IRL

In Real Life

Everything They Should Have Taught You

IRL is a life simulation platform for high school students. You earn a real job, build a real budget, and navigate the adult decisions that school never covered — before the stakes are real.

Six areas. One life.

The IRL curriculum covers the six domains of functional adult life that high schools skip entirely. Each one is grounded in your specific simulation.

Money & Work

Decode your first paycheck, master budgeting, and build a credit history that actually opens doors. Learn what nobody tells you about how money really moves.

Home & Life

Find an apartment, sign a lease, set up utilities, and understand what renters insurance actually covers. The logistics of adult living, demystified.

Food & Cooking

Grocery shop on a real budget, cook nourishing meals without wasting money, and understand how food choices compound over time into health outcomes.

Know Your Rights

Understand your workplace rights, tenant protections, consumer laws, and what to do when someone violates them. Knowledge is the first form of power.

Civic Life

Register to vote, understand how local government affects your daily life, and learn how to engage with systems that shape your community.

Grow Your Own

Start a side hustle, build skills that compound, and understand entrepreneurship as a real path — not just a buzzword. Your labor has more leverage than you think.

How it works

Three phases. Ten simulated years. One honest look at adult life.

01

Build Your Profile

Complete a resume and cover letter to reveal the career matched to your strengths. No fake choices — the simulation assigns you a real starting point.

02

Earn Your Job

See your salary, your debt load, your city, and your first paycheck. Then make the decisions that determine what your life actually looks like.

03

Live Your Life

Navigate ten simulated years of adult life. Complete lessons, face workplace scenarios, track your goals, and see how the choices compound.

For schools & partners

IRL is designed for classroom deployment. Facilitators get a dashboard to track cohort progress, and the platform generates anonymized research data on financial literacy outcomes across school types.

We partner directly with districts, Title I schools, and nonprofits to make IRL accessible at no cost to students. To bring IRL to your school or organization, reach out below.

hello@irlinreallife.com