Library · pages to open when a lesson is not enough

These are outside pages a reader can open for the longer official version of something this site teaches. The one thing to remember: a link is not an endorsement of every sentence on the other side, and a government page is still a government page, useful on the mechanics and silent on worship. Where to go next is the lesson named under each entry, or the glossary if you only needed the word.

Every address was fetched with redirects followed and returned a live page. A live page is not a line-by-line review, and agencies move their pages, so the agency's own page wins over this summary of it.

Prices, inflation, and how the dollar is taught · Everyday money: saving, banking, and plain-language answers · Credit, collecting, and the words on a loan · When the payment cannot be made · Investing words, from the SEC · Taxes and retirement accounts · For a teacher, a parent, or a church class

Prices, inflation, and how the dollar is taught

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index
The official U.S. price index. Our inflation lesson and the inflation time machine use the CPI-U annual averages from this series.

Lesson: why a dollar shrinks
Minneapolis Fed: Consumer Price Index from 1913
A long public table of annual average CPI from 1913, useful when you want a year the lesson did not print.

Tool: inflation time machine
Federal Reserve Education
The Federal Reserve System's teaching platform on inflation, monetary policy, saving, investing, and credit. Secular, and written by the institution that sets the policy rate.

Lesson: interest rates and the Fed

Everyday money: saving, banking, and plain-language answers

MyMoney.gov
The U.S. government's financial education site, tied to the Financial Literacy and Education Commission.

Our glossary
FDIC: Money Smart
The FDIC's financial education program, with resources for adults, young people, and small business owners.

Lesson: how banks work
FDIC: Money Smart for Young People
Age-banded lessons, pre-kindergarten through grade 12, that a parent or teacher can use beside our seedlings and builders tracks.

Guide: teach your kids
CFPB: Money as You Grow
Activities and conversation starters by age from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for parents and caregivers.

Lesson: teaching with real money
CFPB: Ask CFPB
Short official answers on cards, mortgages, debt collection, and bank accounts. The glossary's plain-language cousin.

Our glossary

Credit, collecting, and the words on a loan

CFPB: What is a credit score?
The Bureau's definition: a prediction of your credit behavior, such as how likely you are to pay a loan back on time, calculated from your credit reports.

Lesson: cards and scores
CFPB: Debt collection
What collectors may do, and the pages for disputing a debt. Read this before you pay a stranger who calls.

Lesson: when you cannot pay
CFPB: What is a debt collector?
The definition our hardship lesson paraphrases: a person or company that regularly collects debts owed to others.

Glossary: debt collector
Investor.gov: investing glossary
The SEC's glossary. Use it when a fund fact sheet uses a word we defined too briefly.

Our glossary

When the payment cannot be made

CFPB: How to avoid foreclosure
Call the servicer, find a HUD-approved counselor at (800) 569-4287, and know that you should not have to pay anyone to help you avoid foreclosure.

Lesson: when you cannot pay
CFPB: If I can't pay my mortgage, what are my options?
The Bureau's own list: refinance, modification, repayment plan, forbearance, short sale, deed-in-lieu.

Glossary: forbearance
CFPB: How does foreclosure work?
Judicial and non-judicial foreclosure, and the reminder that the timeline depends on the state.

Glossary: foreclosure
CFPB: Foreclosure timeline
The sentence our lesson quotes: generally the legal process cannot start until you are at least 120 days behind. After that, the state decides the clock.

Lesson: when you cannot pay
United States Courts: Bankruptcy Basics
The federal courts' own primer on the chapters. It says it is general information, not a filing guide. Read this rather than a blog before you talk to a lawyer.

Question: is bankruptcy a sin?
United States Courts: Chapter 7
The courts' page: chapter 7 provides for liquidation, the sale of nonexempt property and distribution of the proceeds to creditors.

Glossary: chapter 7
United States Courts: Chapter 13
The courts' page: a wage earner's plan that lets an individual with regular income keep property and pay debts over time, usually three to five years.

Glossary: chapter 13

Investing words, from the SEC

Investor.gov: compound interest
The SEC's one-page definition, the same one the compound-interest lesson cites.

Lesson: compound interest
Investor.gov: index fund
A neutral definition to set beside any fund company page.

Lesson: index funds
Investor.gov: dollar-cost averaging
The SEC's definition of putting in a fixed amount on a schedule.

Lesson: investing first principles

Taxes and retirement accounts

IRS: 401(k) contribution limits
The current annual limits on 401(k) contributions. Our 401(k) lesson refuses to reprint them, because they change.

Lesson: 401(k) and IRA

For a teacher, a parent, or a church class

Next Gen Personal Finance: curriculum
NGPF's free curriculum for teachers. Secular: use it for the mechanics and our lessons for the Scripture.

Our lesson list
Econlib: National Economics Standards
The 20 voluntary national standards for economics, mapped to key concepts and free high school resources, for a teacher planning a course.

What this site covers

Videos are a different shelf, because a title is not a viewing. They are listed, not embedded, on the video shelf. Books and courses already on the site stay in the library.

Further reading