Personal Finance
Your first steps as a new investor
Most of the work happens before the first purchase. These are the checks U.S. regulators suggest, in order, with simple numbers to make each one concrete.
Personal finance basics
Before the first investment comes the groundwork: a cushion of savings for surprises, a plan for expensive debt, clear goals with time frames, and a basic grasp of how growth and taxes work.
Also in Personal Finance
Personal Finance
Compound interest explained
Personal Finance
Capital gains tax basics (US)
New to Personal Finance? Read in this order
- Why an emergency fund comes before investing
7 min read
- Pay off debt or invest?
6 min read
- Your first steps as a new investor
6 min read
All Personal Finance explainers
5 published
Personal Finance
Compound interest explained
Interest that earns its own interest grows slowly at first and faster later. Here is the math in plain numbers, plus where the popular shortcut gets it slightly wrong.
Personal Finance
Why an emergency fund comes before investing
Investments can fall just when you need cash. A separate pot of safe, easy-to-reach money keeps a car repair or a lost paycheck from turning into debt or a forced sale.
Personal Finance
Pay off debt or invest?
Every extra dollar can shrink a debt or go into an investment. The comparison is simpler than it looks once you see one side is certain and the other is not.
Personal Finance
Capital gains tax basics (US)
When you sell an investment for more than you paid, the profit may be taxed. How long you held it changes the rate. Here are the US federal basics, using the IRS's figures for tax year 2025.
Terms used in this section
Glossary A–ZAbout this section
Before the first investment comes the groundwork: a cushion of savings for surprises, a plan for expensive debt, clear goals with time frames, and a basic grasp of how growth and taxes work. Skipping these steps is how a car repair ends up on a credit card at more than 20% interest, or how a market dip forces someone to sell at a loss. The guides in this section walk through each piece in a sensible order, starting with why an emergency fund usually comes first and how to weigh paying off debt against investing, then moving to compound interest and US capital gains tax.
Each guide defines its terms the first time they appear, works through examples whose numbers were calculated in code, and links facts to primary sources such as the SEC's Investor.gov, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FDIC and the IRS. Tax figures are labeled with the US tax year they apply to. Nothing here recommends a product or predicts returns, and every investment can lose value. If you are just starting, read the three guides under "Start with" in order.