Your money.
Your future.
No gatekeepers.
Free, jargon-free money help built to break the cycle of economic disadvantage: hundreds of plain-English guides, hand-verified scholarships and paid opportunities, and calculators for your real numbers. All free, no sign-up. An account is optional, just for community posts and syncing across devices.
226 guides · 1222 verified scholarships · 395 paid opportunities · 20 calculators
New · In betaTell the guide your goal, and it builds your plan.Still learning: flag any step that doesn't fit and it reworks it.
Try the plan builderMost people don't come here to “study finance.”
They come with a question that's been bugging them. Start with yours.
- Why is my first paycheck smaller than I expected?Read the guide
- How do I build credit when I have none at all?Read the guide
- What is the FAFSA, and how do I actually fill it out?Read the guide
A student question; the whole hub is at For Students, with deadlines and scholarships beside it.
- It's my first time filing taxes. Where do I start?Read the guide
Paying for school? We built your own corner.
A whole site inside the site: scholarships we verified by hand, programs that pay you, every deadline that moves money, and a tracker that keeps score, from high school through university.
1222
The Scholarship Finder
Real awards, hand-checked against official pages. Filter by your stage; no forms about you.
395
Get paid to get ahead
Verified internships, fellowships, and research programs. Free to apply, many with stipends.
11
The money calendar
FAFSA to decision day, with calendar downloads and email reminders if you want them.
“Empower stands for the Economic Mobility Project, and for empowering people to take control of their financial freedom.”
Financial knowledge shouldn't depend on the family you're born into.
This project exists to break the cycle of economic disadvantage for first-generation, low-income, and immigrant youth. It was started by a first-generation student and kid of immigrants, because so much of what builds wealth gets passed down quietly at kitchen tables some families never had a seat at.
We're changing that three ways: education anyone can reach, community that makes it stick, and research that names the real barriers. This website is where the first of those begins.
— Shinjoo, founder
Accessible education
Plain-English money guides, free and open to everyone.
Community support
Networks that help knowledge actually stick and grow.
Honest research
Exposing the structural barriers to real economic mobility.
What do you want to learn?
Dive into any topic below, or take the 2-minute quiz for a path built around exactly where you are right now.
Take the 2-minute quiz
Answer a few questions and we'll point you to the topics that matter most for you right now.
Rather follow a route than browse? Every topic has a roadmap that puts its guides in order. In school? The college guides have a hub of their own: For Students.
Small, steady, unstoppable.
$200 a month, invested in a broad index fund, over 30 years. The line doesn't bend because you're clever. It bends because compounding is patient.
This is what the calculators show you. Not a prediction. Just arithmetic, applied.
Education is step one. Community is what makes it last.
We're building support networks and research alongside these guides, so progress isn't something you have to figure out alone.
Rather not post publicly? Ask Empower anonymously and good questions become answers on the site.