If you have ever looked at your money and thought, “I really should sort this out,” but then immediately found something much more urgent to do, like cleaning the fridge, reorganising your sock drawer, or staring into the middle distance wondering where your life went, you are in the right place.

Welcome to Rebel Finance School 2026.

Rebel Finance School is our completely free 10-week personal finance course designed to help you go from confusion to clarity, take control of your money, get out of debt, understand investing, and work towards financial independence.

No jargon. No shame. No upsells. No “free webinar” that turns into a two-hour sales pitch for a course that costs more than a small car.

Just practical financial education, in plain English, with tools, workshops, support, and a healthy amount of Donegan humour. Yes, the cost of financial education is listening to our jokes.

The 2026 course starts live on Monday 1st June 2026 at 8pm UK time.

Rebel Finance School 2026 is a free personal finance course run by Alan and Katie Donegan. It starts on Monday 1 June 2026 at 8pm UK time and runs through the summer with weekly teaching sessions and practical workshops. The course takes you from “Where does my money even go?” all the way through tracking, net worth, money mindset, debt, investing, index funds, retirement planning, and staying calm when markets get wobbly.

All main sessions are at 8pm UK time. That is 7am the next morning in New Zealand, 3pm US Eastern, 2pm US Central, 1pm US Mountain, and 12pm US Pacific.

If you can’t attend live, don’t panic. You can still watch the replays, do the homework (aka freedom work), and follow along in your own time. We record everything and it will be waiting for you on YouTube right after the livestreams.

Rebel Finance School has already helped tens of thousands of people improve their financial lives, but we do not want to run the same thing every year just because “that is how we do it”.

After RFS 2025, over 1,700 of you filled out the feedback form. Thank you. We reviewed all that feedback and you told us that you loved the clarity, humour, tools, community, and the feeling that money finally started to make sense. You also asked for more practical help, more examples, more step-by-step workshops, and more support actually doing the thing.

So for 2026, we have evolved the course. We are not changing Rebel Finance School because it was broken. We are changing it because you told us what would make it even better.

This year, Monday sessions teach the core idea. Thursday sessions help you implement it. Week 8 includes extra support for UK, New Zealand and USA audiences (these countries represent 90% of you). The end of the course has more focus on retirement, crash plans, and staying on track.

Same mission. Same warmth. Same completely free course. Better structure. More implementation. More chance of actually doing the thing.

Below is the full Rebel Finance School 2026 course outline. The journey starts with knowing where your money goes, then builds through net worth, mindset, debt, investing, retirement planning, and staying the course when markets get wobbly.

What You Will Learn on Rebel Finance School

Rebel Finance School is designed as a journey. It does not start with investing, and that is deliberate. A lot of personal finance content jumps straight to “buy this fund” or “open this account”.

We know why, this is what we did when we started teaching this and it put off more people off than it helped! Either people decided immediately that it wasn’t for them or they jumped into investing without a solid foundation to build from. Both outcomes were failures.

Over 60% of the people coming on RFS are beginners. We have to start where you are and then build from there. If you want to know the objectives for each week then use Mission Control and the Roadmap.

In Week 1, you track your spending and find your gap. Your gap is the space between what comes in and what goes out, and that gap is what gives you options. It can be used to pay off debt, build savings, invest, create freedom, or buy emergency cheese. We mostly recommend the first four, but we respect a good cheese strategy.

In Week 2, you calculate your net worth. This is your financial blue dot: what you have, what you owe, and where you stand. Most people avoid this because they are scared of the number, but the number is not there to judge you. It is there to guide you.

In Week 3, we look at money mindset. Money is not just maths. It is behaviour, beliefs, identity, family stories, fear, shame, pride, and occasionally a tiny screaming goblin in your brain telling you that you are bad with money. Once you see the story, you can start changing it.

In Weeks 4 & 5, we tackle compounding, debt, and money conversations. You will learn how compound interest can either build your wealth or deepen your debt, then build your own get-out-of-debt plan. You will also learn how to talk about money without shame, blame, avoidance, or accidentally turning your kitchen into a financial cage fight.

Many people tell us they wish they had done week 5 before talking to their spouse or partner about finances. Money is not a solo sport.

In Weeks 6 to 8, we move into investing. You will learn what an asset really is, what belongs in your freedom fund, why low-cost index funds are so powerful, and how to make the three practical investing decisions: platform, account, and fund. This is where theory starts turning into action.

In Weeks 9 & 10, we focus on retirement and financial independence. You will learn how much you might need to retire, how to use the retirement calculator, what the 4% rule is, and how to think about drawdown, inflation, flexibility, and bad markets without panicking.

Because the point is not to die with a big pile of cash. The point is freedom, choice, security, contribution, adventure, and maybe the occasional celebratory pineapple.

If you are wondering what all the mentions of pineapples are about read this article.

This might be the most important section of this entire guide. When we analysed over 1,700 pieces of feedback from last year, one thing became very clear: the people who got the most out of Rebel Finance School were not necessarily the people who started with the most knowledge. They were the people who engaged.

1. Do the Homework, Even If You Only Do Some of It

The single biggest predictor of success was doing the homework. Watching the sessions helps, but doing the work changes everything. You do not need to complete every task perfectly, and you do not need to become a spreadsheet monk living in a cave of receipts. But if you interact with your own numbers, you will get more out of the course.

Open the tracker. Fill in one tab. Find one account. Add one number. Do something. Tiny actions count, because tiny actions are how you build momentum.

2. Take One Real Action Early

The sooner you take a real action, the sooner the course becomes about your actual life rather than abstract financial theory. Track one week of spending. Find one pension. Add up one debt. Ask one question. Book one monthly finance meeting.

You do not need to transform your entire financial life in Week 1. You just need to prove to yourself that you are in motion.

3. Focus on Your Next Step, Not the Whole Mountain

One of the biggest risks in Rebel Finance School is not that the course is too hard. It is that you try to do everything at once. Please do not attempt to fix your spending, debt, pensions, investing, retirement plan, money mindset, and family communication by Thursday lunchtime. That way leads to overwhelm, emotional snacking, and 47 open browser tabs.

Instead, ask one question: “What is my next step?” Not the perfect step. Not the most impressive step. Just the next step. We wrote an article that might help if you ever feel overwhelmed! The insurmountable mountain.

4. Do Not Wait Until You Understand Everything

A lot of people delay action because they want to understand everything first. That sounds sensible, but often it is fear wearing a clever hat. You do not need to understand every investing concept before you learn what a platform, account, and fund are. You do not need to understand every pension rule before finding your pension login.

Progress creates clarity. Not the other way round.

Maybe write that on a post it note and stick it on your bathroom mirror?

5. Show Up Consistently, Even If You Fall Behind

Live is brilliant. Catch-up is fine. The real win is consistency. If you miss a session, do not vanish dramatically into the financial wilderness. Just come back.

The people who succeed are not the people who never fall behind. They are the people who keep returning. Missed Week 2? Come to Week 3. Forgot the homework? Do one tiny bit. Lost the plot for a fortnight? Re-join. There is no shame, no detention, and no angry headmaster.

We will keep showing up with love with you.

6. Stay Curious, Not Perfect

Perfection is a progress killer. Curiosity is much more useful. Instead of asking, “What if I get this wrong?” ask, “What can I learn from this?” Instead of saying, “I should already know this,” try, “I am learning this now.”

That shift matters because shame shuts people down. Curiosity opens the door.

The people who get the most out of Rebel Finance School show up, do some homework, take action early, focus on their next step, and keep going even when they do not have everything figured out yet.

Then you are very welcome here.

One of the most encouraging findings from last year’s feedback was that people who started with little or no money knowledge often made the biggest improvements.

You do not need to be “good with money” to start Rebel Finance School.

If you want to get the most out of Rebel Finance School 2026, sign up, put the sessions in your calendar, decide when you will do the homework, and get ready to ask questions.

Do not wait until you feel ready. Ready is overrated. Start with willing. Start with curious. Start with, “I am going to do one small thing this week.”

That is enough to begin. If you ever feel lost then come back to Rebel Finance School Mission Control. This page has everything including a virtual Katie and Alan you can ask your questions at any time of day or night!