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Every guide here is the arithmetic, worked in public.

40 long-form explainers across the nine money subjects, each one built from a chapter that already exists in a book, each one carrying at least one worked example computed in code rather than typed. No tips, no picks, no score numbers, and nothing on any page tells you what to do with your money.

40guides

60kwords

9subjects

$0to read

Every figure is computed, not typed.
One script generates every dollar amount on every page, and a second script proves that no article contains a figure that script did not print.

Every guide routes its own limits.
Tax questions go to irs.gov, credit rights to consumerfinance.gov, reports to annualcreditreport.com, and anything about your own situation to a licensed professional.

Nothing here recommends anything.
No bank, fund, insurer, card, app or security is named on any of these pages, and no outcome is promised on any of them.

9 GUIDES

The paycheck and the budget

Where the money actually goes before you ever see it, and what a plan built on your worst month rather than your best one looks like. Start here if the question is why the month runs out before the pay does.

Built from Paycheck to Plan, 130 pages.

How to Read Your Pay Stub, Line by Line

Read every line of a pay stub, gross to net, with one worked example. What each exit is, which ones you set, and the tie-out that proves the stub is right.

Gross Pay vs Net Pay: Where the Difference Goes

Gross pay is the offer letter. Net pay is the bank. Here is every exit between them, worked out to the penny on one practice paycheck.

Pre-Tax vs Post-Tax Deductions: What Each One Really Does

A pre-tax deduction shrinks a tax base. A post-tax one does not. Here is the order payroll applies them in, worked out on one practice paycheck.

How Big Should an Emergency Fund Be? Worked With Your Own Numbers

Not three to six months of income. Three to six months of one stripped-down month, times a dial you score. The whole calculation, worked in public.

Avalanche vs Snowball: The Same Debt, Both Ladders, Worked Out

One practice debt wall, both payoff orders, identical money. See what each one costs in interest and which one produces the first win sooner.

A Budget That Survives a Real Month, Not a Perfect One

Most budgets die on a month that never happens. Here is the five-part engine, built on your lowest real month and worked to a zero remainder.

Zero-Based vs 50/30/20: Which Fits Your Pay Cycle

Two budgeting methods run on the same practice household. What each one assumes, where each one breaks, and which pay cycle each suits.

How to Run a Family Money Meeting (Agenda Included)

A one-hour agenda, timed to the minute, that keeps a household pulling one direction. Six items, who speaks, and why the children's item is the longest.

Paid Every Two Weeks? The Months That Break a Budget

Twenty-six checks against twelve months creates two surplus months a year and ten tight ones. Here is the arithmetic and the fix, worked in public.

8 GUIDES

How taxes work

A pay stub, a W-2, a staircase of rates and one complete practice return followed from the first line to the last. Every limit carries its tax year, because limits change annually.

Built from How Taxes Work, 130 pages.

How to Read a W-2, Box by Box

Why box 1 and box 3 disagree, what box 12 codes are, and how twenty-four pay stubs become one form. Worked on one practice year.

Tax Brackets Do Not Tax All of Your Money. Here Is the Arithmetic

A bracket taxes a slice, not a salary. One practice return climbs two steps, and a raise is worked out to the dollar so the myth dies on paper.

Deduction or Credit: Which Is Worth More to You?

A deduction comes off income. A credit comes off the tax. The same practice dollar is worth different amounts, and here is exactly how much.

What FICA Is, and Why It Is Not in Your Bracket

FICA is two funds, one line, and no dial. Here is the rate, the base it runs on, the half you never see, and one practice year worked out in full.

How Withholding Decides Your Refund

A refund is not a reward. It is the gap between a forecast and a finished year. Here is the whole gap, worked out on one practice household.

What a W-4 Actually Asks You, When Two Incomes Share One Return

The form is five short steps and one hard question. Here is what each step is really asking and why two incomes make it difficult.

One Complete Tax Return, Worked First Line to Last

Two wage figures in, one refund out. Every line of a practice return in order, with the schedules that feed it and the check that proves it.

Which Tax Records to Keep, and Why the Paper Matters

Every line on a return should trace to a document somebody else issued. Here is the proof column on one practice return, and what a notice really is.

8 GUIDES

Credit and borrowing

One file opened empty and filled in public, and the arithmetic that prices any offer in total rather than per month. No score number appears anywhere in this cluster.

Built from How Credit Works, 130 pages.

How to Read Your Credit Report, Line by Line

Every line on a credit report traces back to a month. Here is one practice file read in full, and the one line that traced to nothing.

What a Credit File Actually Holds, and What It Does Not

A file is a ledger of accounts, dates and asks. Not income, not savings, not what anything was for. Here is the whole contents, and the empty-file case.

Total Cost vs Monthly Payment: Pricing Any Loan Offer

The monthly number is on the front of the offer. The total is on the back. Here is the same practice amount priced two ways and three lengths.

Secured vs Unsecured Borrowing, in Plain English

One is backed by a thing with a claim recorded against it. One is backed by a promise. Here is what changes, priced on one practice car three ways.

Turning Any Fee Into an Annual Rate: The One-Step Conversion

A fee is a price with the clock removed. Put the time back and any offer can be compared to any other. One formula, four worked conversions.

APR vs Interest Rate: What Each Number Includes

One is the price of the money. One is the price of the deal. Here is what separates them, and what a rate does to a total on practice numbers.

What a Credit Dispute Does, and What It Cannot Do

A dispute corrects what is wrong or cannot be verified. It does not remove accurate history. Here is the route, the three parties, and what to send.

How a Thirty-Year Mortgage Splits Between Interest and Principal

One practice schedule read at four moments. What share of the payment moves the balance in month 1, month 120, month 228 and month 360.

5 GUIDES

How insurance works

The four numbers on any policy, three cost-sharing words worked on one claim, and what an adjuster is actually doing between your phone call and a settlement.

Built from How Insurance Works, 130 pages.

The Four Numbers on Any Insurance Policy

Premium, deductible, limit, and the sub-limit nobody reads. Where each one lives, what each one does, and one practice declarations page read in full.

Deductible, Copay, Coinsurance: Three Words, One Worked Example

Three cost-sharing words, one broken wrist, five bills. What each one does, in what order, and why covered does not mean free.

Comparing Two Insurance Quotes on the Same Terms

Four quotes on one coverage sheet. What matching line for line reveals, and why the headline-cheapest quote finished above the second cheapest.

How to File an Insurance Claim, Step by Step

What happens between your phone call and a settlement, what an adjuster is actually doing, and what documentation was worth on one practice claim.

What Disability Cover Is Actually For

It insures a paycheck, not a person. Here is the replacement share, the waiting period, the household gap, and what the whole thing costs, worked out.

4 GUIDES

How investing works

The machinery rather than the tips: what a share is, where a price comes from, what a fund really holds and what a fee does over twenty years. Nothing here recommends anything.

Built from How Investing Works, 130 pages.

What a Share of a Company Actually Is

A share is a fraction with a denominator. Here is the fraction, the claim it carries, where it sits in the queue, and the legal machinery underneath.

Index Fund vs ETF vs Mutual Fund: The Actual Differences

Two of those words describe a strategy and one describes a wrapper. Here is what actually differs, how a pooled price is computed, and what a fee does.

Where a Share Price Comes From, and Who Sets It

There is no single price. There is a bid, an ask and a queue behind them. Here is what a trade actually costs when nobody charges a fee.

What a Dividend Is and Where It Comes Out Of

A dividend is one of two doors a year's profit can go through. Here is both doors, the four dates behind one payment, and why yield is about the buyer.

1 GUIDE

The money map

The one idea underneath all of the others, worked year by year on three people at three different ages so the shape is visible rather than assumed.

Built from Money, Start Here, 68 pages.

Compounding, Worked Year by Year Instead of Assumed

Three people, three ages, one practice rate. The smallest deposit finishes largest. Here is the month-by-month arithmetic that makes that happen.

2 GUIDES

Starting a business

What one thing actually costs to make, and how a price is built from the floor up so it can be defended out loud. One invented practice venture, priced to the cent.

Built from Starting a Business, 130 pages.

What It Actually Costs to Make One of Something

Materials, hands and a slice of the tools. One practice product costed to the cent, and the reason the receipt total is not the answer.

Setting a Price You Can Defend Out Loud

A price ladder from the floor to the tag, with the one rung that has to be solved for rather than added. Worked to the cent on a practice product.

2 GUIDES

Running a business

The year the hours become the limit: what an owner hour really earns, and what a paid day has to sell before anybody else can stand at the table.

Built from Running a Business, 130 pages.

Your Real Hourly Rate: The Number the Year Actually Paid

One closed practice year, divided by every hour it took. Why the rate you pay yourself cancels out, and the four places the number leaks.

Weighing a First Helper in Dollars Instead of Hope

One paid day, priced to the cent, before and after somebody else stands at the table. The arithmetic half, and the legal half that is not yours to run.

1 GUIDE

Owning a business

Books a stranger could follow, which is the test that makes every other number in a venture worth trusting.

Built from Owning a Business, 130 pages.

Keeping Books a Stranger Could Audit

Five numbers, 253 documents, one practice year. The test that matters, the one step an outsider controls, and why entries are written twice.

The books these guides came out of

Each guide is one chapter, condensed. The books are where the same material is worked at ten pages a chapter, with the three-scale runs, the what-ifs and the walk-through pages a web page cannot carry. The Starter Sheet is free either way.

See the nine books Start with the free starter sheet