The applied version, which most people need more than the theory.
11 topics · 11 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
Mr. Money Mustache (Peter Adeney) · 2012
Argues that the number of years to financial independence is set almost entirely by savings rate, not income, because a higher savings rate…
+1 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Selection in Insurance Markets: Theory and Empirics in Pictures
Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein & Jonathan Levin · 2010
Walks through adverse selection and moral hazard in real insurance markets using simple graphs, arguing standard insurance theory predicts patterns…
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Theory of Interest
Irving Fisher · 1930
Derives interest rates from the interaction of time preference and investment opportunity, arguing the rate of interest is not a monetary phenomenon…
+7 more at this level
11 works
Mr. Money Mustache (Peter Adeney)
Argues that the number of years to financial independence is set almost entirely by savings rate, not income, because a higher savings rate simultaneously shrinks required spending and grows the portfolio.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
A practitioner toolkit for building a working budget and a debt reduction plan around irregular income and real trade-offs, aimed at people for whom idealised finance advice does not apply.
Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein & Jonathan Levin
Walks through adverse selection and moral hazard in real insurance markets using simple graphs, arguing standard insurance theory predicts patterns that real-world data often, but not always, confirms.
Irving Fisher
Derives interest rates from the interaction of time preference and investment opportunity, arguing the rate of interest is not a monetary phenomenon but the price linking present and future income.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Lawrence H. Summers
Estimates that intergenerational transfers, not life-cycle savings, account for the majority of US aggregate capital accumulation, reframing bequests as economically central rather than incidental.
William P. Bengen
Tests withdrawal rates against the worst historical sequences of stock and bond returns and finds a retiree drawing 4 percent of the initial portfolio, adjusted for inflation, would not have exhausted savings over any 30-year period in the data.
link checked 17 Sept 2026James M. Poterba, John B. Shoven & Clemens Sialm
Shows which asset classes belong in taxable versus tax-deferred accounts, arguing the tax-efficiency gain from correct asset location is economically significant over a retirement-length horizon.
John Y. Campbell & João F. Cocco
The right mix of fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgage depends on a household's own income risk and how correlated that income is with the interest rates and inflation each mortgage type exposes it to, not on which rate looks cheaper today.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Richard H. Thaler & Shlomo Benartzi
Proposes a savings plan that commits employees in advance to save part of future raises, showing this pre-commitment device more than triples savings rates without cutting current take-home pay.
Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French
Bootstraps mutual fund returns against a null of zero skill and finds that almost no active managers beat the market by enough to cover their costs, arguing apparent star performance is what luck alone would produce.
Sumit Agarwal, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Neale Mahoney & Johannes Stroebel
Evaluates the CARD Act's restrictions on credit card fees and finds they cut costs to borrowers substantially with no offsetting reduction in credit access.