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 Lesson · Print
The College Project: One Hour
A one-period lesson: students guess what five colleges really cost one student, see the real prices, then look up schools of their own. On paper, no devices needed.
Get the lesson materialsFree Lesson · Print
The Life Stage Experiment
A one-lesson assignment built on the calculator below: each student builds a lifetime investing plan from their own numbers, then runs it. Printable, with teacher notes.
Download the lesson (PDF)Free · 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 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 for Families
Family Calendars
Grade-by-grade college calendars for 9th through 12th grade families, printable or one tap to your phone, plus a student deadline calendar and a family letter.
Get the family calendarsFree to Play
The Arcade
Four quick, ungraded classroom games on college costs, debt, and money decisions. Your teacher hosts, and students join with a game code, no login. Good, Bad, or Depends? also plays solo.
Play the Arcade© 2026 Tyler Hensley · Free through The Finance Lab
Free 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.
Free Tool · Inflation Calculator
What will it buy?
Recent inflation: 3.4% (BLS, August 2026).
Long-run average: about 3%.
$1,000,000 in 2070 buys about what $272,372 buys today.
Money that just sits in savings: $1,000 kept in a savings account paying 0.01% until 2070 would buy about what $274 buys today.
© 2026 Tyler Hensley · Free through The Finance Lab