Capital Allocation · Resources

Learning Center

Short, honest guides to the ideas the tools are built on — written for beginners and free of hype. Each one ends at a calculator where you can try the math on your own numbers.

AvailableEducational reference

Getting Started

The framing that makes everything else make sense.

What is capital allocation?Capital allocation is deciding what job each dollar does — spend, reserve, repay, or grow. A plain-language guide to the one decision that contains the others.2 min read

Investing Basics

The mechanics of growth, without the noise.

How compound growth worksCompound growth means earning returns on your returns. See the mechanics, the formula, and an honest worked example of why time matters more than timing.2 min read How contribution rate changes long-term outcomesReturns get the headlines, but the contribution rate is the lever you actually hold. The math of adding more, adding earlier, and adding automatically.2 min read

FIRE Planning

Financial independence, reduced to arithmetic.

How to estimate your FIRE numberYour FIRE number is annual spending divided by a withdrawal rate — the 25× rule. Learn where it comes from, how to choose a rate, and how to read the result.2 min read What is a safe withdrawal rate?Where the 4% idea came from, what “safe” actually meant in the research, and how the rate you choose sets the size of the mountain you must climb.2 min read

Portfolio Allocation

The mix, the targets, and the drift between them.

Portfolio allocation basicsPortfolio allocation is how investments divide across asset classes. Learn why the mix dominates picking, how targets work, and what allocation drift means.2 min read How to think about asset allocation driftDrift is the gap between the mix you chose and the mix you hold: how it is measured in percentage points, why it grows, and the common responses.2 min read

Budgeting and Cash Flow

Where the money goes, measured calmly.

How to calculate savings rateSavings rate is what you keep divided by what you earn. Learn the formula, what counts as saving, and how to compute an honest rate in two minutes.2 min read How emergency funds are calculatedMonths of essential expenses — not income — is the honest yardstick. How the coverage math works, what counts as essential, and how targets translate to dates.2 min read

Debt Payoff

Strategy and order, with honest price tags.

Debt avalanche vs debt snowballAvalanche pays highest interest rate first; snowball pays smallest balance first. See how each works and a worked example of what the difference really costs.2 min read

Dividends

Income from holdings, estimated from your own entries.

How dividend income projections workFrom yield to yearly income to a growth-adjusted projection — the honest arithmetic of dividend estimates, and the assumptions doing the heavy lifting.2 min read

Financial Assumptions

How to read every number on this site.

Why projections are assumptions, not guaranteesEvery financial projection is an if-statement. Learn where the assumptions hide, why averages mislead, and how to use estimates well without being fooled.2 min read How inflation changes long-term planningInflation quietly rewrites every long-term number. Learn why plans should read in today’s dollars, how the division formula works, and where 3% hides.2 min read

Reports and Scenarios

Comparing paths and reading the results honestly.

How to compare financial scenariosScenarios turn “what if” into arithmetic. Learn how to build a fair comparison, find the variable doing the work, and avoid fooling yourself.2 min read How to read a financial planning reportA guided tour of a plan report: which sections to trust most, how to read deterministic projections, and the questions each block should answer.2 min read