For early-career professionals: You were expected to manage money. Nobody showed you how.
The Adulting Finances Program: short lessons on your paycheck, debt, benefits and investing, each ending with a decision on your own numbers. By the last one you’ve written your own plan: what you’ll pay off first, how much cash to hold, what goes into your 401(k) and how you’ll invest it.
$1,999, or 4 interest-free payments. 14-day refund policy. The Adulting Finances Program.
- Built by Ryan Loveless, MS Finance
- No commissions
- Education, not advice
What’s on your mind?
What could $250 a month become?
in 39 years, investing $250 a month
Assumes 6% a year, before inflation and fees. Real returns vary, and some years are negative.
What could $250 a month become? $466,000, in 39 years, investing $250 a month.
How it works
Most lessons end with your own numbers, written into your plan.
This is the free sample lesson, “What debt really costs”, step by step. It takes 12 minutes, and every lesson follows the same steps.
- 1LearnAPR is a yearly rate, charged a month at a time: $8,000 at 24% costs about $160 in interest this month. Jordan (fictional) would take about 20 years 8 months at a typical minimum, paying about $14,440 in interest. At $300 a month: 39 months, about $3,550.
- 2CheckThree scenario questions with feedback. Farah (fictional) has $4,000 at 27%, $4,000 at 9% and $250 extra a month: which fact decides where the extra goes?
- 3ApplyList your balances and APRs, and work out this month’s interest on each: balance × APR ÷ 12. Then test fixed payments until the payoff time fits what you can live with.
- 4SaveWrite today’s total monthly interest into My Plan, the written plan you build through the program. The next lesson, “Which debt first?”, compares the two common orders.
An example plan
Fictional exampleWhat we know
- Take-home income: $4,600 a month
- Spending plus minimum debt payments: $3,545 a month
- Monthly cash flow: $1,055
- Cash flow
- $1,055/mo
- Runway
- 1.5 mo
- Debt-free at minimums
- 94 mo
Ways to use the $1,055 left each month
- Weighted to buffer1.6 mo runway · 39 mo to debt-free
- Weighted to debt1.5 mo runway · 24 mo to debt-free
- Mixed1.5 mo runway · 39 mo to debt-free
- Weighted to goals1.5 mo runway · 51 mo to debt-free
Your plan lays them out. Choosing is up to you.
Worth a closer look
- Cash covers 1.5 months
- How the payoff timeline is modelled
- Lowering a rate changes the arithmetic
My Plan
16 sections, written by you: cash flow, debts, benefits, insurance, investing and goals.
The lessons fill it in as you go. Afterwards you can compare five big decisions side by side, like renting or buying. When life changes (a raise, a move, a baby), you update the parts it touches.
Financial baseline
Net-worth snapshot
Cash-flow system
Emergency reserve
Debt strategy
Credit checklist
Protection review
Benefits review
Retirement contribution plan
Tax notes
Investment framework
Saved decisions
Goal hierarchy
Major financial priorities
Action plan
Review schedule
The curriculum
13 modules, about 15 hours of lessons, in the order your money needs them: cash flow and debt before investing.
Five stages: where you stand, then a cash cushion and your debts, then your benefits and taxes, then investing. Last come the big decisions: a job offer, a car, renting or buying.
Stage 1: Understand
Know where you stand.
Stage 2: Stabilize
Build a floor under your finances.
Stage 3: Optimize
Get more from what you already earn.
Stage 4: Invest
Put long-term money to work with a plan.
Stage 5: Build
Weigh a home, a car or a job offer on your own numbers.
Who’s teaching
Graduate-level finance, taught in plain English.
Ryan Loveless earned an MS in Finance focused on investment management, portfolio theory and quantitative methods, then built Adulting Finances to teach what usually goes unexplained. He’s preparing for the Series 65 exam and isn’t registered as an investment adviser, so everything here is education: how to weigh a decision, never what to buy.
Read Ryan’s story“Finance gets much easier once someone shows you the framework. I built Adulting Finances to teach that framework to people who were never given it.”
Questions
Five questions before you start.
What is Adulting Finances?
An education company. Its program is The Adulting Finances Program: 67 self-paced lessons, interactive tools and a saved plan you write as you go.
Is this financial advice?
No. It’s education. Ryan Loveless, the founder, is preparing for the Series 65 exam and isn’t registered as an investment adviser. The program teaches you how to evaluate a decision; it never tells you what to buy.
What does it cost?
$1,999 paid once, or 4 interest-free payments of $499.75. Either way, no subscription. Access lasts for as long as the program is offered. Refunds: Full refund within 14 days of purchase if you’ve completed less than a quarter of the lessons.
Can I try it first?
Yes. A sample lesson is open to everyone, the free calculators run on your own numbers, and a free account saves what they tell you. The numbers you save carry over if you enroll.
Who is it for?
Early-career adults, and anyone starting over, who want to understand their money in the order it matters, from the paycheck up. The same program covers couples and young families. It isn’t for stock picks or trading signals.
Your next step
Stop guessing. Start with a plan.
67 lessons, about 15 hours, and a plan you write and keep. $1,999 once, or 4 interest-free payments, with a 14-day refund policy. Not ready? The free checklist is a good first step.