A State Launched a Money Contest for Teens. Start a Cash Club to Join.

What if your school had a club where the whole point was to get good with money?

North Carolina's State Treasurer just announced a statewide competition built around exactly that idea. Teams of high school students will research a real state problem, come up with solutions, and pitch them. There's one catch: to compete, your team has to belong to a Cash Club.

You don't need to live in North Carolina to learn from this. Let's look at how it works and how any teen can build a money club of their own.

It's a statewide financial literacy competition for high school students, announced October 30, 2026 by the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer. Student teams research a state policy issue, develop solutions, and prepare a policy proposal.

Teams compete in regional rounds for a spot in the state final. The press release says this year's topic and the details on how to take part are at nctreasurer.gov/ncfiscalchallenge.

What the release doesn't say is just as important. It doesn't list a deadline, and it doesn't list prizes. If you're interested, check that page directly instead of guessing.

A Cash Club is a weekly financial literacy club that teaches money skills through lessons, activities, and discussions. The Treasurer's office runs the program, and the weekly meetings are built around its Finance Fridays newsletter.

According to the Cash Club page, each topic includes teaching slides, activities, discussions, review questions, and scholarship spotlights. Guest speakers can be invited too. The Department gives clubs a downloadable packet with talking points, activities, and quizzes. Eleven topics are listed, starting with "How to Begin" and ending with "Sunk Cost."

High schools, home schools, and out-of-school groups can start one. Clubs can begin in the fall semester of the 2026 to 2027 school year. The page doesn't mention a cost.

Because money choices don't stop at your own wallet. State Treasurer Brad Briner said in the release, "Financial literacy is more than knowing how to save for a purchase or make a budget."

Think about it. Your town decides how to spend tax money on roads, parks, and schools. Those are budget choices, just on a much bigger scale. When you research a policy issue, you practice asking the same questions you'd ask about your own allowance. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What happens if we choose differently?

The release says students learn to apply what they know about finance to real challenges and see how money decisions affect whole communities.

A few more options are worth knowing about.

• The National Personal Finance Challenge. The Council for Economic Education calls it the nation's top personal finance competition for high schoolers. Early access opens in November 2026, and the competition kicks off in January 2027, according to its page. The final round included 20 rapid-fire questions on topics like 401(k) matches and mortgage discount points.
• A Treasurer internship. In April, the NC Treasurer announced an internship for high school juniors and seniors. One intern is picked each for fall, spring, and summer, and finishers get a $500 scholarship, per Carolina Journal.

Not every program is open to every state, so check eligibility first.

You don't have to wait for a state program. Here's a simple way to get going.

1. Find a grown-up sponsor. A teacher, librarian, or community leader can host your meetings.
2. Pick a regular time. Weekly works well, but monthly is fine to start. Carolina Journal reported that the NC plan described monthly meetings at schools, while the Cash Club page describes weekly ones, so choose what fits your group.
3. Choose a topic for each meeting. Saving, budgeting, interest, scams, and sunk costs are all good ones.
4. Add an activity. Do a quiz, a role play, or a mini budget challenge.
5. Invite a guest. A local banker or small business owner can answer questions.

If you live in North Carolina, you can email FinanceFridays@nctreasurer.gov to ask about launching an official Cash Club.

Here's the thing about starting a business: the hard part is rarely the idea. It's the money part. Pricing, costs, profit, and saving all show up on day one.

A money club is a safe place to practice. You could run a mock business, set a pretend budget, and see who can reach a savings goal first. When you're ready to plan a real one, a tool like Foundra can help young founders organize products, costs, and goals. A notebook works too.

Even better, talking about money out loud gets easier with practice. And that skill helps you in every job you ever have.

Since it's the last topic on the Cash Club list, let's explain it.

A sunk cost is money you already spent and can't get back. Say you bought a ticket to a school play but then feel sick. Staying anyway because you paid is a sunk cost trap. The money is gone either way, so the real question is what choice is best now.

Grown-ups fall for this all the time. Learning about it as a teenager is a big head start.

The press release doesn't spell out the rules for proposals, so here's a general way to think about it, not an official checklist.

A good proposal usually answers five questions:

1. What's the problem? State it in one sentence, with a real number if you can find one.
2. Who does it affect? Kids, families, seniors, small businesses?
3. What's your solution? Be specific. "Do better" isn't a solution.
4. What would it cost, and who pays? This is where money skills really matter.
5. How will we know it worked? Pick one thing to measure.

Practice on a small problem close to home. Maybe your school lunch line is too slow, or your town's skate park needs repairs. Write one page that answers those five questions. You've just done what the big teams will do, only smaller.

The challenge is for teams, and teamwork is a money skill too. Every business, nonprofit, and city office runs on groups of people.

Some ideas that help:

• Give each person a job, like research lead, writer, or presenter.
• Set one shared goal and one deadline a week before the real one.
• Disagree about ideas, not about people.
• Practice presenting out loud at least three times.
• Thank each other when something goes well.

If you're planning to start a young business later, you'll use these exact habits. Founders who can share work and listen well tend to get further than the ones who try to do everything alone.

When the Treasurer announced the clubs and internship in April, a student intern cited a figure that only 65 percent of adults answer financial literacy questions correctly, according to Carolina Journal. That's a number from a student's remarks, not a research study, so take it as a talking point.

Still, the idea is clear. Lots of grown-ups never got a chance to practice with money in a fun, low-pressure way. Programs like Cash Clubs aim to fix that earlier. Briner said at the time, "We want to make it interesting."

If you're a teen reading this, you're ahead of the game just by being curious.

• North Carolina announced a statewide financial literacy competition for high school teams on October 30, 2026.
• Teams must be part of a Cash Club to compete.
• Students research a state policy issue, build a proposal, and compete in regional rounds.
• The release doesn't list a deadline or prizes, so check nctreasurer.gov/ncfiscalchallenge.
• Anyone can start a money club with a sponsor, a regular schedule, and fun activities.
• The Council for Economic Education's challenge for high schoolers kicks off in January 2027.

Who can join the N.C. Fiscal Policy Challenge? High school-aged students on teams that belong to a Cash Club. Schools without a club can contact the Treasurer's communications director, Loretta Boniti.

Do I have to live in North Carolina? This challenge is run by North Carolina's Treasurer, so it appears aimed at students there. Other states and groups run their own money programs.

How much does a Cash Club cost? The Cash Club page doesn't mention any cost.

What do teams actually do? They research a state policy issue, develop solutions, and prepare a proposal, then compete in regional rounds for a spot in the state final.

Where do I find the prizes and deadline? The press release doesn't list them. Check nctreasurer.gov/ncfiscalchallenge for the latest.

Can younger kids start a money club? Yes. These programs focus on high school, but a family or neighborhood group can run a simpler version with a grown-up helper.

1. Department of State Treasurer launches statewide financial literacy competition for teens, NC Department of State Treasurer, October 30, 2026
2. The Cash Club, NC Department of State Treasurer
3. NC treasurer rolls out internship, clubs to boost financial literacy, Carolina Journal, April 27, 2026
4. National Personal Finance Challenge, Council for Economic Education