Free tools
Everything here is free.
Every student deserves access to financial education. These tools are free and open to anyone.
Free Curriculum
The Launchpad
The complete classroom curriculum: six units (The College Project among them), Real Takes, and a live teacher dashboard. Free for every teacher and student.
launchpad.thefinancelab.coFree Tool
The College Roadmap
Interactive checklists for the college journey: every senior-year step and every college-year milestone, tap-to-check, plus one-tap calendar import for every deadline.
Open the RoadmapFree · On This Page
Life Stage Calculator
See what investing at every stage of life adds up to, and watch compounding do the heavy lifting.
Jump to the CalculatorFree to Play
The Arcade
Four quick, ungraded games built on real College Scorecard data: guess higher or lower, name the school, and more. No login required to play.
Play the Arcade Calendars to download & family resourcesFree Tool · Compounding Calculator
Real life isn't a flat monthly payment.
Contributions and risk change as your career grows. Set what each stage of life invests, and see what compounding does with it. Teachers: there is a ready-to-assign lesson built on this calculator, The Life Stage Experiment (printable PDF).
Why do return rates change?
When you're young with decades ahead, you can be nearly all stocks (historically about 10% per year). As you age, you shift toward bonds and stable investments for safety: lower returns, less volatility. This is how real financial planning works.
44 years of investing, through every life stage
Type a monthly amount for any stage on the left and watch the total build. The grey numbers are one example.