Free · Open source · US · 2026
Learn Personal Finance
from Scratch
The beginner's guide to money the internet forgot to write. 92 lessons across 14 phases — built for your first paycheck, not your stock portfolio.
No signup. No paywall. No ads. Progress saved in your browser only.
How this works
Most money advice is scattered — a TikTok here, a scary article there, a word you don't know everywhere. This is the spine. Every lesson runs the same short loop: the situation → the idea → by the numbers → do it → check yourself → keep this. Read it in a few minutes, do one real thing, move on.
Two tracks. Foundations starts at your first paycheck — paychecks, banking, budgeting, saving, interest, credit. Real-Life Money covers debt, big decisions, and building. Already have debt? Jump straight to Track 2.
Contents
Track 1 · Foundations Start here — money from your first paycheck.
Phase 1 How Money Works
Phase 2 Your Paycheck & First Taxes
- 2.1 Gross vs. net: why your paycheck is smaller than your salary
- 2.2 Reading a pay stub, line by line
- 2.3 FICA, Social Security & Medicare — what's actually taken out
- 2.4 The W-4: telling your employer how much tax to hold back
- 2.5 W-2 vs. 1099 — which one are you?
- 2.6 Your first tax return, demystified
- 2.7 Why a big refund isn't the win it feels like
Phase 3 Banking Without Getting Robbed (by fees)
Phase 4 Budgeting That Doesn't Suck
- 4.1 Where did my money go? (tracking, painlessly)
- 4.2 The 50/30/20 starting point
- 4.3 Pay yourself first — the one habit that does the work
- 4.4 Automating your money so willpower isn't the plan
- 4.5 Sinking funds: saving for what you know is coming
- 4.6 The 24-hour rule and other anti-impulse tricks
- 4.7 Budgeting when your income is irregular
Phase 5 Saving & Your Safety Net
Phase 6 Interest & Compounding — The Engine
- 6.1 Interest, the simplest version: money that grows, or costs, over time
- 6.2 Simple vs. compound interest — the difference that changes your life ⚙
- 6.3 Compounding, seen: how a little becomes a lot ⚙
- 6.4 The Rule of 72: how fast money doubles
- 6.5 APR vs. APY — why the same "rate" isn't the same number ⚙
- 6.6 Fixed vs. variable rates — what changes, and when it bites
- 6.7 The two faces of compounding: friend when saving, enemy in debt
Phase 7 Credit, Decoded
- 7.1 What credit even is — and why it matters
- 7.2 How a credit card actually works (statement, balance, due date) ⚙
- 7.3 The grace period — how to borrow for free (if you do it right) ⚙
- 7.4 How card interest is calculated (APR → daily rate → average daily balance) ⚙
- 7.5 The minimum-payment trap — how it's calculated and why it keeps you paying ⚙
- 7.6 Fees, cash advances & penalty APR — the expensive fine print
- 7.7 Your credit score: what actually moves it
- 7.8 How to build credit from zero
- 7.9 Using a credit card without getting burned
- 7.10 Buy Now, Pay Later (Klarna, Afterpay) — how it really works ⚙
- 7.11 Checking your credit report (free) and fixing errors
Track 2 · Real-Life Money Debt, big decisions, and building.
Phase 8 Getting Out of Debt (+ How Loans Work)
- 8.1 The types of debt, and how each works (revolving vs. installment, secured vs. unsecured) ⚙
- 8.2 How a loan actually works: principal, interest, term ⚙
- 8.3 Amortization — why your early payments are almost all interest ⚙
- 8.4 Good debt, bad debt, and the line between
- 8.5 Why minimum payments cost so much (the 17-year problem) ⚙
- 8.6 Avalanche vs. snowball — two ways to pay it down
- 8.7 Why extra payments crush a loan — and where to aim them ⚙
- 8.8 Putting every debt in one place (your payoff picture)
- 8.9 Should I consolidate or refinance?
- 8.10 Payday loans & predatory debt — what to avoid and why
- 8.11 Dealing with debt in collections
- 8.12 Staying out of debt for good