Financial confidence and cyber awareness, built for students.
Finance Forward Network is a student run organization teaching teens how to budget, save, and stay safe online through hands on simulations, workshops, and original research.
Founded in 2025, built by students who saw the gap firsthand.
Most students graduate without ever being taught how credit works, how to budget a paycheck, or how to recognize a scam. Finance Forward Network exists to close that gap, with content designed by students, for students, not repurposed textbook material.
We work at the intersection of two subjects that rarely get taught well together: personal finance and cybersecurity. Both are skills students need before they need them, not after something goes wrong.
Practical over theoretical
Every program is built around real decisions students will actually face.
Research informed
We study how teens actually learn about money and online safety, and let that shape our programs.
Free and accessible
Every simulation, workshop, and resource we build is free to access.
Learn.
Practice.
Protect.
Studying how students actually learn about money and safety.
Our research shapes everything else we build. We run our own studies to understand what students know, what they don't, and where the gaps really are.
Financial Literacy and Scam Awareness Study
A student led research project studying how teens learn about budgeting, credit, and online safety. All responses are anonymous and used only for educational and research purposes.
Take the surveyFuture research projects
We're continuing to expand our research into financial literacy and cybersecurity education. Future studies and findings will be added here as they launch.
Live workshops that make the material stick.
We run interactive sessions covering budgeting, credit, and online safety, open to all students at no cost.
Financial Literacy and Cybersecurity Workshop
A live, interactive session covering budgeting basics and how to spot online scams before they cost you. Open to all students, no experience required.
Learn by doing, not by reading.
Our flagship simulation puts students in real financial and cybersecurity decision points, with no real world stakes attached.
Cybersecurity and Finance Simulation
A gamified simulation built for high school students, covering budgeting, saving, and spending decisions alongside phishing and scam recognition scenarios modeled on real threats.
Finance Forward: Life Simulation
A twelve month financial life simulation. Choose your path, then manage income, spending, investing, and goals month by month to see how everyday choices shape your future.
Future simulations
We're building out additional simulation modules as part of our ongoing educational and technology projects. New modules will appear here as they go live.
Writing on money, safety, and what we're learning.
Longer form articles from the Finance Forward Network team, published on Medium.
Organizations we've worked with.
We're always open to partnering with schools, nonprofits, and organizations that share our mission. This section grows as new collaborations are confirmed.
Help build what financial and cyber education should look like.
Finance Forward Network is entirely student run, and we're actively growing. If you care about financial literacy, cybersecurity, or building things other students actually use, we want to hear from you. No prior experience required.
Apply for a Leadership RoleGet in touch.
Questions, partnership ideas, or press inquiries. Reach us however is easiest.