Level 1 of 5
Discovery
The fundamentals. If you're new to personal finance, start here.
What this level covers
Net worth, assets, liabilities, cash flow, debt, compound interest, liquidity, emergency funds, purchasing power, time value of money, saving vs investing, credit, insurance.
Written for any country: where a lesson depends on local rules for tax, accounts or benefits, it says what to check where you live. How lessons are written
Read left to right, then down.
Your net worth is the clearest single number for whether you're building wealth or standing still. Here's why it tells you more than your salary.
A step-by-step guide to listing everything you own and everything you owe, with a free multi-currency calculator for assets spread across countries.
Your assets are everything you own that has value. But not everything that looks like an asset behaves like one. Here's how to tell the difference.
Liabilities are everything you owe. Not all debt is equal: the interest rate determines whether a liability is manageable or dangerous to your net worth.
Two well-known strategies for paying off debt: snowball prioritizes motivation; avalanche prioritizes math. How each works and what each one suits.
Some assets grow over time; others lose value. Appreciation, depreciation, and the compound interest behind both decide whether your net worth builds or erodes.
Having money and being able to use it are not the same thing. Liquidity is how quickly you can turn an asset into cash without losing its value.
Before you invest or pay extra on debt, build a buffer. An emergency fund is the foundation that keeps the rest of your plan from collapsing.
Earning more doesn't automatically mean being wealthier. Here's why the distinction matters and how to shift from income thinking to wealth thinking.
Money comes in, money goes out. Cash flow is the map that shows you exactly where it all travels, and whether you're running a surplus or a deficit.
A euro today buys more than a euro in ten years. Purchasing power explains why, and the force behind its decline, inflation, is why saving alone isn't enough.
Exchange rates show how much one currency is worth in another, not what it actually buys. That gap is where purchasing power parity comes in.
Saving and investing are both ways to grow your wealth, but they serve different purposes. Getting the sequence right matters more than most people think.
You track your income. You know your expenses. But unless you tell each euro where to go before the month begins, you're not budgeting, you're just watching.
You've never missed a payment. You have no debt. But the rate you're offered on a mortgage is higher than your colleague's. The difference? Your credit history.
You've spent months building an emergency fund. One accident, fire, or health crisis can wipe it out overnight. Insurance exists so it doesn't have to.