A California 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Free, up-to-date personal finance for teens growing up in the digital age, with no corporate sponsors. When we can, we fund scholarships that students invest and defend. Scholarship money often goes straight to the college; ours puts part of it in the student’s hands.
Free, unsponsored personal finance for California high schools, and scholarships students invest themselves.
Why we exist
That’s California’s student-to-counselor ratio (ASCA, 2023-24). Many students make the first big money decisions of their lives, from paying for college to investing their first dollars, with almost no one walking them through the numbers. We teach those decisions in the classroom.
Outcomes
believed they could afford a 4-year public university
believed they could afford a 4-year private university
Prior pilot (2018), The College Project, at a Title I California high school. The percentages compare a pre-course survey with a post-course survey. These are belief and stress measures, not knowledge measures. The Launchpad’s own pre/post assessment is running now with its first cohort, fall 2026; write to us for either instrument. How we measure
“I’ve used The College Project in my classroom for several years. My students found many of their questions answered in this comprehensive, insightful book.”
“For once we weren’t being left alone in the dark.”
How we teach
The Finance Lab’s classroom programs run on The Launchpad and The College Project. Each stands on its own; together they cover a semester of personal finance and the biggest financial decision a teenager makes.
Web app · Free
Created by Tyler Hensley · Free through The Finance Lab
Six units, Real Takes, a live teacher dashboard, and a pre/post assessment built in.
For: Personal finance, economics, and advisory classes, grades 11–12.
Keeps: Money Moves, their own plan of goals and real steps with dates, and a Finance Notebook, the big ideas they learned in their own words.
Free for every teacher and student
Print companion
By Tyler Hensley
The quick activities, the Advisor Series, and every Real Take in one workbook. The Teacher’s Guide is a free download.
For: Teachers who want the paper half of The Launchpad in every student’s hands.
Keeps: Students keep their written reasoning, unit by unit.
Amazon retail · 10 or more save 10%.
Book · Fifth Edition
By Tyler Hensley
Choosing a college that fits and knowing you can afford it, taught as one decision. Also runs as a unit inside The Launchpad.
For: College seminar, AVID, senior English, advisory, and dual enrollment.
Keeps: Students keep a Money Map, a Running List, and a Decision Dashboard.
Free inside The Launchpad. In print: $15 per copy for schools · Single copies on Amazon.
Also free: the One Hour college lesson, the Life Stage Experiment, the College Roadmap, the Life Stage Calculator, and the Arcade. See the free tools
The Finance Lab Scholarship
Break the cycle of poverty, one family at a time.
Donations fund scholarships for students from low-income and first-generation families. So far, each $1,000 award has been paid in four milestones, and scholars invest part of it themselves, so the last lesson is a real one. The Finance Lab’s board decides each year who is eligible and how awards are made.
Every gift starts a student on this path.
Where the money goes: donations pay for the scholarships, student programming, and keeping The Launchpad free. Book sales currently go to The Finance Lab as well.
How it’s different
Written and coded by Tyler Hensley, a California teacher with 17 years in the classroom. Units build on each other, so there is nothing to assemble.
Cal Grant, CADAA, CalKIDS, and the Dream Act are in the lessons, and each AB 2927 topic is mapped to the module that teaches it. Nothing to adapt.
The people
Tyler Hensley
Founder & Executive Director
A California classroom teacher who began his career in wealth management, Tyler created The Launchpad and The College Project, drawing on 17 years of teaching high school.
Krista Meyers
Director of Programs
A veteran classroom teacher with a counseling credential, Krista currently teaches Dual Enrollment College Seminar. She leads The Finance Lab’s programs, from classroom rollouts to the scholarship.
Free classroom curriculum · Grades 11–12
A complete personal finance curriculum for high school classrooms, delivered as a web app. Teachers watch understanding shift in real time.
The teacher dashboard with a sample class. This is the live product, captured from the demo.
What students keep
The Launchpad teaches, and it also plans. Every student leaves with a financial plan they wrote for themselves and a record of what they learned, both theirs to keep.
Each student’s own financial plan. They write what financially healthy means for them, set goals, and choose real steps from every unit: open a no-fee checking account, set an automatic transfer to savings, name a savings goal with a date, file the FAFSA, check a credit report. Each move gets a target date and is marked to-do, planned, or done the day they make it.
The record of what they learned. Every module a student finishes adds its big ideas, in their own words, and every finished unit earns a stamp. One notebook they can download, keep, and look things up in after high school.
Ready for AB 2927
California high schools must offer a standalone personal finance course starting in 2027–28, and it becomes a graduation requirement with the class of 2031. Every required topic in Ed Code § 51284.5 is mapped to the module that teaches it.
Try it
Create a real class in a few minutes. Students join with a class code and password from their teacher, plus a first name and last initial. No student emails or accounts.
Using Canvas? The Launchpad can open from your Canvas course so students skip the join code. Piloting now with districts: email us to be first.
Assign one module, one unit, or a full semester. Every unit stands on its own.
Timing, discussion prompts, and the misconceptions to expect, written for the teacher running the room.
Every module asks the same questions before and after, so the change in understanding is visible for each student and the whole class.
The College Project
One decision, taught end to end: choosing a college that fits and knowing you can afford it before you commit. Four parts, 19 chapters, and three artifacts each student builds: a Money Map, a Running List, and a Decision Dashboard.
New to The College Project? Start with the free One Hour lesson
Bring it to your district
No contract, no procurement cycle, no student accounts. A pilot is one teacher, one section, and a few weeks.
See the teacher dashboard with a sample class. No signup.
Assign Banking & Saving to one section. Students join with the code and class password, plus a first name and last initial.
Share the pre/post shift from your dashboard and we will walk through it with you.
Or write to team@thefinancelab.co. A teacher answers.
Licensing the works, class sets, and paid rollout support are Tyler Hensley’s own, at thelostunit.org/districts.
Support the work
The Finance Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 82-5305120. Donations fund scholarships, classroom programs, and the work of keeping the curriculum free.
