Money, decoded. Try it here.
Every money term, lesson, tool, and market explainer in one place, with the source behind every number. Start with one of our tools, right here.
Editorially independent · No advertiser influence · Never advice
Education only. ClearMoneySchool does not provide individualized investment, tax, or legal advice.
Your gross pay is $4,000 a month. The amount that lands in your bank account is usually...
Ten questions, four minutes. Take the full check
Ask The Decoder about any money term
Plain-English answers from our glossary. Receipts included. Never advice.
Educational tool. Answers come only from ClearMoneySchool's published glossary and are not advice. Why we never give advice
Reading fine print? Tap a highlighted term.
The fund reports its daily and charges an quoted in .
Runs on your device. Nothing you paste is uploaded. Open the Jargon Translator
The real cost of a $7 coffee, every day, for 30 years
Illustrative assumption: 7% a year. We show the math. What you do with it is yours.
Run lunch, subscriptions, or rideshareStart with the basics. Look anything up.
Start here · Money Basics · 7 lessons, in order
Do the actual math.
The Paycheck Decoder
A sample paystub where every line explains itself.
Run yours · 3 minPaycheckTake-home pay calculator
Salary in, every deduction broken down, take-home out.
Run yours · 3 minTaxesTax brackets
Federal plus state. Marginal versus effective rate, decoded.
Run yours · 2 minInvestingRetirement Reality Check
Your plan run against 1,000 market histories, not one lucky average.
Run yours · 5 minInvestingCompound growth calculator
Starting age, monthly amount, return. See all 40 years.
Run yours · 2 minHousingMortgage calculator
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance. PMI included.
Run yours · 3 minHousingRent vs. Buy calculator
Property tax, maintenance, opportunity cost, all of it.
Run yours · 5 minPlanningMy Numbers
Net worth, debt, and emergency fund tracker that never sees your money.
Run yours · 5 minThe Trade Group Publishes One Definition and Almost Every Property Company Also Publishes Its Own. One Filing Last Week Printed Three Different Profit Figures for the Same Three Months.
There is a standard version of this profit measure, set by the industry trade group, and there is the version each company builds for itself. Most companies publish both and most coverage quotes the company's. The gap between the standard figure, the company figure and plain accounting profit is not small and it is not the same size at any two companies. Four filings from one day last week make that visible, because one of them printed all three numbers within a few lines of each other.
Provable, not just claimed.
75 figures listed · 75 with a linked primary source · 14 primary sources
Market Pulse articles link their receipts. Glossary figures are sourced to a primary document, or flagged as illustrative.
Joseph CitizenCo-founder and Editor
Joseph edits every lesson on the site and approves everything before it publishes. He works in investor relations and fund administration, and he started ClearMoneySchool because the people around him kept getting handed documents nobody had taught them to read.
Makayla CitizenCo-founder and HR and benefits review
Makayla works in human resources. She reviews everything on the site that touches pay, benefits and workplace plans, so the paycheck, open enrollment and COBRA explanations match what an HR team would actually tell you.