Introduction

I have always been interested in finances since I was young. I grew up in a household where money was a strain. The family finances had never looked ideal and to this day, I’m not sure my parents understand that money is a tool to be leveraged. Discretionary income was always spent on items luxury items that, in hindsight, seem frivolous.

Throughout my short 30 years, I have noticed that I care very little about material possessions. Completely opposite of what my parents are like. In fact, I recently asked why they didn’t invest more money into retirement and they said, they just like to spend money. To me, I find this irresponsible and frustrating. Why would you want to buy an inanimate object that gives you only a slight amount of joy versus purchasing assets that make you money while you sleep? Having your money working for you has always seemed more appealing to me.

When I do splurge, it is generally on an experience. After reading many books on personal finance, Ramit Sethi’s teachings in I will teach you to be Rich has always stuck close in my mind. One of my money dials is spending heavily on travel, while spending money on clothes has felt ludicrous. If you are unfamiliar with money dials, it’s the concept that you dial up the things that you want to spend money on, while winding down the dials that seem irrelevant. You can decide what your “rich life” looks like this way. For me, my rich life is spending nicely on vacations while wearing a $15 t shirt that I bought 3 years ago.

So let’s talk about money.

Money is a difficult topic for many people. It can induce feelings of superiority when someone has a lot, but can induce feelings of inferiority for those who lack it. I want to share my perspective and feelings about building my wealth over time. I don’t care to describe the exact amount of money I have invested and saved, but I do want to make it

The age old question is whether you’d like to be rich or famous. Many people choose to be famous, this is not where I sit in. I’d strongly prefer to be rich. The tricky thing about this question is that in 2026, being famous can easily make you rich. Social media and online presence in general is certainly a cheat code for becoming rich. However, I’ve met a slew of people throughout my life who are not famous, but are still rich. So I believe it is possible to make money in the background, outside the lime light.

Getting to the Point

I’ve decided to embark on an unofficial education journey into economics. Basically, I want to give myself an graduate level Economics degree through various online resources. My goal is to learn everything I can about the global economy. What interests me the most are macroeconomics, global economics interactions, and international trade relations. As I learn, I will be posting here to cement this knowledge into my brain. I find that writing about a particular topic tends to entrench it into my mind. The typical college way (in America).

Here is an outline of the ciricculum that I plan to follow:

• CORE economics 2.0
  • Read: one chapter per week
  • Watch: 2–3 MRU or MIT lectures on that specific topic.
  • Apply: Find a news article from the last 48 hours that relates to what was learned and map it onto one of the models.
  • Share: Write a post here about the particular topic, giving in-depth analysis.
• Microeconomics II
  • MIT OCW Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy (14.03).
• Macroeconomics II
  • MIT OCW Intermediate Macroeconomics (14.05).
• Econometrics (The Data Science of Econ)
  • Utilizing python to model economics
    • I have a background in software engineering and will apply it here.
  • Introduction to Econometrics via the Econometric Society
  • Harvard’s Data Science: Productivity Tools.
• Global Trade & International Finance
  • Explore the Mundell-Fleming Model to understand how exchange rates affect national policy.
  • Development Economics
  • Marginal Revolution University’s International Trade and MIT’s 14.54 International Trade.

Financials Markets:

• Financial Theory & Asset Pricing
  • Concepts:
    • The Time Value of Money (TVM), Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH).
  • MIT OCW: Investments (15.433)
  • Yale University: Financial Markets (ECON 252) with Professor Robert Shiller.
• Applied Valuation & Security Analysis
  • Concepts:
    • Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis, Comparable Analysis (Multiples), and Credit Analysis.
  • Aswath Damodaran’s Website (NYU Stern)
• Wealth Management & Personal Finance
  • Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), asset allocation, and withdrawal strategies (the “4% Rule”).
  • Resource: Morningstar’s Investing Classroom

I believe this is roughly ~2-3 years worth of material and I hope that by the end of this, I will have also produced a course that would be one of the world’s most premier economics and investments course that can be learned online. I plan to provide this course for a price, of course, but I will be building the course in due time and essentially open sourcing it via the posts on this blog. The value for the sale price would be that it will be condensed, formatted in a reasonable structure, and provide access to myself and provide access to an exclusive group of others in cohorts who are also studying the content.