The Academy · Your financial toolkit
Learn in orbits.
Level up by doing.
Step-by-step guides to help you start investing in stocks, ETFs, crypto and more. 16 lessons in four orbits, from your first budget to your own investing rules. Each takes about five minutes, ends with a three-question quiz, and leaves you with one thing to do this week.
Complete your first lesson to leave the dust behind.
How the Academy works
- 1
Read
Five minutes, plain English. Tap any underlined term for a definition without leaving the page.
- 2
Prove it
Three quick questions. Get them all right to complete the lesson and earn its XP.
- 3
Do it
One small, real action for this week. Earn by doing: knowledge compounds when you act on it.
- 4
Practice
Try ideas risk-free in the Lab and the tools. Lab achievements add XP too.
The curriculum
Four orbits, one path.
Start at the center and work outward, or jump to what you need. Completed lessons are marked as you go.
Orbit I · 4 lessons
Foundations
The physics of money: compounding, saving, risk and inflation, the forces that shape every financial orbit.
- 01.01 Compound interest: the engine of the SingularityWhy time beats talent, how to estimate doubling in your head, and the two milestones that change everything.
- 01.02 Pay yourself first: budget, buffer, then buildThe one habit that funds everything else, plus the order of operations for emergency savings and debt.
- 01.03 Risk and return: the gravity of investingWhy higher returns always come with bumpier rides, and how to choose a level of risk you can actually live with.
- 01.04 Inflation: the slow leak in every dollarHow rising prices erode your money, how inflation is measured, and why your real return is the only one that counts.
Orbit II · 4 lessons
Markets
How stocks, funds and bonds actually work, and how to read the numbers on your screen.
- 02.01 What is a stock? Owning a piece of the futureWhat you actually own when you buy a share, how prices get set, and the two ways stock owners get paid.
- 02.02 Index funds and ETFs: buy the whole haystackHow one purchase can own hundreds of companies, why fees matter more than they look, and what decades of data say about active funds.
- 02.03 Reading a quote: what every number on the screen meansBid, ask, spread, volume, P/E and the 52-week range decoded, plus the order types that protect you from bad fills.
- 02.04 Bonds and rates: the price of moneyHow bonds pay you, why their prices fall when rates rise, what the yield curve is signaling, and how the Fed moves it all.
Orbit III · 4 lessons
Crypto
Blockchains, wallets and the real risks of digital assets, explained without hype or dismissal.
- 03.01 Blockchain basics: a ledger with no single keeperWhat a blockchain actually is, how transactions get recorded, and how Bitcoin and Ethereum differ.
- 03.02 Wallets and custody: who really holds your coins?Keys, seed phrases, exchanges and self-custody, and the simple habits that prevent most crypto losses.
- 03.03 Crypto risk: respect the volatilityVolatility, scams, irreversible transfers, stablecoin breaks and shifting rules: a clear-eyed map of what can go wrong.
- 03.04 Sizing crypto: how much is enough?Why position size matters more than coin selection, and how caps, rebalancing and a written plan keep FOMO in check.
Orbit IV · 4 lessons
Strategy
Turn knowledge into a plan: allocation, automation, tax-smart accounts and the psychology of staying the course.
- 04.01 Diversification and allocation: building a sturdy portfolioHow to spread risk so no single failure sinks you, choose a stock-and-bond mix, and keep it on course.
- 04.02 Dollar-cost averaging: steady thrust beats perfect timingWhat investing a fixed amount on a schedule really does, what the evidence says about lump sums, and why the habit matters most.
- 04.03 Tax-advantaged accounts: let the tax code fuel your rocketHow 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth accounts and HSAs work in the U.S., and a common order for filling them.
- 04.04 Investor psychology: master the pilot, not the marketThe predictable mental traps that cost investors money, and the written plan and automation that defuse them.
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