Personal finance & investing for beginners — US, Canada & UK

Money is a long game.

Budgeting, investing, taxes, retirement and debt — every figure shown as a calculation, every assumption dated.

What we cover

Seven sections, from the first reserve to the retirement number — the whole beginner tree, in the order you will need it.

Household cash flow for beginners: the 50/30/20 baseline and where it breaks, zero-based budgeting, and the weeks-of-money diagnostic.

Compound-interest and retirement calculators with dated inputs — the site's original tools, built on published index and rate data.

Debt against investing: the rate math of paying a balance off versus putting the money to work, shown as a calculation.

How to start investing with little money — the first sequence: settle the budget, size the reserve, make the first contribution.

Broad-market index funds, what they cost per year, and the default allocation for a first portfolio — the math of putting money to work.

How much you need to retire, the accounts that hold the savings, and the withdrawal number — every figure with its dated assumption.

What the tax code does at each step — contribution, growth, withdrawal — and the limits and rates that carry dates.

3Markets: US, Canada, UK

7Sections across the beginner tree

4Recurring questions, each to be answered with a shown calculation and a dated assumption

Five writers with separate lanes. A number ships only with its assumption, dated.

Harold FennThe retirement number: the withdrawal figure with its dated rate, inflation and life-expectancy assumption
Meredith VaughnIndex funds and the beginner's allocation: the expense ratio named before the fund is
Sylvia MarchantBudgeting and household cash flow: 50/30/20, the gap, the weeks-of-money diagnostic
Gerald WhitcombThe retirement vehicles: 401(k), IRA, 529 — what each does, what it costs
Priti RamanThe first reserve: emergency-fund sizing from your essential outgo, parked at a dated rate