Markdown copy of https://vineteach.com/html/adults/ (English; the page also switches to Spanish).

# For adults

Learn how investing works, with practice money, at your own pace. Nothing here is real money, and nothing here is advice.

## Written for adults

115 of the 115 lessons have a version written for adults, in English and Spanish. The same lesson reads differently at 13 to 17:

| 18+ | 13 to 17 |
| --- | --- |
| Equity: what a share represents | Owning a slice of a company |
| Compound growth: the math, the time, the fine print | Compound growth: why time matters most |
| Diversification and concentration risk | Diversification: spreading out your risk |
| Inflation, real returns, and purchasing power | Inflation and purchasing power |

### See every lesson's two titles

| 18+ | 13 to 17 |
| --- | --- |
| Equity: what a share represents | Owning a slice of a company |
| How markets price a stock | What moves a stock's price |
| Supply, demand, and the price of goods | Scarcity and the equilibrium price |
| Compound growth: the math, the time, the fine print | Compound growth: why time matters most |
| Diversification and concentration risk | Diversification: spreading out your risk |
| Time in the market | Time in the market vs. timing it |
| Essential vs. discretionary spending | Needs, wants, and the gray area |
| Building a sustainable budget | Building a budget |
| Opportunity cost and capital allocation | The hidden price of choices |
| Saving goals | Saving goals |
| Impulse spending and its hidden cost | Impulse spending |
| Money: from barter to digital ledgers | The evolution of money |
| Price per unit | Price per unit |
| Emergency fund | Emergency fund |
| Charitable giving as a budget priority | Giving with a plan |
| Personal loans between friends and family | Lending, borrowing, and friendships |
| Deposit accounts and yield | Checking and savings accounts |
| Insurance and risk transfer | How insurance works |
| Debit, credit, and revolving debt | Debit, credit, and interest |
| Contactless payments and where the money comes from | Tap, pay, keep track |
| Simple versus compound growth | Simple vs. compound interest |
| The risk-return tradeoff | Risk and reward |
| ETFs, index funds and the cost of ownership | ETFs: owning the whole basket |
| Dividends, yield and total return | Dividends: getting paid to own |
| The Rule of 72 | The Rule of 72 |
| Executing your first simulated trade | Placing your first practice trade |
| Interpreting price charts | Reading stock charts |
| Market cycles: bull and bear phases | Bull and bear markets |
| Asset bubbles and speculative manias | Speculative bubbles |
| Behavioral finance: emotion and discipline | Emotions and investing |
| Disciplined selling decisions | Deciding when to sell |
| From allowance to earned income | From allowance to paycheck |
| Your paycheck, line by line | Reading your first pay stub |
| Side hustle math: true profit per hour | Side hustle math: what your time really earns |
| Investing in yourself: time, skills and trade-offs | Investing in yourself: skills that compound |
| Taxes basics: what you pay, and what you keep | Taxes basics: gross, net and the slice in between |
| Your first tax return: employee or self-employed pay | Your first job and your first tax return |
| Pay yourself first: making saving the default | Pay yourself first: the habit that does the heavy lifting |
| Tracking spending: evidence before the budget | Tracking spending: where your money actually goes |
| Subscription creep: auditing the quiet charges | Subscription creep: the charges you stop seeing |
| Planning a major purchase: total cost of ownership | Planning a big purchase: the full price |
| Saving vs investing: time horizon and risk | Saving vs investing: match the money to the timeline |
| Interest rates: pricing the use of money over time | Interest rates: the price of money |
| Credit cards: the real math of carrying a balance | Credit cards: the minimum payment trap |
| Credit score: the price of trust | Credit score: what moves the number |
| Loans and APR: the real cost of borrowing | Loans: what borrowing really costs |
| Good debt and bad debt: is this debt worth it? | Good debt and bad debt: judging whether it's worth it |
| Bonds: price, yield and the job they do | Bonds: lower risk, lower return |
| Inflation, real returns, and purchasing power | Inflation and purchasing power |
| Central banks: what they control and what they don't | Central banks: one rate, many ripples |
| Deposit insurance: what it covers | How safe is money in a bank? |
| Fees: the cost you can control | Fees: compounding in reverse |
| Investment scams: the script and the response | Scams: how the pitch works |
| Stock exchanges: how orders become trades | Stock exchanges: where shares change hands |
| Indexes: measuring a market segment in one number | What an index measures |
| Index vs active: costs, odds and luck | Index vs active: can you beat the market? |
| Mutual funds and ETFs: structure and cost | Mutual funds vs ETFs: what's actually different |
| Reinvesting dividends: the engine inside total return | Reinvesting dividends: compounding you can count |
| Asset allocation: goals, time and trade-offs | Asset allocation: building your mix |
| Time horizon: aligning money with its deadline | Time horizon: matching money to its deadline |
| Rebalancing: drift, discipline and trade-offs | Rebalancing: keep your risk where you chose it |
| Dollar-cost averaging: what it does and doesn't do | Dollar-cost averaging: steady beats guessing |
| Volatility: the cost of the ride | Volatility: riding out the drops |
| Capital gains: realization, holding periods and losses | Capital gains: short-term and long-term |
| Revenue, profitability and margin structure | Revenue, profit and margins |
| Earnings reports and market expectations | Earnings, estimates and surprises |
| Cash flow: why reported earnings and cash diverge | Cash flow: profit on paper vs money in the bank |
| Reading a company balance sheet | The balance sheet: a company's snapshot |
| Corporate debt: leverage and its limits | Company debt: a useful tool with a yearly bill |
| Competitive advantage and moat durability | Economic moats and how they erode |
| Reading an annual report: the 10-K | The 10-K: a company's yearly report |
| Market capitalization and what it leaves out | Market capitalization: pricing the whole company |
| Price-to-earnings ratios and the expectations embedded in valuation | Price-to-earnings: reading expectations in a single number |
| Sector exposure, correlation, and the limits of diversification | Sectors and diversification: not putting every egg in one industry |
| Loss aversion and the price of comfort | Loss aversion and the urge to bail |
| Sunk costs and marginal decisions | The sunk cost fallacy |
| Anchoring, cost basis, and reference prices | Anchoring and misleading reference points |
| Herd behavior and speculative momentum | FOMO, hype, and herd behavior |
| Overconfidence: calibrating conviction to evidence | Overconfidence: when certainty outruns the facts |
| Recency bias: mistaking the latest stretch for the trend | Recency bias: the last few weeks aren't a forecast |
| Hindsight bias: the illusion of the obvious | Hindsight bias |
| Confirmation bias: seeking disconfirmation | Confirmation bias: arguing with yourself |
| Survivorship bias: accounting for what disappeared | Survivorship bias: reading the whole graveyard |
| Gambling vs investing: expected value and ownership | Gambling vs investing: where the money comes from |
| The personal balance sheet | Reading a balance sheet |
| Setting financial goals you can reach | Goals you can actually reach |
| The compounding of habits | Habits versus big moves |
| The money plan: an order of operations | Putting a money plan together |
| Bouncing back from financial mistakes | Recovering from a money mistake |
| Risk tolerance and risk capacity | Knowing your risk tolerance |
| Check your sources: provenance, incentives and verification | Check your sources: who's talking, and what they gain |
| Speculation vs investing: return sources, costs and the role of luck | Speculation vs investing: know which game you're playing |
| Crypto reality check: valuation, volatility, custody and fraud | Crypto reality check: technology, volatility and scams |
| Retirement basics: time, contributions and patience | Retirement: why starting early matters |
| Retirement accounts at work and on your own | Your first job and your first retirement account |
| Opening a real investment account and a first purchase | Your first real account: what to expect |
| The wealth equation: income, savings rate, investment and time | The wealth equation: putting the whole course together |
| Percent off: reading a sale | Percent off: reading a sale |
| Receipts, returns and proof of purchase | Receipts and returns: know the rules |
| Total cost of ownership | What owning something really costs |
| Sharing expenses without friction | Splitting costs fairly |
| Persuasion by design | Online shopping tricks |
| Renting, borrowing or buying: the full cost | Rent, borrow or buy: doing the math |
| Designing a gift budget | Building a gift budget |
| Extras and add-ons | Extras and add-ons |
| What an economy is | What an economy is |
| Jobs and why they change: demand, technology and portable skills | Jobs and why they change |
| What taxes pay for: public goods and shared services | What taxes pay for: shared goods and services |
| Gains from trade | Comparative advantage |
| Exchange rates | Exchange rates |
| Competition, pricing power and consumers | How competition shapes prices |
| Starting a small business | Starting a small business |
| Productivity and pay: how output per hour connects to earnings | Productivity: why output per hour matters |
| Recessions: the broad slowdown | Recessions: when an economy slows |
| Reading economic news critically | Reading economic news |

## Practice, with real prices

- You start with $10,000 in practice money. It isn't real money and can't become real money.
- You can practise with 20 real companies and funds: 17 companies and 3 index funds.
- Prices come from a market data service and can be a few minutes old. When the app can't get a new price, it says so.

## See how money could grow

Starting from $1,000, then $50 a month, for 5 years. Move the sliders to try your own.

Starting amount: $1,000

Added each month: $50

Years: 5

Growth a year: 7%

7% is roughly the long-run average yearly return of the US stock market after inflation, so the figures are in today's money: what they would buy now. 0% shows no growth at all; above 7% is a guess.

You'd put in

**$4,000**

Could grow to about

**$4,962**

in today's money

Of that, about $962 would be growth.

This is a projection, not a promise. Real markets fall, sometimes for years. The average line is smooth; a real result never is.

| Year | Average path (a projection) | Illustration: same average, bumpy years | What you put in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | $1,689 | $1,847 (that year +19.6%) | $1,600 |
| 2 | $2,426 | $2,351 (that year −4.5%) | $2,200 |
| 3 | $3,215 | $3,655 (that year +26.9%) | $2,800 |
| 4 | $4,059 | $4,694 (that year +11.2%) | $3,400 |
| 5 | $4,962 | $4,650 (that year −12.9%) | $4,000 |

- What you put in
- Average path (a projection)
- Illustration: same average, bumpy years

The bumpy line is an illustration, not real market data, with the same average: 2 of its 5 years go down.

## What a fee costs over time

The same $10,000, growing at 7% a year after inflation, with a yearly fee of 0.05% or 1% taken from the balance. The gap between the two is what the higher fee costs.

Years: 30

With a 0.05% fee

**$74,988**

With a 1% fee

**$56,307**

The 1% fee costs about $18,681 more over 30 years, in today's money.

- With a 0.05% fee
- With a 1% fee

A projection, not a promise: real returns go up and down. This shows arithmetic, not a product to choose.

[Start as 18+](https://vineteach.com/html/onboarding/)

Vine teaches how money and investing work. It never tells anyone what to buy or sell, and it holds no real money.