Financial literacy course
Billions, Millions and Nothing
The tax code is a menu — and most people never see it
Fifteen chapters on the mechanics that quietly decide who thrives and who merely survives: the average trap, capital gains, the loan lifestyle, entity architecture, depreciation, real estate, estate planning and the philosophy of enough.
Alander Pulliam · 6 modules · 182 minutes · Adults, entrepreneurs, first-generation wealth builders, financial literacy classrooms.
- Explain why earned income is taxed differently from capital
- Read the tax code as a set of incentives rather than a set of rules
- Map an entity structure and say what each layer is actually for
- Distinguish a depreciating purchase from an appreciating asset
- Build a nothing-to-something plan you could start this month
Education, not advice. Nothing here is tax, legal or investment advice. Verify everything with a licensed professional before acting.
Chapters 1-2
2 assigned readingsThe Average Trap & The Tax Code Is a Menu
The book opens on the trap of the ordinary financial life: earn, get withheld, spend what is left. Then it reframes the tax code — not as a bill, but as a menu of behaviours the government is paying you to choose.
- Describe the average financial path and where it leaks
- Explain withholding as a sequencing disadvantage
- Name three behaviours the tax code explicitly rewards
Before the deck
- Chapters 1-2 of the manuscript · Billions
The average trap and the menu framing in full.
- Your last filed tax return · Your own records
Identify every line of income by type before the exercise.
Trap
Earn, withhold, spend what's left
- The average path taxes you first and lets you live on the remainder.
- Ownership is taxed last and lets you deduct on the way there.
- Same dollar, different sequence, radically different outcome.