Where to start

Weighing a big money decision

A job offer, a bonus, a big purchase, or a life change.

Here's where to start — a calculator to run the numbers, a plain-English guide, and a short lesson with a first move. Which lesson fits depends on where you are.

Tool Offer comparison tool

Compare job offers on total value — wage, match, bonus, vesting — not just base pay.

Open the tool Guide Guide to Mental Models

Reason about money in your head — twelve shortcuts worth keeping for the times you have to decide without a spreadsheet open, and the math behind each.

Read the guide For starting out I got my first job offer.

Score a job offer's true value (wage plus benefits), know when full-time is worth the trade, and open the Roth IRA that needs no employer.

Take the lesson A few years in I'm getting a $15K bonus, inheritance, or tax refund.

Run the windfall through the order of operations instead of disappearing it into checking.

Take the lesson Building for others We just got married.

Pick a money structure together — joint, separate, or the yours/mine/ours hybrid — and set a standing money date so the plan keeps up with your life.

Take the lesson