Personal finance, explained.
In-depth, evergreen guides on budgeting, investing, debt, taxes, and retirement — paired with the Money Guy Mutants calculators to put the ideas into practice. New guide every Sunday.
The Complete Guide to Your 401(k): Contributions, Match, and Withdrawal Rules
How 401(k) plans actually work — 2026 contribution limits, employer match and vesting, Roth vs. traditional, and the withdrawal rules that determine what you keep.
Rent vs. Buy: A Framework for Deciding Where to Put Your Money
How to weigh renting against buying using the price-to-rent ratio, the 5% rule, and your realistic time horizon — not just gut feeling about mortgage rates.
Emergency Fund 101: How Much to Save and Where to Keep It
How to figure out the right emergency fund size for your situation, what order to tackle it in alongside debt, and where to actually keep the cash so it's safe, liquid, and still earning something.
Capital Gains Tax on Stocks: Rates, Rules, and How to Reduce What You Owe
How capital gains tax works when you sell stock, the 2026 rate brackets, and legal ways to reduce or defer what you owe — from holding periods to tax-loss harvesting.
Coast FIRE Explained: How to Know When You Can Stop Saving for Retirement
Coast FIRE is the point where your current investments will grow into a full retirement on their own — here's the formula, worked examples, and how it differs from FIRE, Lean FIRE, and Barista FIRE.
Debt Avalanche vs. Snowball: Which Payoff Strategy Actually Wins
The debt avalanche saves more in interest and the debt snowball is easier to stick with — here's how each method works, the real math behind them, and how to pick the one that gets you to zero.