Step one
The mechanics, in plain words.
Plain-English pieces, written one at a time. Every figure carries the source it came from and the date it was checked. Nothing here evaluates or ranks a product, because we’re not licensed to do that and we wouldn’t anyway.
Education onlyGeneral, factual information. Not financial advice, general or personal. We hold no AFSL and give no advice.
The pieces
How interest is calculatedInterest is a calculation, and the difference between simple and compound comes down to which number that calculation is applied to. What follows is a walk through the arithmetic, using invented round numbers.Watch, or read it in 5 minutes
What your payslip saysA payslip is a record of one pay period, written in a shorthand of its own. This is what each line on it means and where the number comes from.Watch, or read it in 6 minutes
Where the tax actually goesAustralian personal income tax is calculated in slices, not as one rate applied to everything. This sets out how the slices work, why a marginal rate and an effective rate are two different numbers, and where a refund or a bill at year end comes from.Watch, or read it in 6 minutes
The words nobody explainsTwelve terms that turn up in loan documents, super statements and tax letters, each set out in a couple of sentences. Every entry says what the word means, and stops there.Watch, or read it in 6 minutes
Three practices, and what each one doesAn instruction that runs on a date. A look that happens on a date. A list of dates and amounts. What each one is, mechanically, and where each one stops.Watch, or read it in 5 minutes
Money conversations in a shared householdMoney conversations between people who share a house can involve more than the amounts being discussed. This page describes where the unstated rules come from, how a disagreement can change subject, and arrangements households use — with a partner, and with a teenager who has started earning.Watch, or read it in 6 minutes