Do you wish your teen was better with money?

Have you been trying to teach them but you are not sure if anything is getting through?

Do you struggle with money yourself and don’t know how to teach your teen anything better?

Do you wish you had a personal finance class when you were in high school and would love for your teen to have the money education you never got?

Whichever category fits you best, this camp is your answer. 

“I have always been interested in finance & investing. I just didn’t know how to start.”

“Learn more about money that my parents aren’t capable of teaching.”

“I was experiencing some guidance from my father but his style of teaching gets really annoying sometimes. So having someone who’s an actual teacher is helpful.”

“Confused on what to do with money from work & felt like keeping it in a checking account was not the best.”

“Biggest anxiety about graduating & becoming an adult was money. Worried I would not know what to do.”

“I have the drive and guidance but had no clue what I had to or needed to do to reach my dreams but I knew I wanted to get ahead of the crowd so that I could make my dreams a reality sooner”

This event will be in person in Pleasant Hill, CA. 

Your teen MUST bring a laptop or Chromebook with them to the summer camp. 

Content to be covered:

Value of Money 

Most teens struggle with understanding money, how much things really cost and what that will look like in their lives. We will start with a series of fun activities that will have students planning their dream life. 

• Calculating take home pay, budget for housing, finding housing at various income levels. 

• Car shopping: dream car vs mid price vs cheapest 

• Meal planning & food cost including cooking vs buying out. 

• Dream budget 

• Budget: Starting salary out of college. How to make it all work.
  

4 Life Changing Money Moves

• Budgeting. Students will learn the importance of tracking their spending and aligning their spending choices to their dreams. Your teen will create their own budget and start tracking their spending. 

• Investing: the million dollar money machine. Your teen will learn the power of investing and the easy step-by-step process to getting started. I teach the surefire way to successful investing which is buying the top 500 companies, called the S&P500. Since most participants will be under 18, we will cover the type of account they can open to start investing. FYI, they will need your help to open an investment account since they are underage.

• Savings with a High Yield Savings Account. Bank accounts, importance of using a high yield savings account, especially as another money machine, savings for emergencies and creating a savings plan to realize your dreams. 

• Credit as an Asset. The power and importance of a credit score. How to use a credit card to easily build a good credit score. Understanding debt and the impact of Buy Now, Pay Later. 

Evaluating millionaire statistics & analyzing college options. 

Structure of Camp

I am a high school personal finance teacher and know better than anyone that nobody learns best through a 4 hour lecture, especially teenagers. Our days will be broken up between learning, doing, moving and interacting.

Your teen will be given a workbook with all the notes and a digital file with all the assignments. Your teen MUST bring a laptop or Chromebook with them to the summer camp.  

Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Results from students who took my class:

“I look at money now in a new way, not only as something I can use to get stuff that I like but more as a tool that I know how to use for a successful future.” - M.C., high school graduate 2024

“My main takeaway is how to use money to achieve your dreams and approaching it with a healthy mindset. I think in the past, I viewed money as something negative, but after taking this class, I’ve realized that it’s a powerful tool to achieve goals and once you breakdown your money blocks and understand how to better approach spending and budgeting, it’s not something to be scared of. I’ve learned that making your financial dreams is possible if you use the right tools to do so. That is to say, not everything is a need, but it’s okay to splurge once in a while if it means living your dream life. Budgeting has taught me where my spending holes are and what I need to prioritize when it comes to my purchases. It’s shown me what I tend to buy and that has helped me shift my spending to more practical purchases. Most of all, I’ve learned that financial freedom is possible. I haven’t grown up with that mindset, so this class teaching me that I have the potential to make that a reality has been extremely inspiring.” -O.B., high school graduate 2024

“I know how to make money but could not hold on to it to save my life. This class has motivated me to form good habits that don’t necessarily have to be big but they need to start now so that I can have an easier road to financial freedom and being on track for my dream life.” - K.G. By the end of the year K.G. had substantial savings towards her first car and was on her way to maxing out her Roth IRA for 2024. She is the first in her family to break the cycle of paycheck to paycheck poverty. K.G. is 17 years old.

“I didn’t know much about what to do with my money and I was scared for when I would be financially responsible for everything in my life. Now I feel more prepared and ready to be independent and also I’m more confident I will thrive in retirement. I also spent a lot on food and I didn’t know how to budget. [Since taking this class] I have probably gotten more frugal and thought more about my future. I used to think of money in the short term but now I’m thinking more about saving and finding money machines. I want to make my money work for me and I’m learning it’s about working smarter not harder. “ K.S., high school graduate 2024.

“I started to see the different uses for money other than saving and spending. For one, I can think about investing with money which was something new that I learned about from this class, and also budgeting and setting up goals for things I want to buy.” A.C.M., high school graduate 2024

“I wasn’t the best at managing my money/savings until I started the budget in class and realized how much money I was spending on unnecessary things.” H.K.I., high school graduate 2024

My name is Crystal Rigley Janis and I am the personal finance teacher at Berkeley High School. My career started in wealth management at UBS Financial Services and I transitioned to being a high school teacher to financially empower all young people with the money tools and confidence to thrive as an adult. I live in Pleasant Hill and want to bring the power of my class to the teenagers in my community.