Learn More about Budget Challenge - Financial Literacy and Capability + Investing

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Why is Budget Challenge the best?

Our comprehensive award-winning program is unique in that students learn money management by actually managing the finances of an independent working young adult for ten weeks in real-time. Budget Challenge goes beyond financial literacy by allowing students to practice skills and develop positive financial habits such as budgeting, paying bills on time, managing debt and credit, and paying themselves first by saving for retirement.

Is your state requiring a financial literacy class for graduation? Are you looking for a single comprehensive solution that is easy to implement? Other programs claim to "align" with standards but have notable deficiencies when it comes to what they actually teach. Budget Challenge is the only program available that teaches ALL 206 of the new Jump$tart/CEE high school personal financial education standards and ALL the standards for many states including Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, and Missouri. Our 100% online program can seamlessly transition from in-class to distance learning.

Budget Challenge: The Most Complete Program

Explore the Program

Student Dashboard

Students manage their finances while receiving meaningful feedback on their performance.

Emphasis on the behaviors that matter

Trophies recognize accomplishments of key goals such as managing credit, paying down debt, creating an emergency fund and investing for retirement.

Teacher Dashboard

Students and class performance, engagement, and progress along with tools to identify and assist struggling learners is always available.

The Leader in Applied Financial Literacy Education

Budget Challenge teaches financial capability, not just knowledge. During our patented 10-week simulation, students are able to practice money management skills and receive real-time feedback that impacts their behaviors and attitudes. They also apply concepts from Personal Finance, our included 17 chapter companion e-textbook, creating learning that lasts.

Budget Challenge overcomes traditional classroom limitations by utilizing hands-on learning, which is the backbone of CTE (career and technical education). This means that Budget Challenge focuses on learning-by-doing and teaches students how to be financially capable young adults. Read more about how Applied Financial Literacy Education takes learning about ALL aspects of financial literacy (Knowledge, Skills, Behaviors & Attitudes) to the next level.

Download "Case for Applied Financial Literacy Education"

Teachers share their stories

Teaching Personal Finance in a large format online class
Posted 4 days ago
Colleen Shanahan and Katie Van Zandt use Budget Challenge in an online semester course to teach students in larger class sizes than typically found in high school. Their classes typically feature 80+ students. They have been long-time users of our program and have found success in an online course.
Teacher Spotlight — Shanna Phillips
Posted last month
This week's blog post comes from Shanna Phillips, a teacher in Texas that teaches in-classroom programs for homeschooled students. She has been a long time user of Budget Challenge and shares her story with us.
Teaching Real-World Financial Skills: How Budget Challenge Brings Financial Literacy to Life
Posted 6 months ago
Karen Kurtz, a teacher from Stamford, CT, has used Budget Challenge in her classes since 2015 with great success. Read her guest blog post about her experiences using the program in her Honors Financial Planning course.

START BUILDING CAPABILITY