Learn money one clear lesson at a time.
Every GetGuac lesson in one course: the idea, a plan you can follow, a worked example with real arithmetic, and one thing to try today.
Start here
Where you stand, what you want and how GetGuac helps.
Know where you stand before you plan
Income, spending, what you own and what you owe — the four numbers every plan starts from.
Turn “save more” into a goal with a date
An amount, a date and a monthly number turn an intention into something you can finish.
How GetGuac helps you spend less
Not by budgeting harder — by showing you the money already leaking out of accounts you are not watching.
Small changes. More room for what matters.
Keep the things you enjoy. Find one change that fits your life.
Budgeting and cash flow
A plan built from the month you actually had.
The 50/30/20 budget, explained
One simple split of your paycheck can replace a spreadsheet full of categories you'll never track.
Zero-based budgeting: give every dollar a job
Income minus every planned category equals zero. More upkeep than 50/30/20, but nothing is left to drift.
Fixed, variable and discretionary costs
Sorting spending into three kinds shows which costs you can change this month and which need a bigger decision.
Why tracking your receipts beats guessing
Your memory underestimates your spending — receipts reveal the truth.
Sinking funds: budget for the surprises that aren't
Car registration, holiday gifts, and annual premiums aren't surprises — you just haven't saved for them yet.
Budgeting on irregular income
Freelance, gig or commission pay? Plan on your lean month, park the extra and pay yourself a steady salary.
Impulse purchases: spot the trigger, add a pause
Most impulse buys follow a pattern — a mood, a place, a notification. A short pause breaks it without banning anything.
Lifestyle inflation: keep the raise
Spending tends to rise to meet income. Decide where a raise goes before it arrives.
The monthly money date
One short, regular review keeps a budget alive. Here is a simple agenda for it.
Read your utility bills and lower usage
Electricity and water bills are usage times rate plus fixed charges. Know the parts, then work on usage.
Emergency fund and savings
A cushion that stops surprises becoming debt.
How big should your emergency fund be?
Three to six months of expenses — but the right number depends on your specific situation.
What counts as an emergency?
Decide in advance what the fund is for — it is the simplest way to stop it quietly becoming spending money.
Where to find the money for your emergency fund
Your fund lives at your bank. The money to fill it is usually already hiding in your own spending.
Tiered cash reserves: spending, buffer, emergency
Three layers of cash — each with a job — stop small surprises from touching your emergency fund.
High-yield savings: stop leaving money on the table
The cash in your big-bank savings account may be earning almost nothing — and the fix takes one afternoon.
Refilling the emergency fund after you use it
Using the fund is what it is for. Rebuilding it fast is what keeps the next surprise from becoming debt.
Cash and inflation: what your savings really earn
Inflation slowly reduces what cash can buy. That is fine for short-term money — and a reason long-term money needs a different home.
Smart spending
Groceries, bills and subscriptions, line by line.
A grocery budget that actually sticks
Set your grocery number from your real receipts, not a hopeful guess, and it finally holds.
A grocery list that works for your household
Compare useful alternatives, check what is already at home, and edit before you shop.
How to read a grocery receipt properly
Tax codes, unit prices and promo lines — your receipt says considerably more than the total.
The subscription audit that pays for itself
Free trials, forgotten apps, and duplicate streaming are draining your account every month.
A calmer way to review your bills
Understand the change, ask for written options, and choose what works for you.
Refunds and receipts
Money still owed to you, and the proof to claim it.
How to actually get the refund you're owed
Return windows, price drops, and double charges — money is sitting there waiting to be claimed.
Return windows: what to check before you buy
The clock starts at purchase, not when you open the box — and gift season quietly breaks that assumption.
How long should you actually keep a receipt?
Most receipts can go in a month. A few you should keep for seven years — and a handful until you sell the house.
Digital vs paper receipts: what to keep and how
Thermal paper fades within months. Here is what to digitise, what holds up as a record, and where to put it.
Every receipt you own is probably already in your email
Order confirmations, renewals and e-receipts pile up in your inbox. Here is how to find them all in one sitting.
Debt and credit
Borrow well, pay down fast and protect your score.
Good debt vs. bad debt: how to tell the difference
Not all debt is created equal — the interest rate and what the money buys tell you which kind you have.
Avalanche vs. snowball: the fastest way out of debt
Two proven payoff strategies — one saves the most money, one keeps you going. Here's how to pick.
Debt consolidation and refinancing
Combining debts can lower the rate or simplify payments — or quietly cost more. Compare total cost, not the monthly payment.
Use credit cards without paying interest
Pay the full statement balance by the due date and a card costs nothing. Here is exactly how the grace period works.
What actually moves your credit score
Two factors drive most of your score — and you can improve both without closing a single card.
Check your credit report like a receipt
All three reports are free every week. Read them line by line, dispute errors with proof and freeze when you are not applying.
Identity theft: prevent, spot and recover
Freezes, alerts and a recovery plan from IdentityTheft.gov. Most of the protection is free.
Dealing with debt collectors
You have rights: written validation, the right to dispute and the right to limit contact. Verify before you pay.
Student loan repayment basics
Federal and private loans work differently. Federal repayment options changed on 1 July 2026 — know which loans you have first.
Car loans: avoid the common pitfalls
Negotiate the price first, bring your own financing quote and keep the term short. The monthly payment is the last number to look at.
Mortgage basics: what PITI means
Principal, interest, taxes and insurance — the four parts of a typical monthly housing payment, and how they change over time.
Money mindset
The habits and biases behind every money decision.
Loss aversion: why losses feel bigger
Losing $100 tends to feel worse than gaining $100 feels good. Knowing this helps you avoid panicked decisions.
Herd behaviour and FOMO
When everyone seems to be buying something, the fear of missing out can override a plan. Slow down on purpose.
Mental accounting: every dollar is the same
A refund, a bonus and a paycheck are all just money. Treating “found” money as play money is a costly habit.
Present bias and delayed gratification
Today’s wants feel more real than tomorrow’s needs. Automation and vivid goals make the future easier to choose.
Defining your personal “enough”
Without a definition of enough, every goal moves once you reach it. Write down what security and a good life cost for you.
Funds and portfolios
How growth works and how funds are built. Education only.
The magic of compound interest
Your returns start earning their own returns — and that changes everything.
Index funds 101: boring beats clever
Decades of data keep reaching the same conclusion: the boring fund usually beats the brilliant one.
What an ETF is
An exchange-traded fund holds a basket of investments and trades on an exchange like a single share.
Index funds, mutual funds and ETFs compared
“Index fund” describes the strategy; “mutual fund” and “ETF” describe how the fund is packaged and traded.
The S&P 500, explained
About 500 large US companies, weighted by size. Widely used as a benchmark — and not the whole market.
Total market funds
A total-market fund adds mid and small companies to the large ones — thousands of holdings in one fund.
International diversification
Companies outside the US make up a large part of the world’s stock market. Owning some spreads country risk.
Sector and thematic funds
Funds built around one industry or trend concentrate risk. Popular themes can already be priced in.
The three-fund portfolio and rebalancing
US stocks, international stocks and bonds — a simple mix — plus a rule for keeping it on target.
Dollar-cost averaging: investing without timing the market
Invest the same amount on a schedule and let math, not your nerves, decide when you buy.
Stocks and the market
How shares, prices and markets work. Never stock picks.
What a stock actually is
A share is a small piece of ownership in a company — with a claim on its future profits and its risks.
Common versus preferred stock
Common shares usually vote and share in growth; preferred shares usually pay set dividends and get paid first.
How stock exchanges work
Companies raise money once; after that, shares change hands between investors on exchanges.
Market capitalisation: large, mid and small
Market cap is share price × shares outstanding — the market’s price tag for the whole company.
Dividends and dividend yield
Some companies pay out part of their profit. Yield shows the payout relative to the price — and a very high yield can be a warning.
The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio
P/E shows how many dollars investors pay for each dollar of yearly profit. Useful for comparison, never a verdict on its own.
Growth and value investing styles
Growth focuses on fast-rising earnings; value on prices that look low against fundamentals. Neither wins every decade.
IPOs: how companies go public
An initial public offering is a company’s first sale of shares to the public. Early trading can be volatile.
Stock splits and share dilution
A split changes the number of shares, not the value. Dilution is different — it can shrink your ownership share.
Bull and bear markets
Markets rise and fall in cycles. A plan made before the fall is the one that survives it.
Retirement accounts
401(k), IRA, HSA, Social Security and withdrawals.
401(k) basics: don’t leave free money behind
Your employer's 401(k) match is an instant 50–100% return — here's how to claim every dollar.
IRAs: your own retirement account
An individual retirement account works alongside — or instead of — a workplace plan, with traditional and Roth versions.
Roth vs. Traditional IRA: which is right for you?
The difference comes down to one question: will your tax rate be higher now or in retirement?
The backdoor Roth IRA
A two-step route to a Roth IRA for people above the income limit — with a pro-rata rule that trips many up.
The HSA: the most tax-friendly account you're not using
A health savings account gives you three separate tax breaks — and most people leave every one on the table.
Social Security: when to claim
Claiming at 62 permanently reduces benefits; waiting past full retirement age increases them up to 70.
The 4% rule and safe withdrawals
A rule of thumb from historical research for how much a retirement portfolio might support — useful as a starting point, not a promise.
Required minimum distributions (RMDs)
Most pre-tax retirement accounts require withdrawals to start at 73 — rising to 75 for people who turn 74 after 2032.
Early withdrawals and the 72(t) exception
Withdrawals before 59½ usually add a 10% tax. Substantially equal periodic payments are one exception — with strict rules.
Taxes
Brackets, deductions, gains and records, explained plainly.
Marginal tax brackets, demystified
A raise never lowers your take-home pay because of a higher bracket. Only the dollars above each threshold are taxed at the higher rate.
Tax credits versus tax deductions
A deduction lowers taxable income; a credit lowers the tax itself. Dollar for dollar, a credit is usually worth more.
Standard deduction or itemising?
You take whichever is larger. Most people take the standard deduction — and from 2026, non-itemisers can also deduct some cash gifts to charity.
Sales tax, explained (and why your receipt total surprises you)
The shelf price is never the final price — here is exactly why your total is always higher.
Which receipts actually matter at tax time
Most personal receipts have no tax value at all. A specific few do — and the difference is worth knowing.
Short-term and long-term capital gains
Hold an investment for more than a year and gains are usually taxed at lower long-term rates.
Tax-loss harvesting, carefully
Selling an investment at a loss can offset gains — but the wash-sale rule disallows the loss if you rebuy too soon.
W-2 employee versus 1099 contractor
Contractors pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare, make estimated payments and keep their own records.
Charitable giving and taxes
Keep the right records, know the 2026 non-itemiser deduction, and understand donor-advised funds.
When to hire a tax professional
Simple returns are often fine with software. Life changes, self-employment and big transactions are when help pays.
Housing and real estate
Big decisions, run with the real numbers.
Rent vs. buy: which actually wins?
The sticker price of a mortgage rarely tells the whole story — here's how to run the real math.
The 28/36 affordability rule
A lender rule of thumb: housing up to 28% of gross income, all debt up to 36%. Your comfortable number may be lower.
Down payments and PMI
Less than 20% down usually means private mortgage insurance on a conventional loan — and it can be removed later.
Closing costs and hidden purchase fees
Budget roughly 2–5% of the price on top of the down payment, and compare the Loan Estimate line by line.
A home maintenance reserve
Roofs, water heaters and appliances wear out on a schedule. A monthly reserve turns big repairs into planned costs.
House hacking: sharing the cost of a home
Renting part of the home you live in can offset housing costs — and makes you a landlord, with rules to follow.
REITs: real estate without being a landlord
Real estate investment trusts own income-producing property and pay out most of their taxable income.
Protection and estate planning
Insurance, wills and the people who depend on you.
Term versus whole life insurance
Term covers a set period at a lower cost; permanent policies add cash value at a much higher premium. Start with the need.
Disability insurance: protect your income
Your ability to earn is often your biggest asset. Disability insurance replaces part of your income if illness or injury stops you working.
Umbrella liability insurance
Extra liability coverage above your home and auto policies, for the rare large claim.
Wills and living trusts
A will says who gets what and who cares for children; a living trust can pass assets without probate. Many people need at least a will.
Financial and medical powers of attorney
If you cannot act for yourself, these documents name who can — for money and for health decisions.
529 plans: saving for college the smart way
Tax-free college savings that compound for years — and you control what happens if plans change.
Teaching kids about money
Save, spend and give jars for young children; real decisions and real accounts for teenagers.