Through Time

Money: personal finance and its new scams

How to work out a budget, a debt and a risk, what a chatbot can do with your money, and how to spot a scam with a synthetic face.

A course for adults whom nobody ever walked through money in order. You will be able to work out your budget and the cost of a debt, understand the ideas of risk and diversification, and check an offer before you pay. This is general knowledge, not investment advice: the course names no asset, fund or strategy, and big decisions are worth taking to a professional who owes you a duty.

So far there is only this table of contents. Lessons appear one at a time, and we promise no dates. Feed of new lessons (Atom)

18 lessons, 4 parts

Part 1 The basics

A few simple calculations nobody taught at school, and that a model will not apply to your life for you.

  1. A budget that survives an ordinary month

    Not a spreadsheet for a perfect year but a simple record of what comes in and goes out, with room for the rare expenses everyone forgets.

    coming soon

  2. Compound interest cuts both ways

    One formula explains both how savings grow over decades and how a small card balance becomes a large one.

    coming soon

  3. Inflation: what the same money buys

    The difference between nominal and real, and why the number in your account says little by itself.

    coming soon

  4. Debt: what it really costs

    APR and the add-ons sold with a loan: how to compare offers, and in what order to pay debts down.

    coming soon

  5. An emergency fund

    Why you want money that just sits there, and how to estimate the size of it for your life, not by someone else’s rule.

    coming soon

Part 2 Risk and what surrounds it

These are ideas, not recipes: the course explains how to think about risk and does not say where to invest.

  1. Risk and return as ideas

    Why a promise of high returns without risk is already suspicious, and what it means to lose money at the very moment you need it.

    coming soon

  2. Diversification: why not all in one place

    Which risk spreading things out reduces, which it does not, and why your job and your home are part of the picture too.

    coming soon

  3. Insurance: what it makes sense for

    You insure what would ruin you, not what would annoy you: how to read exclusions, and what gets pushed on you along with a loan.

    coming soon

  4. Taxes: the general logic

    When tax is taken for you, when it is yours to work out, and who to ask about your own case.

    coming soon

Part 3 New faces on old scams

The schemes have hardly changed, but faking a familiar face and keeping up a long conversation now cost next to nothing.

  1. The anatomy of a Ponzi scheme

    From Charles Ponzi to the schemes running today it is one design: earlier investors are paid with new investors’ money until it runs out.

    coming soon

  2. The celebrity who was never there

    A video with the faked face of a banker or a TV host: how it gets into ads, and why seeing it on a well-known platform proves nothing.

    coming soon

  3. The new friend who teaches you to invest

    A long correspondence, a small profit on a fake platform, then a request to put in more: now a model can carry on that conversation too.

    coming soon

  4. Ten minutes of checking before you pay

    FINRA’s BrokerCheck, the SEC’s adviser search and Britain’s FCA Register: what to look up before you send money to a platform you do not know.

    coming soon

  5. The second wave: an offer to recover your money

    People who have already lost money end up on lists, and soon a “lawyer” or a “recovery service” turns up asking for payment in advance.

    coming soon

Part 4 Who is advising you

A model’s advice and a person’s differ above all in who answers if the advice turns out badly.

  1. What a chatbot can do with your money

    Explain a contract, go through a statement with the account details removed, work out options and draft questions for a professional.

    coming soon

  2. What a chatbot cannot do with your money

    It does not answer for its advice and can get the arithmetic confidently wrong, so redo any sum yourself.

    coming soon

  3. What an adviser’s duty means

    How an investment adviser’s duty differs from a broker’s or a salesperson’s, and what to ask anyone about their pay and conflicts of interest.

    coming soon

  4. A look ahead: an agent with your wallet

    Agents that compare offers and pay by themselves: what limits to set, and who answers for their mistakes.

    coming soon