Fiery Personal Finance
200+ Micro-Lessons On Not Being Stupid With Your Money
Tired of financial advice full of confusing jargon, guilt trips, and boring lectures?
Fiery Personal Finance is your irreverent, no-nonsense guide to mastering your money—cutting through conventional wisdom to deliver what actually works. It spans every critical aspect of your financial life. Created by an engineer-turned-finance-nerd with a strict no-BS policy, this course is built for anyone ready to stop coasting and start building real financial independence, one lesson at a time.
The difference between grinding until 65 and retiring by 45 isn't luck — it's a system. This is the system.
200+ pieces of timeless, unconventional financial wisdom — no theory you'll never actually use.
Kill your debt faster, fix your credit, and stop losing money to fees nobody ever warned you about.
Get the real math on the decisions that actually move the needle — rent vs. buy, new vs. used car — not someone's opinion.
Bite-sized micro lessons built to actually finish, not another course that dies in your watch-later list.
Press play to watch the trailer.
Playbook
1. Numbers
1.1 Why Numbers Matter
1.2 Credit Score
1.3 Credit Bureaus
1.4 How Credit Scores Are Calculated
1.5 Credit Score Ranges
1.6 How to Improve Your Credit Score
1.7 Net Worth
1.8 Levels of Net Worth
1.9 Emergency Fund & Sinking Fund
1.10 F.U. Money
1.11 Financial Independence Number
1.12 The Table That Brings Enlightenment
1.13 The Wealth Allocation Roadmap
1.14 My System — Credit Score, Net Worth, FI Number
2. Debt
2.1 What Is Debt?
2.2 Secured vs Unsecured Debt
2.3 Revolving vs Installment Debt
2.4 Short-Term vs Long-Term Debt
2.5 Impact of Debt on Credit Score
2.6 Credit Cards
2.7 Mortgages
2.8 Auto Loans
2.9 Student Loans
2.10 How Compound Interest Works Against You
2.11 Credit Card Payoff
2.12 What's Considered High Interest?
2.13 Guidelines on Debt
2.14 Your Debt Action Plan
2.15 Lending Money to Family
2.16 Debt Payment Methods
2.17 Which Method Is Right for You?
2.18 My System — Debt
3. Credit Cards
3.1 What Is a Credit Card?
3.2 Credit Card vs Debit Card
3.3 Credit Card Advantages
3.4 Credit Card's Perks
3.5 Credit Card Disadvantages
3.6 Credit Card Etiquette
3.7 Credit-Building Cards
3.8 Balance Transfer Cards
3.9 Cash Back Cards
3.10 Rewards Credit Cards
3.11 Things to Keep in Mind
3.12 Credit Card Travel Hacking
3.13 My System — Credit Cards
4. Budgeting
4.1 What Is a Budget?
4.2 Why Budgets Are Sexy
4.3 Envelope System
4.4 50/30/20 Rule
4.5 Zero-Based Budgeting
4.6 Pay Yourself First
4.7 Budgeting Tips
4.8 My System — Budgeting
5. Banking
5.1 What Is a Bank?
5.2 What to Look For in a Bank
5.3 About Banking Fees
5.4 Stop Chasing Rates
5.5 Checking Account
5.6 Savings Account
5.7 National Brick & Mortar Banks
5.8 Online-Only Banks
5.9 Credit Unions
5.10 Fidelity Cash Management Account
5.11 FDIC vs SIPC Insurance
5.12 High-Yield Savings Account Explained
5.13 Recommended Checking Accounts
5.14 Recommended High-Yield Savings Accounts
5.15 My System — Banking
6. Frugality
6.1 What Is Frugality?
6.2 What Frugality Looks Like
6.3 Frugal vs Cheap
6.4 The Impact of Frugality
6.5 Minimalism
6.6 The Meme That Says It All
6.7 Effective Ways to a Fulfilling Frugal Life
6.8 Smart Spending
6.9 The Fulfillment Curve
6.10 Why More Stuff Equals Less Happiness
6.11 The Power of "Enough"
6.12 The Real Cost of Your Starbucks Addiction
6.13 The Real Cost of Private School
6.14 Ten Ways to Waste Your Money
6.15 The Look on Benjamin Franklin's Face
6.16 Aggregation of Marginal Gains
6.17 My System — Frugality
7. Housing
7.1 Buying vs Renting
7.2 Renting
7.3 Buying
7.4 Which Is Better?
7.5 The New York Times Rent vs Buy Calculator
7.6 Price-to-Rent Ratio
7.7 How Much House Can I Afford?
7.8 Be Conservative
7.9 The 1% Rule of Thumb
7.10 Don't Skip the Math
7.11 Amortization
7.12 No Such Thing as "Throwing Money Away on Rent"
7.13 Accelerate Mortgage Paydown
7.14 House Hacking
7.15 My System — Housing
8. Cars
8.1 What Is a Car?
8.2 New Car Pros and Cons
8.3 New Car Depreciation
8.4 New Car Shopping
8.5 New Car Buying Tips
8.6 Best Times to Buy a New Car
8.7 Used Car Pros & Cons
8.8 The Math on New vs Used
8.9 Certified Pre-Owned
8.10 Used Car Shopping
8.11 Interview the Seller
8.12 Used Car Buying Guide
8.13 My Personal Bias
8.14 Used Car Paperwork for Private Sales
8.15 Car Owner Operating Expenses
8.16 Car Maintenance Schedule
8.17 Low-Maintenance Car Brands
8.18 High-Maintenance Car Brands
8.19 My System — Cars
9. Side Hustles
9.1 Increase Active Income
9.2 Skill-Based Freelance Work
9.3 Gig Economy Jobs
9.4 Monetizing Assets
9.5 Selling Products
9.6 Dropshipping
9.7 Amazon FBA
9.8 Affiliate Marketing
9.9 My System — Side Hustles
10. Insurance
10.1 How Insurance Works
10.2 Auto Insurance
10.3 Components of an Auto Insurance Policy
10.4 Auto Insurance Jargon
10.5 Health Insurance
10.6 How You Pay for Care
10.7 How Health Insurance Works
10.8 No Lifetime Maximum Benefit
10.9 Open Enrollment
10.10 HMO (Health Maintenance Organization)
10.11 PPO (Preferred Provider Organization)
10.12 HDHP (High-Deductible Health Plan)
10.13 Choosing the Right Plan
10.14 Medicare vs Medicaid
10.15 Term Life Insurance
10.16 Term Life Insurance Average Monthly Premiums
10.17 How Much Term Life Insurance Do You Need?
10.18 Umbrella Insurance
10.19 More Types of Insurance
10.20 My Auto Insurance Policy Quote
10.21 My System — Insurance
11. Taxes
11.1 What Are Taxes?
11.2 Income Tax (Taxes on What You Earn)
11.3 Payroll Tax aka FICA
11.4 States Without State Income Tax
11.5 Understanding Your Pay Stub
11.6 W-2 Form
11.7 W-4 Form
11.8 Sales Tax (Taxes on What You Buy)
11.9 Excise Tax
11.10 Property Taxes (Taxes on What You Own)
11.11 Federal Estate Tax Exemption
11.12 My System — Taxes
12. Estate Planning
12.1 What Happens to Your Stuff When You Die
12.2 Estate Planning Documents
12.3 Last Will and Testament
12.4 Revocable Living Trust
12.5 Purpose of Revocable Living Trust
12.6 Players in a Revocable Living Trust
12.7 Limitations of a Revocable Living Trust
12.8 Durable Power of Attorney for Finances
12.9 Advance Healthcare Directive
12.10 Beneficiary Designations
12.11 Who Can Be the Beneficiary
12.12 Payable on Death Beneficiary Designations
12.13 Transfer on Death Beneficiary Designations
12.14 Characteristics of POD and TOD
12.15 Types of Beneficiary Designations
12.16 Considerations for Beneficiary Designations
12.17 Where to Get Your Estate Planning Documents
12.18 Fireproof Box
12.19 Estate Planning Documents Summary
12.20 Special Considerations
12.21 My System — Estate Planning
13. Cybersecurity
13.1 Why Cybersecurity Matters
13.2 Passwords & 2FA
13.3 Credit Report Freeze
13.4 Hide Your Real Email
13.5 Your Online Invisibility Cloak
13.6 Stop Losing Your Stuff
13.7 My System — Cybersecurity
14. Financial Psychology
14.1 Your Brain Is Working Against You
14.2 Instant Gratification vs Delayed Gratification
14.3 Lifestyle Inflation
14.4 Keeping Up With the Joneses
14.5 The Hedonic Adaptation
14.6 Negative Visualization
14.7 Sunk Cost Fallacy
14.8 Loss Aversion
14.9 The Diderot Effect
14.10 Circle of Control
14.11 The Scarcity vs Abundance Mindset
14.12 Analysis Paralysis
14.13 Decision Fatigue
14.14 Mental Accounting
14.15 Anchoring Bias
14.16 Present Bias
14.17 Social Proof
14.18 The Focusing Illusion
14.19 What's Your Ikigai?
14.20 Final Thoughts on Financial Psychology
14.21 My System — Financial Psychology
15. Bonus
15.1 The FIRE Movement
15.2 Geographic Arbitrage
15.3 It's Never Too Late
15.4 Your Most Valuable Asset
15.5 What I Can't Teach You
15.6 Build Systems, Not Willpower
15.7 The Real Reason People Don't Follow This Advice
15.8 You Don't Have to Be Extreme
15.9 What Wealthy People Know That You Don't
15.10 Words of Wisdom
Who am I?
I'm an engineer-turned-finance-nerd who lives by the principles I teach. After immigrating to the US from the Philippines in 2002, I earned degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics and spent 17 years in the semiconductor industry. Driven to master money, I passed the Series 65 (Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam) and founded Fiery Personal Finance to teach a simple, BS-free framework: spend less than you earn and invest the difference. As an Eagle Scout, photography enthusiast, and adventurer, I've explored over thirty countries across six continents. When I'm not helping people fast-track their financial independence, I'm outside mountain biking, snowboarding, or hiking around the Pacific Northwest.
— Ernesto
FAQ
Isn't this free on YouTube?
Technically, most of the raw information exists somewhere on YouTube for free. What you're actually paying for is structure — a meticulously curated, sequenced curriculum, not a scattered pile of videos in no particular order.
Does this course teach me how to invest in the stock market?
No — this covers everything about personal finance except investing. It builds the foundation: the surplus of cash. Multiplying that cash is the entire job of the companion course, Index Fund Investing.
I am drowning in debt. Shouldn't I pay that off before buying a course?
If your boat is sinking, you fix the hole before you bail water. This course treats high-interest debt as a hair-on-fire emergency and hands you the exact mathematical order to kill it — before anything else, before wealth-building even starts.
My parents say renting is throwing money away. Does this cover real estate?
There is "no such thing as 'throwing money away on rent'". The course breaks down the exact math behind the rent vs. buy decision, exposing the phantom costs of homeownership so you choose based on data, not emotion.
Is this too technical for me?
No. Mostly beginner-to-intermediate, with a splash of advanced material for when you're ready for it. You don't need to already understand money to start — you need to be willing to learn.
I don't make a six-figure salary. Will this still work for me?
Yes. Wealth is about what you keep, not what you make. The math doesn't care about your starting salary — it only cares about the gap between what you earn and what you spend.
What if I prefer reading or listening instead of watching videos?
Should I get the Bundle instead?
If you're planning to eventually take both — yes. The Bundle effectively get's you the second course half off, and most people who finish one course come back for the other anyway, since this one covers everything except investing.
My philosophy
If you don't love what you bought, I don't want your money. Contact me within 30 days for a full refund — no questions asked. My reputation matters more to me than keeping money you felt I didn't earn. I'm here to help you build wealth, not sell you trash.
Early-adopter pricing
Fiery Personal Finance Course
200+ Micro-Lessons On Not Being Stupid With Your Money
15 chapters
7 hours of content
64 animation videos
Lifetime access on-demand
Quizzes, worksheets & calculators
Fiery Personal Finance community
Course Bundle
(Both courses)
400+ Micro-Lessons On Mastering Money & Building Wealth
40 chapters
14 hours of content
128 animation videos
Lifetime access on-demand
Quizzes, worksheets & calculators
Fiery Personal Finance community
Index Fund Investing Course
200+ Micro-Lessons On Building Wealth The Stupidly Simple Way
25 chapters
7 hours of content
64 animation videos
Lifetime access on-demand
Quizzes, worksheets & calculators
Fiery Personal Finance community
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