Financial Foundations™ · K–12 Scope & Sequence

Twenty-four units. Two hundred sixty-six lessons. One arc from a first coin to a first paycheck.

Every unit, every lesson, and the Financial Competency Framework™ domain each unit builds, across four developmental bands. Counted from the built Student Activity Packs, not from a plan.

September 2026 · unit and lesson level · © WealthWise Kids IP Holdings LLC · Aligned to the 2021 National Standards for Personal Financial Education (see the Standards Crosswalk)
4
K–12 bands
24
Units
266
Lessons
8
FCF™ domains
Band 1 · Money Explorers · Grades K–2 · Ages 5–8 · 4 units · 40 lessons
Unit 1.1 · What Is Money?Earning · 10 lessons
L1.1.1Money Is a Tool
L1.1.2Coins and Bills
L1.1.3Earning
L1.1.4Spending
L1.1.5Needs and Wants
L1.1.6Saving
L1.1.7Giving
L1.1.8My First Money Day
L1.1.9Before Money
L1.1.10Money You Cannot See
Unit 1.2 · Needs and Wants · 10 lessons
L1.2.1Need or Want?
L1.2.2My Own List
L1.2.3Miller at the Shop
L1.2.4Sorting Day
L1.2.5First, Then
L1.2.6It Depends
L1.2.7The Waiting Shelf
L1.2.8Naiya's Three Coins
L1.2.9Ask a Grown-Up
L1.2.10Unit wrap-up
Unit 1.3 · Saving for SomethingSaving · 10 lessons
L1.3.1What Is Saving?
L1.3.2My Saving Goal
L1.3.3The Saving Jar
L1.3.4Brooke-Lynn’s Birthday Plan
L1.3.5Patience Pays Off
L1.3.6Where To Keep It
L1.3.7If I Spend My Savings
L1.3.8Saving Every Time
L1.3.9The Crew Saves Together
L1.3.10Show What You Know
Unit 1.4 · Sharing and GivingGiving · 10 lessons
L1.4.1What Is Giving?
L1.4.2Giving or Spending?
L1.4.3Giving In Our Traditions
L1.4.4The Giving Jar
L1.4.5Places That Receive
L1.4.6Ava’s Fundraiser
L1.4.7What Does a Charity Do?
L1.4.8Giving Time
L1.4.9The Crew’s Community Project
L1.4.10Show What You Know
Band 2 · Money Builders · Grades 3–5 · Ages 8–11 · 5 units · 50 lessons
Unit 2.1 · The Earning EngineEarning · 10 lessons
L2.1.1Sort the Earner
L2.1.2Your Hidden Value
L2.1.3Is This a Real Business?
L2.1.4Miller’s Market Stall
L2.1.5When the Rain Comes
L2.1.6Where Did the Money Go?
L2.1.7What Taxes Buy
L2.1.8Ask For What You’re Worth
L2.1.9From Hobby to Income
L2.1.10Show What You Know
Unit 2.2 · Smart SpendingSpending · 10 lessons
L2.2.1The Trade-Off Problem
L2.2.2The Best Price Hunt
L2.2.3Unit Price Math
L2.2.4The Impulse Trap
L2.2.5Spot the Trick
L2.2.6Ava’s Dilemma
L2.2.7The Gray Zone
L2.2.8Macon’s $20 Art Station
L2.2.9The Spending Log
L2.2.10Show What You Know
Unit 2.3 · The Saving SystemSaving · 10 lessons
L2.3.1Why Saving Is Hard
L2.3.2Set a SMART Goal
L2.3.3Money That Grows
L2.3.4Short and Long
L2.3.5Sai’s Three Jars
L2.3.6What Is a Bank Account?
L2.3.7What If I Dip In?
L2.3.8Saving as a Habit
L2.3.9Naiya’s Long Game
L2.3.10Show What You Know
Unit 2.4 · Budgeting BasicsPlanning · 10 lessons
L2.4.1What Is a Budget?
L2.4.2Fixed or Variable?
L2.4.350 / 30 / 20
L2.4.4Planned vs Actual
L2.4.5Miller’s Business Budget
L2.4.6When Income Drops
L2.4.7The Ones You Forget
L2.4.8Family Budgets
L2.4.9The Crew’s Budget Challenge
L2.4.10Show What You Know
Unit 2.5 · Money and CommunityGiving · 10 lessons
L2.5.1Follow the Dollar
L2.5.2The Community Subscription
L2.5.3Giving as a Choice
L2.5.4Ava’s Community Project
L2.5.5Local or Online?
L2.5.6Banks in a Neighborhood
L2.5.7Why Some Places Have More
L2.5.8If Everyone Gave $1 More
L2.5.9The Crew’s Action Plan
L2.5.10Band 2 Capstone
Band 3 · Money Systems · Grades 6–8 · Ages 11–14 · 6 units · 60 lessons
Unit 3.1 · How Money Systems WorkEarning · 10 lessons
L3.1.1What Money Actually Is
L3.1.2Gross Pay and the Money You Never See
L3.1.3Inside a Bank
L3.1.4What Borrowing Actually Costs
L3.1.5Opportunity Cost Is Always Charged
L3.1.6The Time Value of Patience
L3.1.7Building Your First Budget
L3.1.8Forces You Did Not Choose
L3.1.9Choosing Where to Bank
L3.1.10Sai's Financial Snapshot
Unit 3.2 · The Real PaycheckEarning · 10 lessons
L3.2.1Where Did $177 Go?
L3.2.2The W-4 Question
L3.2.3Tax Day Isn't Optional
L3.2.4Refund or Bill?
L3.2.5Hourly vs. Salary: Sai's Decision
L3.2.6Your Benefits Are Pay
L3.2.7Ava's Side Hustle
L3.2.8Minimum Wage vs. Living Wage
L3.2.9Income Growth Pathways
L3.2.10Pay Stub Mastery
Unit 3.3 · Credit and BorrowingBorrowing · 10 lessons
L3.3.1What Are You Building?
L3.3.2The Score That Follows You
L3.3.3The Credit Card Trap
L3.3.4Before You Sign
L3.3.5The Math of Exploitation
L3.3.6Save or Finance?
L3.3.7Building Credit Before 18
L3.3.8When Someone Uses Your Name
L3.3.9Reading a Credit Report
L3.3.10The Borrowing Decision Framework
Unit 3.4 · Spending with StrategySpending · 10 lessons
L3.4.1Every Dollar Is a Vote
L3.4.2The Psychology of Impulse
L3.4.3Unit Price Beats Sticker Price
L3.4.4Advertising Literacy
L3.4.5Lifestyle Inflation
L3.4.6Brooke-Lynn's Cultural Budget
L3.4.7Building a Simple Budget
L3.4.8The Subscription Audit
L3.4.9Creative Frugality
L3.4.10Present Your Spending Plan
Unit 3.5 · Saving and the Time FactorSaving · 10 lessons
L3.5.1The Invisible Multiplier
L3.5.2Where to Park Your Money
L3.5.3What an Index Fund Actually Is
L3.5.4The Stock Market
L3.5.5Risk and Return
L3.5.6Sai Opens a Custodial Roth IRA
L3.5.7Emergency Fund First
L3.5.8What Is Your Savings Rate?
L3.5.9Inflation Is a Silent Tax
L3.5.10The Compound Interest Challenge
Unit 3.6 · Sai's Financial Blueprint (capstone)Planning · 10 lessons
L3.6.1The Blueprint
L3.6.2Sai's Income Plan
L3.6.3Sai's Spending Plan
L3.6.4Sai's Debt Strategy
L3.6.5Sai's Savings and Investment Plan
L3.6.6Sai's Credit Plan
L3.6.7Crew Blueprint Review
L3.6.8Portfolio Presentation
L3.6.9The Plan Meets Reality
L3.6.10One Year Later
Band 4 · Money Mastery · Grades 9–12 · Ages 14–18 · 9 units · 116 lessons
Unit 4.1 · Your Income LifeEarning · 14 lessons
L4.1.1Four Ways to Get Paid
L4.1.2Forty Years, One Number
L4.1.3Human Capital
L4.1.4The Debt-to-Income Reality Check
L4.1.5Benefits Are Money Too
L4.1.6Research, Ask, Counter, Close
L4.1.7Pricing Your Own Time
L4.1.8Brackets, Marginal, Effective
L4.1.9The 15.3% Nobody Mentions
L4.1.10Your Personal Income Statement
L4.1.11Macon's Career Pivot
L4.1.12One Stream Is a Vulnerability
L4.1.13Your 10-Year Income Roadmap
L4.1.14Earning Domain Checkpoint
Unit 4.2 · The Real Cost of BorrowingBorrowing · 12 lessons
L4.2.1Debt Is a Tool
L4.2.2The Credit Card Trap
L4.2.3Read Before You Sign
L4.2.4Who Is Really Selling You Money?
L4.2.5The Biggest Loan Most People Take
L4.2.6The Math of Exploitation
L4.2.7Two Borrowing Stories
L4.2.8Debt-to-Income
L4.2.9When Starting Over Makes Sense
L4.2.10Good Debt, Bad Debt, and the Limits
L4.2.11The Cash-Only Case
L4.2.12The Borrowing Decision Framework
Unit 4.3 · Building and Protecting Your CreditBorrowing · 12 lessons
L4.3.1The Number That Follows You
L4.3.2Reading the Report
L4.3.3Building From Zero
L4.3.4The 30% Rule
L4.3.5Hard and Soft
L4.3.6How It Actually Happens
L4.3.7The Strongest Protection There Is
L4.3.8Ava's Credit Journey
L4.3.9Renting With Credit
L4.3.10Credit and Your Car Insurance
L4.3.11Disputing an Error
L4.3.12The Five-Year Credit Blueprint
Unit 4.4 · Investing Before 25Investing · 12 lessons
L4.4.1The Compound Interest Clock
L4.4.2Risk and Return
L4.4.3What You Actually Own
L4.4.4Why Simple Beats Clever
L4.4.5Free Money You Cannot Skip
L4.4.6Roth or Traditional
L4.4.7Investing on Autopilot
L4.4.8The Silent Killer
L4.4.9Volatility Is Not Loss
L4.4.10Crypto, Meme Stocks and FOMO
L4.4.11The Ten-Year Head Start
L4.4.12Your First Investment Plan
Unit 4.5 · Protecting What You BuildProtecting · 12 lessons
L4.5.1Risk Is Real
L4.5.2Your First Line of Defence
L4.5.3Health Insurance, Decoded
L4.5.4What You Are Actually Buying
L4.5.5The Cheap One Nobody Buys
L4.5.6Protecting Income Itself
L4.5.7Spot It, Stop It
L4.5.8Scams Built for You
L4.5.9Locking the Doors
L4.5.10Reading the Fine Print
L4.5.11Naiya's Close Call
L4.5.12Your Personal Protection Plan
Unit 4.6 · The Blueprint (capstone)Planning · 12 lessons
L4.6.1What Is a Financial Plan?
L4.6.2Money Serves Your Life
L4.6.3The Personal Budget
L4.6.4Net Worth
L4.6.5The 18-to-30 Money Map
L4.6.6Paying for the Next Step
L4.6.7The First Paycheck Plan
L4.6.8Your Banking and Credit System
L4.6.9Generosity by Design
L4.6.10When the Plan Breaks
L4.6.11The Ten-Year Reunion
L4.6.12Present Your Blueprint
Unit 4.7 · Paying for College or Trade SchoolPlanning · 14 lessons
L4.7.1The Sticker Price Lie
L4.7.2Sticker, Gift, Net
L4.7.3Gift or Self-Help?
L4.7.4Run the Calculator Yourself
L4.7.5Free Money Has a Front Door
L4.7.6Who Counts as a Contributor?
L4.7.7The Document Hunt
L4.7.8SAI, Not EFC
L4.7.9Reading the Letter Like a Contract
L4.7.10The One That Reads Generously
L4.7.11Questions for the Aid Office
L4.7.12Three Paths, Side by Side
L4.7.13Every Path Gets Funded
L4.7.14Show What You Know
Unit 4.8 · Student Loans and Smart BorrowingBorrowing · 14 lessons
L4.8.1Gift or Debt?
L4.8.2Principal, Interest, Rate
L4.8.3Subsidised or Unsubsidised
L4.8.4The Reference Table
L4.8.5The Projection Tool
L4.8.6Watch It Grow
L4.8.7How Much Is Too Much?
L4.8.8Ava Becomes a Nurse
L4.8.9Macon Chooses HVAC
L4.8.10Grace, Deferment, Default
L4.8.11The Debt-Free Route
L4.8.12Two Offers, One Decision
L4.8.13Your Borrowing Statement
L4.8.14Show What You Know
Unit 4.9 · The Launch PlanPlanning · 14 lessons
L4.9.1Frame the Choice
L4.9.2The Paths Menu
L4.9.3Narrow to Three
L4.9.4Research Your Path
L4.9.5The Money Math
L4.9.6The Borrowing Guardrail
L4.9.7Gross Is Not Take-Home
L4.9.8Your First-Year Budget
L4.9.9Does It Balance?
L4.9.10Credit-Building First Steps
L4.9.11Your Safety Net
L4.9.12Deadlines and Checklist
L4.9.13Peer Review
L4.9.14The Launch Plan
Financial Foundations™ · WealthWise Kids. Every unit maps to the 2021 National Standards for Personal Financial Education; the unit-by-unit crosswalk is a separate document. Lesson counts are taken from the Student Activity Packs as built. The K–12 core extends into a lifelong continuum (young adult, adult, legacy bands) in development. © 2026 WealthWise Kids IP Holdings LLC. Questions: info@wealthwisekids.org