Curriculum Money Basics
Money Basics
What money actually is, how it holds value, and the vocabulary every other module builds on.
- What Is Money, Really? Why a piece of paper is worth something, and the three jobs money has to do. 📄 Read-aloud
- Budgeting: Needs, Wants and the 50/30/20 Rule A simple, memorable framework for splitting income that works at any income level. 📄 Read-aloud
- Saving vs Spending: Building the Habit Why saving is a habit before it's a number, and how to make it automatic. 📄 Read-aloud
- Money Basics: Checkpoint 1 Covers what money is for, budgeting, and building a saving habit. 5 questions
- Setting SMART Financial Goals Why vague goals like 'save more' rarely work, and a framework that does. 📄 Read-aloud
- Understanding Your Paycheck: Gross vs Net Income Why your paycheck is smaller than your salary, and where the difference goes. 📄 Read-aloud
- Taxes 101: What Gets Taken and Why The basic shape of income tax, without the parts that only apply to complicated situations. 📄 Read-aloud
- Money Basics: Checkpoint 2 Covers goal-setting, paychecks, and how taxes work. 5 questions
- Emergency Funds: Your Financial Safety Net Why an emergency fund is the first savings goal, and how big it actually needs to be. 📄 Read-aloud
- Inflation and the Shrinking Dollar Why the same amount of money buys less over time, and what that means for saving. 📄 Read-aloud
- Needs Change: Budgeting Through Life Stages Why the same budget framework produces very different plans depending on where you are in life. 📄 Read-aloud
- Money Basics: Checkpoint 3 Covers emergency funds, inflation, and budgeting through different life stages. 5 questions
- Financial Scams and How to Spot Them The patterns behind most financial scams, so you can recognize one before it costs you. 📄 Read-aloud
- Opportunity Cost in Everyday Decisions The economic idea that every choice means giving up the next-best alternative - and why that makes it a genuinely useful decision-making tool. 📄 Read-aloud
- Building Good Financial Habits That Stick Why financial habits succeed or fail based on friction and automation, not just willpower - and how to design habits that last. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Time Value of Money, Explained Simply Why a dollar today is worth more than a dollar promised later, and how that one idea quietly shapes most financial decisions. 📄 Read-aloud
- Cash vs. Digital Payments: The Economics What actually changes, economically, when a payment moves from physical cash to a digital transaction. 📄 Read-aloud
- What Backs Money Today: Fiat Currency Explained Why the money in your wallet isn't backed by gold anymore, and what actually gives it value instead. 📄 Read-aloud
- Understanding Credit Scores What a credit score actually measures, the factors that move it, and why it follows you into so many parts of adult life. 📄 Read-aloud
- Banks: How Checking and Savings Accounts Work What a bank actually does with your deposited money, and the practical differences between checking and savings accounts. 📄 Read-aloud
- The History of Money: From Barter to Digital How money evolved from physical commodities to government-backed currency to the mostly digital numbers we use today. 📄 Read-aloud
- Identifying Money Without Sight How blind and visually impaired people tell banknotes and coins apart, the design features and apps that help, and why accessible money matters. 📄 Read-aloud
- Simple vs Compound Interest The difference between interest calculated only on the original amount and interest that earns interest, with simple examples. 📄 Read-aloud
- Financial Literacy: Why It Matters What financial literacy means, how surveys measure it, and evidence on how understanding money affects people's financial wellbeing. 📄 Read-aloud
- Counterfeit Money and Security Features Why counterfeit currency harms the economy, how security features on Indian banknotes help detect fakes, and what to do if you receive one. 📄 Read-aloud