The Adulting Finances Program

You’ll be able to

• Calculate your net worth and your monthly cash flow
• See where your spending actually goes, including the costs that don’t show up every month
• Turn vague wishes into goals with a dollar amount, a date and a reason
• Learn the Financial Order of Operations and find the step you’re on

Lessons

1. 1. How your financial life fits together10 min
2. 2. Start here: what we know, what we need and what is changing10 min
3. 3. Your money map: net worth and cash flow12 min
4. 4. Where your money actually goes14 min
5. 5. Goals that pull you forward12 min
6. 6. The Financial Order of Operations18 min

You’ll be able to

• Set up accounts that separate bills, everyday spending and savings
• Choose a spending plan style that fits how you think about money
• Turn irregular and annual costs into predictable monthly set-asides
• Size your emergency fund, decide where it lives and automate how it grows

Lessons

1. 1. Banking that works for you12 min
2. 2. How to evaluate any bank, app or brokerage12 min
3. 3. A spending plan you’ll actually keep14 min
4. 4. The Stabilize sequence: when more goes out than comes in14 min
5. 5. Sinking funds: make irregular costs boring11 min
6. 6. Automate your money on payday13 min
7. 7. Your emergency fund: how much and where13 min

You’ll be able to

• Calculate what a balance costs you each month and over its life
• Rank your debts and choose between avalanche and snowball on purpose
• Fit student loans and car loans into the rest of your plan
• Know when consolidation or refinancing helps, and when it only moves the problem

Lessons

1. 1. What debt really costs: interest, APR and minimum paymentsFree sample12 min
2. 2. Which debt first? Avalanche, snowball and the math14 min
3. 3. Student loans in your plan15 min
4. 4. Car loans, personal loans and amortization13 min
5. 5. Consolidation, refinancing, collections and staying out15 min

You’ll be able to

• Read a credit report and explain what moves a credit score
• Review your reports section by section and dispute errors
• Compare credit cards on the criteria that matter for how you use them
• Freeze your credit, respond to identity theft and prepare for a major loan application

Lessons

1. 1. Credit reports, scores and what moves them13 min
2. 2. Review your reports and fix errors14 min
3. 3. Using and comparing credit cards13 min
4. 4. Freezes, fraud and building credit for big purchases15 min

You’ll be able to

• Decide which risks to insure and which to cover yourself
• Read a health plan and estimate what it will cost you in a normal year and a bad one
• Know when disability and life insurance matter, and how much of each to think about
• Check your renters, auto and liability coverage against what you could actually lose
• Name a beneficiary on every account that allows one

Lessons

1. 1. Risk, insurance and deductibles11 min
2. 2. Health insurance, decoded14 min
3. 3. Protecting your income: disability and life insurance14 min
4. 4. Renters, auto, liability and beneficiaries15 min

You’ll be able to

• Read every line of a paycheck and explain where each dollar goes
• Compare job offers on total compensation, not just salary
• Understand your retirement plan, its match and its vesting schedule
• Choose between Roth and traditional contributions on purpose
• Decide whether an HSA or FSA fits your situation
• Understand how RSUs, ESPPs and stock options pay you, and the risks they carry

Lessons

1. 1. Read your paycheck12 min
2. 2. Total compensation and job offers15 min
3. 3. Your workplace retirement plan16 min
4. 4. Capture your full employer match13 min
5. 5. Roth or traditional?14 min
6. 6. HSAs and FSAs14 min
7. 7. RSUs, ESPPs and stock options16 min

You’ll be able to

• Tell your marginal tax rate from your effective rate, and use each for the right decision
• Keep your paycheck withholding on track and avoid surprise bills
• Handle 1099 and side income without scrambling in April
• Understand how interest, dividends and capital gains are taxed

Lessons

1. 1. How income tax actually works13 min
2. 2. Withholding, W-2s and 1099 income13 min
3. 3. Taxes on investments13 min

You’ll be able to

• Decide which money belongs in savings and which can be invested, based on when you’ll need it
• Explain risk, return, volatility and drawdowns, and measure a decline in dollars
• See how contributions, time and growth work together, with returns treated as assumptions
• Know what stocks, bonds, cash and funds are, and how to read what a fund holds and costs

Lessons

1. 1. Saving vs. investing, and why inflation matters11 min
2. 2. Risk, return and volatility12 min
3. 3. Compounding and time11 min
4. 4. Stocks, bonds and cash12 min
5. 5. Mutual funds, ETFs and index funds13 min

You’ll be able to

• Explain the difference between an account and the investments inside it
• Compare workplace plans, IRAs, HSAs and taxable brokerage accounts on taxes, limits and access
• Check your eligibility for Roth and traditional IRA contributions and deductions
• Evaluate an account provider on cost, fund selection and service
• Decide which account your next dollar goes to, and explain why

Lessons

1. 1. The account vs. what’s inside it11 min
2. 2. IRAs and taxable brokerage accounts14 min
3. 3. Where your next dollar goes13 min

You’ll be able to

• Choose an asset allocation on purpose, and connect it to a goal and a time horizon
• Tell real diversification from owning a lot of things, and spot concentration risk
• Weigh risk tolerance against risk capacity, and handle a mismatch between them
• Evaluate target-date and broad index approaches on cost, holdings and structure
• Put a dollar figure on investment fees and keep them under control
• Write an investment policy you can follow in a downturn

Lessons

1. 1. Asset allocation: your biggest investment decision13 min
2. 2. Diversification and concentration risk13 min
3. 3. Risk tolerance, risk capacity and time horizon12 min
4. 4. Target-date funds and broad index portfolios13 min
5. 5. Fees: the return you control12 min
6. 6. Write your investment policy15 min

You’ll be able to

• Automate contributions and set a rebalancing rule you’ll follow
• Compare dollar-cost averaging and lump-sum investing honestly
• Recognize loss aversion, recency bias, overconfidence and herd behavior in your own decisions
• Understand valuation, interest rates, sequence-of-returns risk and factors at a high level
• Monitor your investments on a schedule and know how to evaluate a financial professional

Lessons

1. 1. Automate, dollar-cost average and rebalance14 min
2. 2. Panic, FOMO and chasing returns13 min
3. 3. Beyond the basics15 min
4. 4. Monitor without obsessing, and when to get help13 min

You’ll be able to

• Compare your current state, an alternative and the financial consequences of each for any big decision
• Buy and finance a car, rent well, and judge rent vs. buy on total cost and time horizon
• Prepare to buy a home with a down payment, reserves and a housing cost your plan can carry
• Weigh graduate school, job changes and relocation on their full costs and payback
• Combine finances with a partner, plan for children and manage side income and its taxes

Lessons

1. 1. A framework for any big money decision14 min
2. 2. Buying and financing a car16 min
3. 3. Renting well, and rent vs. buy17 min
4. 4. Preparing to buy a home17 min
5. 5. Grad school, job changes and relocating16 min
6. 6. Partners, marriage and family16 min
7. 7. Running money together: roles, thresholds and two benefit packages13 min
8. 8. Side income and self-employment16 min

You’ll be able to

• Rank competing goals and split your monthly surplus across them with the tradeoffs written down
• Complete every section of your Financial Plan and turn it into dated actions
• Stress-test your plan against job loss, a raise, a windfall, rate changes and a big purchase
• Set up monthly, quarterly and annual reviews that keep the plan working

Lessons

1. 1. Sequence competing goals13 min
2. 2. Assemble your Financial Plan15 min
3. 3. Stress-test your plan13 min
4. 4. The monthly check-in, step by step10 min
5. 5. Your review system and what comes next12 min