design the Live Budget DashboardIncluded
- 3.4Implement Spending Alerts and Threshold NotificationsIncluded
Savings Tracker: Goals, Progress Bars, and Milestone Notifications
Build the savings module that lets users set goals, visualize their progress, and celebrate automated milestones.
- 4.1Build the Savings Goal Creation FlowIncluded
- 4.2Add Progress Visualization with Charts and Progress BarsIncluded
- 4.3Automate Milestone NotificationsIncluded
- 4.4Link Savings Contributions to Your BudgetIncluded
Investment Tracker: Live Market Data and Portfolio Performance
Integrate a live-data investment tracker that fetches real market prices and calculates portfolio gains, losses, and overall performance.
- 5.1Understand APIs: Pulling Live Market Data Without CodeIncluded
- 5.2Build the Portfolio Holdings InterfaceIncluded
- 5.3Calculate Gain, Loss, and Total Portfolio ValueIncluded
- 5.4Visualize Portfolio Allocation and Performance Over TimeIncluded
Launch: Deploy and Publish Your Personal Finance App
Package your finished app, deploy it to a live environment, and make it accessible on a phone or browser — ready to use and share.
- 6.1Audit and Polish Your App Before LaunchIncluded
- 6.2Deploy Your App to the Web or MobileIncluded
- 6.3Secure Your Data and Set User PermissionsIncluded
- 6.4Share, Iterate, and Keep Your App GrowingIncluded
Who it's for
Is this you?
The frustrated budgeter
You've tried every budgeting app on the market and none of them work the way your brain does — so you're ready to build one that finally does.
The early-career professional
You just landed your first real salary and want a custom tool to track spending, hit savings targets, and start investing — all in one place you actually built.
The non-technical entrepreneur
You build things for a living — just not software — and you want to prove to yourself that you can ship a working app without hiring a developer.
The spreadsheet power user
Your Google Sheet budget is a masterpiece, but you're ready to graduate to something interactive, automated, and actually shareable on your phone.
The new investor
You've started putting money into stocks or ETFs and want a clean, custom portfolio tracker that goes beyond what any free app will show you.
The side-project builder
You love picking up new skills and the idea of shipping a real, deployed app — that also happens to improve your personal finances — is exactly your kind of project.
Questions
Frequently asked
Your teacher
A note from your teacher
Freddy Foster
Hey — I'm glad you found this.
If you're here, I'm guessing you've spent some time poking around Mint, YNAB, or one of the other big personal finance apps and felt a low-level frustration you couldn't quite name. Maybe it's that the categories don't match how you actually spend. Maybe it's that the investing view is basically useless. Maybe it's just that you don't own any of it — you're renting someone else's system for managing your own money. That feeling is valid. And it's exactly what this school is designed to fix.
I built this curriculum because I believe the barrier between "person who wants a custom finance app" and "person who has one" is much smaller than the tech industry wants you to think. You don't need a computer science degree. You don't need to learn Python. You need a clear process, the right modern tools, and someone to translate the technical parts into language that actually lands. That's what I've tried to build here — a path that takes you from a blank wireframe all the way to a deployed, working app, one logical step at a time.
Here's what I want you to know about how this works: we start with design, because building the wrong thing efficiently is still building the wrong thing. You'll map out your budgeting, saving, and investing modules before you touch a single tool. Then we build the data foundation — the "brain" of your app — in a way that's visual, intuitive, and doesn't require you to think like a database engineer. From there, every section adds a layer: the live budget dashboard, the savings tracker, the investment view with real market data. Each piece connects to the last. Nothing is bolted on.
I also want to be straight with you about one thing: this isn't a passive course. You will be building. Every section has you making real decisions about your real app. That's by design — because the goal isn't for you to finish the curriculum. The goal is for you to finish your app. Those are different finish lines, and this school is aimed squarely at the second one.
If you've ever said "I wish I had an app that did exactly this" about your finances, this is your chance to stop wishing and start building. I'll be with you every step of the way.
— Freddy Foster
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- 6 modules, 25 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
- Full access for as long as you're subscribed