Indiana · IDOE Course 4540
Indiana's personal finance requirement is here.
This is the course built to meet it — and to count as math.
Your Next Chapter™ is a full-credit, proficiency-based course mapped to all six domains of IDOE's Personal Financial Responsibility framework (Course 4540) — built by a CFP® and Accredited Estate Planner.
Ready to deploy in 2–4 weeks.
Indiana's law, stated exactly.
For the class of 2028, personal finance instruction is required under IC 20-30-5-19. For the class of 2029, personal finance becomes eligible to count as a mathematics credit under Indiana's new diploma rule. And under 511 IAC 6-7.2, an Indiana "credit" is earned by demonstrating proficiency in a department-approved course — which makes a portfolio-based course like this one the native form of the credit, not an alternative to it.
IC 20-30-5-19 · 511 IAC 6-7.2 · IDOE Course 4540In Indiana, proficiency is credit.
Under 511 IAC 6-7.2, "credit" means demonstrating proficiency against academic standards in a department-approved course. That makes a portfolio-based course like this one the native form of an Indiana credit — not an alternative to seat time, but the definition of it. Students earn it by building and defending a real financial plan.
Course 4540, one full credit.
Personal Financial Responsibility is a one-credit course (one credit per semester, maximum one credit) that counts as a directed elective or elective for all diplomas — and qualifies as a quantitative reasoning course.
Two dates, kept distinct.
Instruction is required for the class of 2028 (IC 20-30-5-19); math-credit eligibility arrives for the class of 2029 under the new diploma rule. A counselor knows the difference, so we keep them separate — instruction required first, math-credit eligibility second.
The time is now.
With instruction required for 2028 and math-credit eligibility landing for 2029, the students affected are in your building today. The course has to be running this year.
Standards crosswalk
Aligned to all six domains of IDOE's Personal Financial Responsibility framework (Course 4540).
| Domain | IDOE domain name | Your Next Chapter™ unit |
|---|---|---|
| PFR-1 | Financial Responsibility & Decision Making | Unit 2 — Spending with Intention |
| PFR-2 | Relating Income and Careers | Unit 1 — Your Story, Your Income |
| PFR-3 | Planning and Managing Money | Unit 3 (+ estate planning, Unit 7) |
| PFR-4 | Managing Credit and Debt | Unit 4 — Borrowing Wisely |
| PFR-5 | Risk Management and Insurance | Unit 6 — Protecting What Matters |
| PFR-6 | Saving and Investing | Unit 5 — Growing What You Have |
Verified against the IDOE/CHE Personal Financial Responsibility Course Framework. Every domain maps to a unit; PFR-3.6 estate planning is delivered in the Unit 7 capstone. The full crosswalk is included in the sample package.
Built for Indiana, not relabeled.
Indiana tax law and Indiana numbers, taught for real — including the estate-planning domain most curricula skip.
Indiana tax math — done the Indiana way.
Indiana taxes gross income minus exemptions, not gross — a distinction that quietly breaks any course that just relabels another state's arithmetic. Unit 1 computes the 2.95% state rate (stepping down to 2.90% in 2027) on taxable income, then adds the separate county tax line. All three sample pay stubs were rebuilt from the Indiana Department of Revenue tables.
All 92 counties, and the number that makes it real.
County rates run from 0.50% in Porter County to 3.00% in Randolph, and they follow the county a student lived in on January 1 — not where they work. On $40,000 of income, that's $195 a year in Porter versus $1,170 in Randolph — same job, same pay, $975 apart. Students look up their own county from the current DOR table.
Estate planning — created by someone who actually does it.
Indiana's framework (PFR-3.6) requires students to contrast wills, living wills, and trusts and to evaluate estate-planning tools. No competing Indiana curriculum was written by an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®). Unit 7 delivers it as "Planning past yourself" — an added lesson Indiana doesn't share with the base edition.
Indiana at-fault insurance.
Unit 6 teaches Indiana's at-fault system and the real 25/50/25 minimums, framed around the actual decision students face — is the state minimum actually enough? — rather than a generic insurance overview.
Seven units. Twenty-eight lessons. One plan.
Every unit produces one real portfolio artifact — a document the student will actually use after graduation.
Unit 1
Income & Career Snapshot
Your Story, Your Income.
Unit 2
Spending Values Map
Spending with Intention.
Unit 3
First-Year Budget
Building Your Foundation.
Unit 4
Credit & Debt Strategy
Borrowing Wisely.
Unit 5
Investment Starter Plan
Growing What You Have.
Unit 6
Risk Protection Checklist
Protecting What Matters.
Unit 7 · The Capstone
A plan they can use at 20, at 25, at 30 — and beyond.
Students assemble all six artifacts into a complete personal financial plan, stress-test it against three disruption scenarios, and present it in a structured five-minute format — closing with "Planning past yourself," Indiana's estate-planning lesson. They don't finish with a grade. They finish with a plan.
Five life-transition tracks — chosen on Day 1.
Students pick one track on Day 1, and it becomes the lens for every decision across the course — career research, budget assumptions, debt choices, and investment projections all reflect their specific path.
College
University or community college: tuition, loans, housing, part-time work.
Career Launch
First full-time job: benefits, first apartment, first car, 401(k) decisions.
Skilled Trades
Apprenticeship: earn while you learn, union benefits, tool costs.
Entrepreneurship
Your own business: variable income, self-employment taxes, startup costs.
Military Service
Enlistment and active duty: base pay and tax-free allowances, the Blended Retirement System, and benefits few 18-year-olds know how to read.
Built by a practitioner, not a curriculum company.
Mark H. Johnson · CFP® · AEP® · CEPA® · CDFA® · BFA™ · JD · MBA
Founder of Reviresco Financial Planning & Wealth Management in Monroe, Michigan, Mark has sat across the table from clients working through every financial mistake this curriculum is designed to prevent. As an Accredited Estate Planner, he wrote Indiana's estate-planning domain himself. Every unit is built around decisions your graduates will face within five years of graduation — not hypothetical, not textbook. Real.
Proof you can take to your board.
Every licensed district receives three structured outcome reports per cohort: a pre/post knowledge assessment (target ≥25-point gain), domain-level verification that all six IDOE Personal Financial Responsibility domains were delivered, and capstone proficiency, completion, and teacher-satisfaction rates. At course end you'll have a documented record of what percentage of students completed the course, what percentage produced a proficiency-level financial plan, and how much the average student's financial knowledge grew — the evidence base for renewing the license and reporting to your board.
Indiana's requirement is already in motion.
Instruction required for the class of 2028, math-credit eligibility for 2029 — the students affected are in your building now.
Request the Indiana Sample UnitPricing — by scope, not by state
A per-district site license by enrollment, all units and materials included. Choose your course:
Semester course
A half-credit, one-semester course — most states.
| Enrollment | Annual license |
|---|---|
| Up to 150 students | $2,000 |
| 151–500 | $4,500 |
| 501–1,500 | $9,500 |
| 1,501–5,000 | $18,000 |
| 5,001+ / consortium | Custom |
Full-year course
A full-credit, two-semester course — e.g. Louisiana. About 40% more, because it's nearly twice the course.
| Enrollment | Annual license |
|---|---|
| Up to 150 students | $2,800 |
| 151–500 | $6,300 |
| 501–1,500 | $13,300 |
| 1,501–5,000 | $25,200 |
| 5,001+ / consortium | Custom |
Semester course
A half-credit economics course.
| Enrollment | Annual license |
|---|---|
| Up to 150 students | $2,000 |
| 151–500 | $4,500 |
| 501–1,500 | $9,500 |
| 1,501–5,000 | $18,000 |
| 5,001+ / consortium | Custom |
For states that require a separate personal finance course and a separate economics course (e.g. Michigan). Each semester course is 20% off.
| Enrollment | Per course (−20%) | Both, total |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 150 | $1,600 | $3,200 |
| 151–500 | $3,600 | $7,200 |
| 501–1,500 | $7,600 | $15,200 |
| 1,501–5,000 | $14,400 | $28,800 |
| 5,001+ / consortium | Custom | Custom |