Topic.
Essential financial foundations before investing: emergency buffers, debt management, cashflow systems, and catastrophic risk protection.
4 articles in this topic
An emergency buffer (sometimes called an emergency fund or cash runway) is a pool of accessible savings set aside to cover essential expenses during unexpected disruptions. The term "runway" refers to how long someone could sustain their essential co...
Debt is not inherently good or bad. It is a tool with costs attached. The question is not whether debt exists, but what it costs, and how that cost compares to the alternatives. This article explains why interest rate is the central variable in think...
A cashflow system refers to the structure used to direct income toward spending, saving, and obligations over time. Managing money is often framed as a discipline problem. The assumption is that people who fail to save simply lack willpower or financ...
There is a difference between losing money and losing everything. Most investing discussions focus on returns, volatility, and allocation. These matter. But they matter less than avoiding ruin. Ruin is what happens when a low-probability event wipes...
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