Academy
Plain-language articles on investing, strategies and personal finance — from the basics to specific methods. No jargon, no promises.
What the FIRE movement is, how the 4% rule and your “FIRE number” work, the main variants, and where the method falls short. A plain-language intro to a strategy built on savings rate and compound growth.
Read article →Where “expenses × 25” comes from, why the 4% rule was built on a 30-year US horizon, and what sequence-of-returns risk is. A tour of the assumptions, variants and limits of the best-known withdrawal rule.
Read article →Interest on interest explained with examples: how it differs from simple interest, why time beats the size of your contributions, how reinvested dividends compound, and what slows compounding down. The foundation every long-term investment rests on.
Read article →Why a single dividend can be taxed twice, what withholding tax at source is, and how foreign tax credits and double-taxation treaties work. A general overview of the mechanics every investor in foreign stocks runs into.
Read article →Two views on where the return should come from — a regular dividend or a rising share price. Why a dividend isn’t “extra money”, why total return is the right yardstick, and which approach fits whom.
Read article →The same index, two versions of the fund. An accumulating ETF reinvests dividends inside; a distributing one pays them to your account. How they differ for compounding, taxes, and the practical choice between income and growth.
Read article →How a single stock, a mutual fund and an ETF differ, how each one trades, and what it costs to hold. A plain comparison of the three basic building blocks of a portfolio — with no advice on what to buy.
Read article →Why the same security has many names and listings, how an ISIN, a ticker and an exchange MIC code differ, and why your broker shows the same instrument more than once. A tour of the identifiers you need to navigate securities reliably.
Read article →Why betting everything on one card rarely pays off, which kind of risk diversification actually dampens, and where adding more positions stops helping. A plain-language intro to spreading risk across stocks, sectors, regions and currencies.
Read article →Why price swings are not the same as risk, how volatility is measured, and why the biggest risk is often the investor’s own reaction. A plain-language intro to the relationship between swings, time horizon and permanent loss of capital.
Read article →Why a portfolio can move even when the share price stands still, how the quote currency differs from your portfolio currency, what hedging involves, and how the currency effect shifts with your horizon.
Read article →Eight mistakes almost everyone makes at the start — from timing the market and panic selling to overtrading and overlooked currency risk. A short fix for each.
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