"I started FFI because I kept watching smart people my age fumble the exact same money mistakes, not because they were not paying attention, but because nobody had ever explained the rules. So we teach the rules, for free, to anyone willing to learn."Jacob FineFounder. Junior at Jericho High School (class of 2027).
Completed the Wharton School's Understanding Your Money program. Long Island native.
Close the financial literacy gap for young people, one free workshop at a time.
Money decisions start early, and the ideas that shape them are surprisingly learnable when someone bothers to explain them clearly. Most young people do not get that chance until after a costly mistake or two. FFI exists to shorten that gap.
The goal is not to make anyone an expert in an hour. It is to give students a head start on the habits and ideas that quietly decide so much later on, and to prove that a good workshop can be free, student-led, and still take the material seriously.
Three principles behind every workshop.
Built by students
Workshops are written and led by high school students. The examples, pace, and humor are closer to how young people actually think about money than to how finance is usually taught.
Free and turnkey
Every session is free, and we bring everything except the room. Cost and prep time never decide who gets to learn this.
Built on the "Big Three"
The curriculum was developed with input from Dr. Anand R. Marri, former Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Professor of Economic Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and faculty at the University of Minnesota and the Wharton School. Every session is built around the Lusardi and Mitchell "Big Three": compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification.
Libraries, clubs, schools, and day camps across Long Island.
A snapshot of the venues that have hosted or booked FFI, close to 2,000 young people in person so far. We also run virtual sessions with our chapters, and our breakdowns have passed 100,000 views on social media.
The feedback is the reason we keep booking dates.
Parents email after sessions to say their kid brought the budgeting sheet home. Librarians and camp facilitators ask us back before we have packed up. That response, more than any number, is what tells us the format works.
What FFI looks like from the back of the room.
More photos live on the community page. These are a few favorites.
What local press wrote about FFI.
17-year-old Jacob Fine brings free financial literacy lessons to Nassau County libraries
"That’s the best version of pay it forward you could possibly have. When a teen wants to do something like that, not only are they passionate about the subject they’re looking to teach, they’re also passionate about helping others."
Student becomes the master: 17-year-old teaches personal finance to peers
"Having a workshop that is taught by teens, while the attendees were mostly tweens, they’re their peers and equals, and it makes it a lot less daunting when you have someone on your level that you can ask questions to, and approach."
Reviewed and supported by people who do this professionally.
FFI's materials have been reviewed and supported by finance and education professors at the University of Minnesota, Columbia University, and the Wharton School. We collaborate with WealthWave on outreach and have partnered with the USA Economics Olympiad on student-facing programming.
Want to meet the people behind it?
FFI runs on a small team of students and mentors who care about this work. Come say hello.