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Behavior & Psychology

Why most investors underperform their own investments. Panic selling, lifestyle creep, FOMO, and the behavioral mistakes that cost more than any bad stock pick. Plus credit scores, credit card payoff strategy, insurance basics, and estate planning fundamentals.

About this course

Lessons8
Total time42 min
CostFree, no signup
8 lessonsStart course →
8Lessons in order
42 minTotal time
19Primary sources

This course is a sequence. Work through the lessons in order; each one builds on the last. You can skip around, but the order is intentional, and the math compounds in the order written.

What you'll learn

  • Why most investors underperform their own investments
  • How panic selling, FOMO, and lifestyle creep quietly cost you
  • A rule for every future raise that costs nothing to follow
  • How to attack credit card debt with the snowball versus the avalanche
  • The insurance and estate-planning basics most people skip

What this course is NOT

  • Not personalized financial, insurance, or legal advice
  • Not a market-timing or prediction system
  • Not a substitute for an attorney on estate documents
  • Not a substitute for a fiduciary advisor

Lessons in order.

8 lessons
01

The most common mistakes beginners make

Most early losses do not come from stock picks. They come from a small set of behavioral mistakes everyone makes, repeated for years.

5 min
02

What an emergency fund actually does for your brain

Most personal finance content explains the emergency fund as a financial buffer. That is correct, and it is the smaller half of the story. The larger half is what the emergency fund does to your decision-making before any emergency happens.

6 min
03

Lifestyle creep: the silent wealth killer

Why people who get raises don't always get richer. The pattern most professionals fall into without noticing.

4 min
04

Lifestyle inflation: why a raise doesn't feel like a raise

Most workers, over most of a career, get raises. Most workers, over most of a career, do not feel meaningfully richer than they did at 25. Both of these things are true, and there is a name for the gap between them.

★ Canon+ Game
5 min
05

Credit scores explained: what actually moves the number

Your credit score quietly determines what loans you qualify for and at what rate. Here's what actually moves it, and the myths that don't.

5 min
06

Paying off credit card debt: the best return you can get

Paying off a 22% APR credit card is mathematically equivalent to earning a guaranteed 22% return. Nothing else in finance comes close.

5 min
07

Insurance basics: which policies you actually need

Insurance protects against catastrophic loss. Most people are over-insured in some areas and dangerously under-insured in others. Here's the framework.

6 min
08

Estate planning basics: what every adult should have

Estate planning isn't just for the wealthy or the elderly. Five basic documents protect you and the people you care about, and most can be done cheaply.

6 min

Ready to start?

No signup, no email, no upsell. Free to read, always.