The Front Door

SUITE 01

Identity & licenses

The government-facing paperwork a teenager starts to accumulate. Heaviest PII, so it's the last thing to hold real numbers, the tracker leads, the vault follows.

The checklist

• Learner's permit ↗Being set upThe first driving credential, gated behind a written test and a driver-ed enrollment.At 15It's the on-ramp to a license and doubles as a first real photo ID.
• State ID card ↗PlannedA non-driver state ID so he can prove age and identity without carrying the permit.15 to 16Needed to fly domestically and for anything age-gated; a backup to the permit.
• Social Security card ↗ActiveLocate and safekeep the card. A reference in the hub, never the number itself.Anytime nowRequired for a first job, a custodial account, and financial aid.
• Library cardActiveA card at the local library, the free front door to books, databases, and tools.Anytime nowThe highest-value free account a teenager can hold; often unlocks e-books and courses.
• Passport ↗PlannedA first passport (or passport card), which takes weeks and needs both guardians for a minor.Before it's urgentLong lead time; far cheaper and calmer to start before a trip forces it.

Built on

SUITE 02

Finance

A first debit card, a first savings goal, and the custodial accounts an adult opens for a minor. The money spine this site already runs is the ledger underneath.

The checklist

• Teen debit card ↗ActiveA guardian-controlled debit card with spend limits, chore payouts, and visibility.13 and upWhere a teenager learns to spend real money with guardrails and a paper trail.
• Allowance and choresBeing set upA recurring transfer, ideally tied to a shared chore board so it's earned, not granted.Anytime nowTurns money into a weekly habit and connects it to responsibility.
• First savings goalBeing set upOne named goal with a target amount and a visible progress bar.Anytime nowConcrete, motivating, and the first taste of saving toward something.
• Custodial brokerage (UTMA)PlannedA custodial investment account an adult opens and manages until the age of majority.Anytime nowThe long, boring, powerful one: decades of compounding started early.
• Credit-buildingPlannedAdding him as an authorized user on a guardian card, later, to seed a credit history.Closer to 18A head start on credit, but not yet at 15; noted so it isn't forgotten.

Built on

SUITE 03

College & school

The multi-year timeline that's invisible until it's late. Deadlines, an activities log, and the standardized-test cadence, set as countdowns now, not remembered later.

The checklist

• PSAT and SAT timeline ↗Being set upThe standardized-test cadence: PSAT sophomore fall, SAT junior spring, with practice built in.Sophomore fallThe PSAT is also the National Merit qualifier; the calendar is invisible until it's late.
• Activities and résumé logPlannedA running log of clubs, sports, work, and volunteering, captured as it happens.Start at 15Reconstructing four years from memory senior year is the classic avoidable scramble.
• Common App shell ↗PlannedThe account and essay runway on the shared application most colleges accept.Junior summerStarting the essay early is the single biggest stress reducer of senior fall.
• FAFSA prep ↗PlannedThe federal aid form and the documents it needs, gathered before the window opens.Junior yearIt's the paperwork that decides the money, and aid is often first-come.
• Scholarship radarPlannedA watchlist of local and interest-based scholarships with their deadlines as countdowns.Junior year onSmall local awards are the least competitive money and the easiest to miss.

Built on

SUITE 04

Apps, tools & accounts

The software a young person actually lives in. The launchable suite, each a tile on his front door, most a deep-link, a few a real one-click connect.

The checklist

• Google account ↗ActiveThe mail, docs, and drive account most of school and everything else logs in with.Anytime nowThe hub account: get it right, with recovery set, and the rest hangs off it.
• GitHub Education ↗Being set upFree GitHub Pro plus the Student Developer Pack, if he writes code.If he codesA large bundle of real developer tools, free while he's a student.
• Password manager ↗Being set upA shared or personal vault so every account gets a unique, remembered password.Anytime nowThe actual single-sign-on habit worth teaching, and the safest one.
• Learning tools ↗ActiveThe free learning apps: Khan Academy for school subjects, Duolingo for a language.Anytime nowZero-cost, self-paced, and a tap from the front door when he wants them.
• Email alias on the family domainPlannedA noah@ address on a family-owned domain that's his to keep and forward.Anytime nowPortable and permanent, unlike a school or provider address he'll lose.

Built on

PHASE 01 · FIRST

The front door + the tracker

The launcher and the provisioning tracker, built on parts that already exist. One family login lands on a personal hub of tiles that deep-link out to each service (the add-ons launchUrl idiom), and every service climbs a planned → being set up → active ladder (the money-accounts idiom) so you read your whole to-do list in one board. No secrets stored yet, just links, status, and one screen that replaces a dozen tabs.

What ships

• A private, noindex per-person hub (the /money posture): guardian + dependent, service-role, no anon
• A services catalog as content-as-code, one entry per service, grouped by the four categories
• The status ladder + this board, reading real state instead of the fictional demo above

The honest risk

A tracker no one updates is a dead board. It only earns its place if updating a status is a single tap from the thing that changed it, the same reason the household todo spine works.

PHASE 02 · NEXT

The vault + real connectors

Now it holds things. Per-service credentials, encrypted at rest with the exact crypto the IAM vault and secrets store already use (AES-256-GCM under one master key), redacted on read, decrypted only behind an audited seam. And for the services that support it, real one-click connect, Google first, reusing the mail/calendar token flow, so the hub pulls live state instead of only linking out. This is where the guardian-versus-dependent visibility policy becomes real.

What ships

• A human-owned credential vault (relaxes today's agent-only owner guard on iam_credentials)
• The OAuth connector flow: connect → callback → token to the secrets store, status to the install
• A visibility policy: what a 15-year-old sees, versus what only the guardian holds

The honest risk

Storing a minor's credentials is a real responsibility, not a feature. The redaction wall, the audit trail on every guardian action, and a bias toward references-not-secrets are the guardrails, and some things should stay out of any vault on purpose.

PHASE 03 · LATER

The family product

If the single-family version earns it, the multi-tenant one is a short step: the same tenancy scaffold that already runs the public boards (/t, /w, /trip, /cd) gives any adult a family with a guardian role and dependent roles, exactly like a trip's home-versus-traveler split. Noah is just tenant #1. The private hub stays private; only the concept goes public.

What ships

• A guardian/dependent roster on the shared makeTenancy spine
• The age-of-majority handoff as a first-class lifecycle event, not an afterthought
• An opt-in, data-free way for other families to spin up their own front door

The honest risk

This is the pitch that's easy to build and hard to be responsible for. It ships only if the boring, private version proved the shape first, a family-data product is a trust commitment, not a growth tactic.