Resources.
Curated honestly.
Everything worth reading, watching, and using. No affiliate links. No sponsored placements. No paid inclusions. If something is here it's because it's actually good.
Start here
If you read nothing else.
Dozens of economic charts on wages, housing, debt, inequality, all showing the same inflection point. No explanation needed. Look at the charts.
The clearest visual explanation of credit cycles, debt, and central banks that exists. Watch this before reading anything else.
The internet's most complete free guide to index fund investing. Start with "Why you need F-you money." Read in sequence.
Nine pages. More readable than most people expect. The original document that started everything.
Not about investment strategies. About why intelligent people consistently make bad financial decisions and what actually drives long-term outcomes.
Evidence-based investing with actual academic citations. Start with "The Irrelevance of Dividends" and "The 5% Rule for Renting vs Buying."
Bitcoin · Books
Read in roughly this order.
The economic argument for Bitcoin as sound money. Dense. Opinionated. Foundational for understanding why Bitcoin specifically, not just blockchain technology.
The companion volume. How fiat money actually works and why it produces the outcomes it does. More technical than The Bitcoin Standard.
Money as historical layers, gold, paper, digital, and where Bitcoin fits. More accessible than The Bitcoin Standard for new readers.
97 pages. The shortest technically accurate explanation of how Bitcoin works for non-engineers. Free at inventingbitcoin.com.
Why deflation is the natural state of a technology-driven economy and why inflation is a policy choice that fights that reality.
Philosophical framework for Bitcoin, what it teaches about economics, technology, and self-sovereignty. Free at 21lessons.com.
Journalism, not advocacy. The history of Bitcoin's early years told through the people who built it. Good entry point for skeptics.
Bitcoin · Essays and series
All free online.
13 essays. The best plain-English explanation of Bitcoin monetary theory. Read in order.
The most widely shared Bitcoin investment thesis. Covers monetary history and why Bitcoin's properties matter.
The best free macro analysis that takes Bitcoin seriously without being Bitcoin-only. Her Bitcoin pieces are particularly rigorous.
Evolutionary account of how proto-money emerged. Essential for understanding why rare objects become money.
Bitcoin · Video and audio
The most articulate Bitcoin educator on technical and philosophical topics. Start with "Money as a System of Control" and "Bitcoin Security Model."
Long-form interviews with Bitcoin developers, economists, and builders. Not a price podcast. Excellent for understanding why serious people take Bitcoin seriously.
Deep philosophical exploration of monetary theory and Bitcoin. More philosophical than technical.
Macro and Bitcoin from an institutional perspective. Strong on the monetary-policy-meets-Bitcoin angle.
Investigative journalism on financial fraud, crypto scams, and influencer grift. Primary-source reporting: documents, recordings, confrontations. The best single resource for understanding how crypto fraud is constructed and how to recognize it before losing money. Not a Bitcoin channel specifically; an accountability journalism channel that frequently covers crypto.
Unlike most channels listed here, Coffeezilla covers what goes wrong. Useful context for anyone entering a space with significant fraud.
Personal finance · Books
The index fund argument from the man who invented them. Short, clear, correct.
The academic case for index funds over active management. The data has only gotten stronger with every updated edition.
Data-driven answer to every "should I invest now or wait?" question. Read before making any market timing decision.
What wealthy people actually do versus what people think wealthy people do. The gap is the lesson.
The book that started the financial independence movement. Still the clearest-eyed treatment of the relationship between time, money, and life.
The most practical starter personal finance book. Automation-focused. Zero moralizing.
The contrarian view. Optimizing for maximum life experiences rather than maximum terminal wealth. A useful counterweight to pure accumulation thinking.
Personal finance · Blogs and channels
The Stock Series. Everything you need to know about index fund investing in plain English.
Data-driven financial writing. One of the few finance writers who shows his work.
The most rigorous independent research on retirement planning, the 4% rule, and financial planning strategy. Dense but authoritative.
The definitive deep-dive on safe withdrawal rates for early retirement. The SWR Series is required reading for anyone pursuing FIRE.
Community-maintained encyclopedia of evidence-based investing. The three-fund portfolio, asset location, tax-loss harvesting, all here.
Factor investing for long-term retail investors. Free resources including the ultimate buy-and-hold portfolio analysis.
The most thorough independent analysis of the Fidelity Cash Management Account available. Read before opening one.
Community-maintained database of bank account bonuses, credit card offers, and signup deals. Check here before opening any account for a bonus.
Credit card rewards and travel optimization. Destination for readers going deeper than flat cashback.
Monetary theory
Short. Free online. The Austrian case for commodity-backed money. Influential regardless of whether you agree. Free at mises.org.
Hayek's proposal for competing private currencies, written 40 years before Bitcoin existed. Remarkably prescient.
The best academic history of the dollar's rise to reserve currency status. Not a polemic, actual history.
Every major debt crisis in history. The framework for understanding where we are in the long cycle. Free PDF at principles.com.
Primary data sources
Verify everything. These are the primary sources used throughout this site.
M2, CPI, interest rates, balance sheet. Every US macro chart starts here.
fred.stlouisfed.org ↗Official purchasing power calculations. The only source for inflation math.
bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator ↗How American households actually spend money. Updated annually.
bls.gov/cex ↗Global reserve currency composition. Dollar share of world reserves.
data.imf.org/COFER ↗Benefit calculators, FRA tables, claiming strategy data.
ssa.gov/benefits/retirement ↗Check any advisor or broker for registration and complaints.
brokercheck.finra.org ↗Self-reported sustainable energy percentage. Treat as directional.
bitcoinminingcouncil.com ↗Bitcoin price, CAGR calculations, historical data.
coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin ↗Annual illicit activity statistics. Accurate percentages.
chainalysis.com/blog ↗Active vs passive fund performance. Why stock-picking underperforms.
spglobal.com/spdji/spiva ↗Wealth distribution in America. Updated every 3 years.
federalreserve.gov/econres/scf ↗Backtest any portfolio allocation. Check any historical-return claim here.
portfoliovisualizer.com ↗HELOCs, mortgages, debt collection rules, consumer rights.
consumerfinance.gov ↗Compare SPIA quotes without a salesperson. Instant pricing.
immediateannuities.com ↗Bitcoin technical resources
The most comprehensive curated Bitcoin resource list. If it's not on this site, it's on Lopp's.
lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html ↗Practical Bitcoin tutorials. Most beginner-friendly self-custody guides.
bitcoiner.guide ↗Physical stress tests on every metal seed storage product.
jlopp.github.io/metal-bitcoin-storage-reviews ↗Tools this site uses and recommends
Best checking alternative. SPAXX sweep earns yield on idle cash.
fidelity.com/cash-management/overview ↗2% cashback auto-deposited to Fidelity. No annual fee.
fidelityrewards.com ↗The recommended HYSA. Competitive APY, no debit card.
americanexpress.com/banking/online-savings ↗Recommended Bitcoin wallet. Full-node connection, UTXO control, privacy.
sparrowwallet.com ↗What this site deliberately does not link to
Omissions are as important as inclusions.
This site doesn't link to variable annuity products, whole life insurance products, actively managed mutual funds, or cryptocurrency altcoin projects. It doesn't list exchanges as primary recommendations without the self-custody caveat. It doesn't link to sites that earn commissions from the products they recommend without disclosure. The resources above were selected because they're genuinely useful, not because anyone paid for inclusion.
For the full treatment of how financial content incentives shape what gets recommended and omitted: What Financial Influencers Get Wrong.
Last updated 2026-04-22. No affiliate links. No sponsored placements. Report a broken link: shrimpstacked@fiatisfake.org.
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