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12 VIDEO LESSONS · FAMILY HANDOUTS INCLUDED

The Investor Lab

The actual machinery of investing, worked in public: what a share is, where a price comes from, what a fund really holds, and why time does the heavy lifting. No tips. No picks. Not one.

12lessons
12videos live now
+3bonus episodes
12family handouts
$19.99one payment
WHO THIS IS FOR

Three people this was written for.

You have an account open and untouched because nobody explained what is inside the thing you would be buying.
You have been told to just buy an index fund and never told what an index fund actually is.
You want risk explained as a number you can look at, not as a feeling somebody else has about the market.

This is the rare investing course that will never tell you what to buy. It cannot, and it would not: it is education, not advice, and no page here knows your situation. What it does instead is take every piece of the machine apart on the table — the share, the price, the dividend, the bond, the fund, the ETF, the compounding — and hand you the arithmetic so the decision is genuinely yours.

WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO

Not what you will have heard about. What you will be able to do.

Straight out of the book this track is built on, and every one of them is a thing you do on your own numbers.

THE FULL LESSON LIST

All 12 lessons, in order, with nothing hidden.

Every title is the real title. Every line under it is what that lesson actually teaches, and every "do this" is the single action that lesson asks of you.

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01

What Investing Actually Is

One question sorts every dollar: can this come back with friends?

Do this: Name the one thing you own that PRODUCES, and say what it earns per year.
VIDEO READY
02

What a Share Really Is

A share = an ownership position in a corporation plus a claim on its proportional share of assets and profits — the SEC's own definition.

Do this: Say 'out of how many?' before reacting to any share count.
VIDEO READY
03

Where Prices Come From

A price is the number two strangers most recently agreed on — a record of an argument, not a verdict on the business.

Do this: Before any trade, name out loud which certainty you need — the trade, or the price.
VIDEO READY
04

Dividends and Earnings

Every profit dollar exits one of two doors: paid out as a dividend, or retained inside the business — and both doors belong to the owners.

Do this: Look up one company's payout ratio and say what the retained 60 cents bought.
VIDEO READY
05

What a Bond Is

A stock makes you an owner; a bond makes you the lender, with a contract.

Do this: Write one ten-year lending card, year 0 to year 10, and total it out loud. Real bond decisions belong at investor.gov and with a licensed professional.
VIDEO READY
06

Risk, Return and the Long Game

Extra return is payment for accepting something specific. If you can't name the something, you don't know what you own.

Do this: Write one sentence per thing your family holds: 'We are being paid to accept ______.' Writing 'don't know' honestly beats guessing — and a 'don't know' on real money is a fine question for investor.gov and a licensed professional.
VIDEO READY
07

The Mutual Fund

A mutual fund pools money — per SEC materials, a registered company whose whole job is owning other things — so $100 can reach hundreds of companies.

Do this: Run the four questions on any one fund page — trying to do what? holding what? costing what a year? not protecting against what? Reading is practice; choosing is a job for investor.gov and a licensed professional.
VIDEO READY
08

The Index Fund and the ETF

An index is a rule plus a number — a measuring stick nobody can buy. A fund can hold what the rule lists.

Do this: Find the expense ratio on one fund your household can see and say it out loud as dollars per $10,000. Weighing it belongs with investor.gov and a licensed professional.
VIDEO READY
09

Compounding in the Market

Compounding is growth earning growth: same rate, bigger base, bending curve.

Do this: Pick the steady monthly number you could keep up in a bad month, write it on a card with the date you'll start, and keep the card where you pay the bills.
VIDEO READY
10

Diversification, For Real

Allocation splits money among big categories; diversification spreads it among different bets. Two decisions.

Do this: Do one division on your own money — largest position over the total — and write the percentage down without tidying the split to make it look better.
VIDEO READY
11

How Beginners Actually Invest

An account is a contract, and every container answers the four questions differently.

Do this: Answer the four questions out loud for one account you already have, and write "nobody here knows" wherever the room can't answer.
VIDEO READY
12

The Investor's Toolkit

Read any fund page in the protective order: holdings, rule, cost, how you trade it — returns last.

Do this: Build the card tonight — five questions on the front, the SEC's warning signs copied word for word on the back — and put it where a hurried version of you would actually find it.
VIDEO READY
BONUS EPISODES · INCLUDED FREE
13

Past the Ticker

The asset kinds that never scroll across a screen — real things, private stakes, and lent money — read with the same four questions as any share. Described, never prescribed.

VIDEO READY
14

The Liquidity Ladder

Every asset sits somewhere on a ladder from cash-today to years-to-sell, and where it sits changes what it is for. One ladder, climbed rung by rung.

VIDEO READY
15

Your Own Business Is an Investment

A small venture of your own, read like any other asset — what you put in, what can come back, and what it costs to get out. The natural bridge to the business track.

VIDEO READY
Buy this course · $19.99
GO DEEPER · SOLD SEPARATELY

The expanded book.

The course teaches it simple: short lessons, a family handout for each, one action at a time. The book is the expanded edition of those handouts — the same material worked to the penny, three different ways, every chapter in one easy place. Own both for the full complement: watch it work here, read it deep on paper.

How Investing Works cover
THE EXPANDED EDITION · SOLD SEPARATELY

How Investing Works

Shares, bonds, index funds, ETFs, dividends, risk, and compounding, in plain English with worked examples.

130 pages · 12 chapters
Digital edition · $19Paperback on Amazon · $34.99
WHAT IS INSIDE ONE LESSON

Six things, every single time.

So you always know where you are, and the depth never depends on how motivated you felt that day.

The video

A short lesson that names the thing and shows you the shape of it. Lazy-loaded, so the page is not carrying it until you press play.

What it teaches

Five plain sentences, taken from that chapter's own summary, so you can tell in ten seconds whether you already have this one.

The one action

A single thing to do on your own numbers. Not a homework pile. One action, small enough that it actually happens.

The family handout

That lesson's own PDF: the worked example, real blanks for your own numbers, and the one action. Print it, fill it in together, keep it on the fridge.

The go-deeper pointer

The exact chapter and page in the expanded book — sold separately — where this lesson is worked out in full, with the math, the three scales, and the six what-ifs.

Your progress

Mark the lesson complete and the track remembers. Come back next week and it tells you where you stopped.

THE VOCABULARY

The words you will own by the end.

Every one of these is defined on the page it first appears on, in a sentence a person can actually use.

INVESTCONSUMEAPPRECIATIONCAPITAL GAINOPPORTUNITY COSTCOMPOUNDSHARE (STOCK)SHARES OUTSTANDINGCOMMON STOCKPREFERRED STOCKPUBLIC COMPANYLIQUIDITYPRICEBIDASKSPREADMARKET ORDERLIMIT ORDERDIVIDENDEARNINGSRETAINED EARNINGSDIVIDEND YIELDPAYOUT RATIOREINVESTMENTBONDCOUPONFACE VALUEMATURITYCREDIT RISKINTEREST RATE RISKRISKRETURNVOLATILITYINFLATION RISK

Questions people actually ask

What exactly is The Investor Lab?

Shares, bonds, funds, dividends, risk and compounding, worked in public. It is 12 video lessons, each with its own downloadable family handout — a real per-lesson PDF, enough to teach that lesson on its own. Each lesson pairs one video with one handout and one action small enough to actually do. The matching book — How Investing Works — is the expanded edition of those handouts and is sold separately.

Where do the family handouts come from?

Every lesson has its own handout PDF built from that lesson's walk-through: the worked example, the blanks you fill with your own numbers, and the one action. Sufficient on its own — and when you want the full depth, the book works the same material to the penny, in one place.

Do I get the book with the course?

No — and that is on purpose. The course stands on its own: every lesson has its own family handout PDF, and the handouts are sufficient. The book is the expanded edition — the same material worked to the penny, every chapter in one place — sold separately here as a digital edition and on Amazon in paperback. Each lesson page points you to the exact chapter so the two fit together perfectly. Course plus book is the full complement; the Everything bundle is the one purchase that includes both.

Is any of this financial advice?

No, and it never pretends to be. Everything here is general financial education. It is not financial advice, not tax advice, not investment advice and not a recommendation about your circumstances. Every dollar figure is an invented practice number for a made-up household — not a forecast, not typical of anything, and not a claim about what anyone earns. For decisions about your own money, a licensed professional who can see your actual paperwork is the right person.

How long does a lesson take?

Watch the video, read the chapter, do the one action. Most people give a lesson somewhere between twenty minutes and an hour depending on how much of the chapter they read in one sitting. There is no schedule, no cohort and no expiry — the track sits in your library and waits for you.

Do I have to take the lessons in order?

It is built in order and the story runs forward, so first time through, in order is easiest. Nothing stops you jumping — every lesson page carries its own family handout and its go-deeper chapter pointer, and your progress is tracked lesson by lesson so you can wander and still know what you have done.

What if I do not like it?

Email us inside 30 days and you get all of it back. No form, no reason needed, and nobody will try to talk you out of it. You may keep the files — asking somebody to delete a PDF is theater.

Can I get this as part of something bigger?

Yes. The Everything bundle is every book and all seven tracks for $49.99 once, with free updates for life. If you only want this one track, buy this one track — that is cheaper and we would rather you did.

The Investor Lab

12 lessons, 130 pages of book, 12 printables.

$19.99 once. Every lesson's family handout included. Yours forever, with free updates for life.

Plain about what this is. General financial education, not financial advice, not tax advice or investment advice, and not a recommendation about your situation. Every dollar figure is an invented practice number for a made-up household. Written for adults, 18+.