SPRING ONLINE COHORT: April 7 - June 15 (Registration closes April 15)
$297 || At PUGS, we believe that learning is a human right. Discounted tuition is available based on income.

This is a self-paced online course, meaning you can take it wherever you are (even if you don't live in Portland). You will be in an online community where you challenge and support each other as you work through the lessons. You have two months to complete 30 lessons, and they're about 30 minutes apiece.

• Understand the basics of money.
• Write your financial manifesto about how money fits into living according to your dreams and values, and you'll make a plan to execute it.
• Learn that mindset matters more than strategy or tactics: people who have reached financial independence have different attitudes and beliefs.
• Learn how to distinguish between the essentials and the excess in your life and learn how enough is better than too much.
• Know how to take the emotional scripts out of money decisions and balance present spending and future spending with clear eyes.
• Make a budget, lower your expenses, eliminate debt, increase savings, and live with more financial security. 
• Contemplate a different mindset around money and consumption that will lower stress and self-doubt.
• Increase your amount of free time by reducing expenses and the amount of time you spend working.
• Heal the split between money and your values, making your life one integrated whole. 

Here's a radical idea: you should take control of your finances and work towards financial freedom. Financial freedom is the ability to do what you want with your time, attention, and energy without having to worry about money.  The true meaning of financial freedom isn’t being able to buy whatever you want; it’s owning every hour of your time for the rest of your life.

There is only one person responsible for your financial health: you. Yet most people spend very little time thinking about or learning how to manage their finances. Most people live unconciously or avoidant about money. As a result, people get victimized by the capitalist system and live in financial fragility and often feel like they never have enough. You can remove that worry and scarcity in your life by taking control of your relationship with money and build the life you want.

This course will help you examine the reality of living in a capitalist society and help you take ownership of your relationship with capitalism and consumerism. You will dig into the larger picture of money in your life, understanding the largely unconscious and unexamined beliefs you have about money, and consider how they affect you. With moral vision and thrift,  you can take control of those beliefs and the direction of your financial future. You'll learn the seven levels of financial maturity, from financial dependence, or living paycheck to paycheck, to saving conventionally, and, lastly, having financial freedom. We'll explore the influence of your family background and the hidden assumptions of consumption and debt in our capitalist system. The course is about reclaiming ownership of your time, attention, and energy and freeing yourself to do want you want to do without worrying about money for the rest of your life. This is what you'll get from this course:

• Feeling more empowered and in control about money and your finances
• Having a budget that aligns with your values
• Knowing how much you need to retire
• Cutting your monthly expenses
• Having a goal for when to retire
• Feeling more comfortable talking about money to others

Module 1: Understanding money. Talking about money is taboo in our society, which means we aren’t often aware of our relationships with it. We'll start with our internal assumptions about money, where they came from, and how they dramatically influence our lives. Then we’ll talk about the personal savings rate and how it affects how many years you have to work.

Module 2: Reducing consumption. The personal savings rate only has two components: spending and production. We'll talk about the profound personal and global implications of taking control of the first: consumption. How do consumption and debt increase stress in your life? How do they affect the world environmentally? We'll also look at your monthly consumption and find the easy and necessary places to cut back.

Module 3: Writing your manifesto and making a budget. We live in a financial system that requires people to be in debt. We’ll talk about breaking consent to the high-consumption, debt-driven system. No matter where you are on the path, working towards financial independence means taking back control of your life. You’ll draft your financial manifesto and learn about the behaviors and attitudes that ensure financial security. Then you'll make one-year, five-year, and long-term budgets that match your values, aspirations, and priorities.

Ultimately, financial freedom is about desiring and believing in a different future than a consumer capitalist one. It's about being able to take care of your loved while making creative contributions to the world without waiting until you're 65. Read about Douglas's own experience of achieving financial freedom by age 42.

"This course was great! It really helped me re-examine and re-create my relationship to money. I'm totally inspired now to think and learn about money, and am starting to save and invest in the future that means the most to me. Douglas is a living example of financial freedom, and was an skilled facilitator, guide, and advisor during the process. Take this class! It's the best investment (in your dreams) that you'll ever make." - Dan Daly

"The Financial Freedom course changed my perspective on money and removed a lot of mental and emotional barriers I was having to taking control of my financial life, as well as providing me with a lot of practical information. Highly recommend!" - Kronda Adair

You have two months to complete 30 lessons (about 30 minutes apiece). You'll have support and accountability from other students in an online discussion board, as well as Douglas, the instructor. Unlike other PUGS courses, you can take this course at your own schedule, anywhere in the world. The class community is important, so be prepared to share and contribute on the online discussion board; it's where a lot of the learning comes from. This course has a money-back guarantee; if you finish it and did not think you got value, we will refund you 100%.  Those who finish the course and have contributed generously to others will get 20% back of what they paid.  Click here to learn more about the online course and for more details on how it works. 

Douglas Tsoi, JD, is the founder of PUGS. For twenty years, he worked as a lawyer, schoolteacher, and climate change activist, saving half of his salary and investing the rest. That earned him financial freedom at age 42 to do what he wants with his time, which includes (after soccer, napping, and traveling) helping people take control of their finances, make a plan, and live the life they truly want.