Personal Finance Courses for Teens with Best Money Academy – Teenz Money Review

Our oldest daughter is 16 years old and already has a plan for her future career. This plan includes her going away to college to enroll in a specific technical program. Going away to college can be pretty overwhelming for the student, but especially for the parents. I had no idea there was so much to consider, especially financially.

We’ve gone through some personal finance courses for teens with Best Money Academy and will be highlighting how helpful it has been for us in our Teenz Money review below.

*Be sure to scroll down and discover how you can get FREE access to these personal finance courses for a limited time only. 

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free subscription and financial compensation in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own and not influenced by the developing company and/or its affiliates in any way.

Our daughter been doing hours of career exploration and research, which led to finding the college she wants to attend. I plan to turn her research time into an elective credit on career exploration. 

If she plans on going away to college and living off campus, we have a ton of work to do. Knowing that I needed to find some resources to help us plan and prepare, and more specifically how to pay for it all, I started looking at options.

Enter the BEST Money Academy.

BEST Money Academy helps people of all ages become Financial Rock Stars through relatable, self-care based, funny, and hard-hitting online courses.

I was looking forward to trying out the Teenz Money course as it covers so may important topics that your teens need to learn about before they graduate high school and leave the nest. Financial literacy is lacking in schools and curriculum today.

Whether you homeschool or not, it your responsibility to make sure that your children are trained to make good financial decisions when they are on their own.

This isn’t always easy though. Maybe you were never taught properly about finances yourself and had to learn through trial and error along the way.

How the Teenz Money courses are laid out:

Dashboard:

You have a personal dashboard that shows you the video courses that are available to watch. You can click to see an overview of the content in the course, or you can start the course. Once you start the course, it shows you how much of the course you have completed. I like how it saves your spot and you can start right back where you left off. It is very convenient and simple to use. Just click and play the videos.

Video Instruction:

There are over 33 hours of video instruction in the Teenz Money Course. Each video starts with Scott’s assistant belting out some lyrics from a catchy rock song. She is a young adult with a fun style, and a great voice. Then Scott jumps in and sings. He admits that yes, these aren’t sang very well, but it is funny and grabs your attention immediately!

The rock star theme to the videos keeps them fun. They aren’t dry and boring like other educational videos you may have watched. He also throws in some memes, silly images, cat videos, and catchy graphics. The videos are done very well, and we enjoyed watching them.

Each video lesson has an introduction after the rock song, where Scott explains what each video lesson will be about. He also recommends if the course should be watched together with student’s parents.

Course Book PDF:

Each course comes with a pdf download called a Money Book. This really helps add an educational aspect to the videos. Each book is tailored to the specific course set of videos. There are places to take notes as you are watching the lectures.

There are questions to answer that will help your child dig deeper and start to think about what is important to them. It includes budgeting worksheets, planning sheets and much more. There is even an answer key in the back. These are a great asset to the curriculum. 

Our experience with the College Planning Course:

Since we found out that my daughter will be going away for college, saving and planning has been at the forefront of many of our conversations. My daughter and I went through the College Planning Course from beginning to end so we could see exactly what a course looks like. 

This course came with a 30-page College Planning Money Book. We printed this book out and put it in a binder so that my daughter could have it with her and take notes as she was watching the videos. The notes are nice because they are fill-in-the-blank, then there are questions that they have to write out the answers to, as well as discussion questions. These questions really help students ponder the content and allows them see the bigger picture of their future. There are notes and activities to accompany each and every lesson.

The videos were a good length. Some were only 5 minutes, while the longest was only 20 minutes. I am not usually a fan of video teachings, but my attention was held the entire time. I really like how down to earth Scott and Maddy are. At first I wasn’t sure what my daughter would think, but she was giggling at his jokes and his singing. She is a singer herself, so she found the songs to be a fun addition.

We really enjoyed the format. The videos are very high quality and well done. Scott does an amazing job at mixing things up between facts, questions, fun images and videos. I really enjoyed the facts and statistics and the questions that make you think.

The instructor has a very well balanced view point and gives representation from many different angles. It really helps that he talks, and then his younger assistant talks. My daughter enjoyed listening to someone closer to her age sharing helpful information and experiences as well.

I appreciated how he talks directly to the student and asks them to consider if college would be a good fit. Students are instructed how to go about researching a career or job BEFORE starting school, and possibly falling into financial disaster and debt!

His advice is spot-on. He also doesn’t make you feel less of yourself if you choose to not go to college until you are ready, or to not even go at all. He even shares some of his stories and background with college and wasting time and money while trying to figure out what would be the best career choice.

This course has 10 lessons that are 2 hours in total. We completed them in two evenings together. I gave her the workbook to work on in between video lessons, before starting the next one, then we discussed the questions. 

I am very impressed with the material that was covered and how much my daughter and I both took away from it. We are looking forward to completing the other courses and discussing what she has learned. 

Once your teen completes all of the courses in its entirety, you can send an email and request a certificate of completion. This would be great to include in a portfolio for the end of the year. I plan on giving my daughter a semester credit in personal finance/college prep after she completes the videos, all the homework and spends additional time researching each topic.

Check out ALL of the topics covered in the Teenz Money Course:

Saving, Yes Please – There are 9 lessons that are 2 hours in total all about teaching your teens how to save their money now.

Spending Plans – This course will help you to create a spending plan that helps you to balance spending, saving and investing. There are worksheets, and printable resources to guide you each step of the way. 20 lessons in 3.5 hours.

Danger of Debt – Teach your child the dangers of debt now so that they aren’t living paycheck to paycheck and stuck in debt when they are older. 15 lessons in 1.6 hours.

Credit Card Secrets: Credit Cardashians – Listen to the pros and cons of credit cards, and how to avoid credit card debt. 29 lessons 2.2 hours

Credit Rocket: Credit Scores – Learn about credit scores, how to build good credit, how high scores save you money and how to improve your credit. 14 lessons in one hour.

Invest Like a Pro –  Learn real, simple investment strategies that will show you amazing progress. There is not a workbook for this, but there are lots of lessons broken down by type. 50 lessons in 3.5 hours.

Buy Your Dream Car – Learn how to not be a slave to an expensive car payment and how to save $500-5,000 with these secrets on how to buy a car. 29 lessons in 3 hours.

College Planning – Is college right for your student? How to choose a college, and ways to save money and get money for college without becoming a slave to student loans. 10 lessons in 2 hours. 

ID Theft and Protection – This course discusses keeping your private information safe. How to track your credit and how to protect your personal information and what to do if you think your information has been stolen. 6 lessons in 1 hour.

Bulletproof Insurance – Learn about the many different types of insurance, what they are used for, why they are important and what not to purchase. 23 lessons in 3 hours.

Career Planning for Teens – This course will help your teen to determine the best career path BEFORE they waste time and money on something that isn’t right for them. 7 lessons, 2 hours.

Apartment Hunting – This is a great course that helps your student know how much they should be spending on an apartment, how to look for a place, roommates, rental insurance and more. 8 lessons, 1 hour.

Smart Shopping – Tips tricks and hacks to purchase what you want and need while still saving money… 8 lessons 1.5 hours

Better Banking – Explains the fees associated with check cashing places, vs. keeping your money in a bank. Difference between types of accounts, and how to avoid extra bank fees. 6 lessons, 1 hour.

Life Skills Every Teen Needs – How to earn and manage money, manage deadlines and assignments, being on time, communication and more. 17 lessons in 1 hour.

Millionaire Success Secrets – This discusses real millionaires and how they are smart with their money and investments and how they live modestly. It also talks about “keeping up with the Joneses” and how that is not a wise thing to do. 5 lessons, in 1 hour.

I think that these finance courses would be helpful not only to teens, but young adults and even 40 year-olds!

I learned new stuff and am excited to finish going through them myself and having my adult child do them too! My oldest son stayed at home while he was completing his college degree. He has a full time job in his career field, bought a brand new car with cash and will be moving out early this summer.

He has made good financial decisions, but he hasn’t been out on his own with full responsibility of bills and living expenses. We have been having lots of conversations about all the real life bills he is going to have and I have helped him with a budget spreadsheet.

After viewing these courses I can see where my own budget is lacking, and I just know the videos will be helpful to prepare him for his future. He is planning on going through the spending plan course, credit scores, and a few others before he moves out. The printable money books will be so valuable to him, and give him more than I could come up with scribbling down a budget on a notepad. 

Want to try these finance courses out yourself?

Not only is there a Teenz Course, there is Money A to Z for ages 3-6, and Kidz Money for ages 7-12.

The best part is that ALL of the courses are being offered completely FREE for a limited time!

• No credit card is required.
• You get unlimited access to all of the courses for life.
• You can use these classes on your own, in a classroom, or a group setting – FREE.
• There are no subscription fees.

Check out all of the frequently asked questions, and details of these FREE Finance Courses.