Inspiration
People joke that school doesnt teach you anything useful for the real world, and they’re not wrong. As a student, I’ve feel completely underprepared when it comes to basic financial skills. A year ago, I had no clue about budgeting, saving, managing expenses, and actually understanding where my money goes. And nowadays, teens already have short attention spans, so sitting through boring lectures or long articles about financial literacy isn’t realistic.
What it does
Budgex exists to fix that. It turns financial literacy into something teens can actually learn, use, and stick with. It's a short 10-20 minute (supposed to be) tutorial inorder to assist teens with their inabilities to read and pay attention, prioritizing their dopamine in order to learn
How we built it
I used Claude to help debug our code and connect the front and backend, and we used ChatGPT to generate the project’s images. I also utilized html, css, js, node.js, mongodb, and .json.
Challenges we ran into
Alot of them, actually the entire project as a challenge. I don't even think I uploaded it to github properly
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I submitted it and will get my confetti
What we learned
How to utilize animations (glint), how to use mongodb, (attempted and failed) at using vercel, and the power of procrastination.
What's next for Budgex
I will finish Budgex, implementing it's correct features so that it actually works. I will add more units, lessons, and make it so that the lessons actually appear after the completion of others.
Project Description: Budgex is a finance app for teens who want to understand money but would rather do anything else than read a 50-page PDF about taxes. Instead of pretending school will suddenly start teaching real financial skills, Budgex steps in and actually explains the stuff everyone complains they never learned. The entire purpose of the app is simple. Teach teens how taxes, investments, crypto and all the other “adulting” topics actually work without boring them into oblivion. The app is built around interactive tools that make complicated topics feel manageable. There is a tax calculator that lets users plug in numbers and see exactly how much money the government will take before they even get their first paycheck. Teens can adjust income, side-hustle earnings and deductions to see what changes and why. It is basically a preview of financial reality, minus the panic attack. Budgex also covers investments in a way normal humans can understand. Instead of throwing charts and jargon at teens, the app breaks down how stocks, ETFs and compound growth work through simple visuals and quick explanations. Users can simulate different investment choices to see how their money might grow over time. They get the point fast. Long term investing is not magic. It is math that slowly becomes impressive. Crypto gets the same treatment. The app explains what coins are, how blockchains work, why prices swing around like a rollercoaster and how to avoid losing money to hype. Teens can experiment with mock portfolios that show what would happen if they invested without actually risking real cash. They get exposure to the concepts without accidentally draining their savings. Everything is tied together with gamified learning. Teens earn experience points for completing lessons, trying tools, successfully predicting outcomes in simulations and mastering core concepts. Instead of memorizing definitions, they learn by interacting. Budgex rewards curiosity and punishes nothing. If a user makes a terrible investment in a simulation, they do not lose money. They just learn why it was terrible. The app includes micro-lessons that explain complicated ideas in under fifteen seconds. These mini explanations appear naturally while using tools, which keeps the experience smooth and digestible for short attention spans.
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