Online Cohort: August 15st - October 31st (Registration closes September 5th)
Tier A Pricing: $297 ($30/hr or above wage earners)
Tier B Pricing: $225 ($16-$29/hr wage earners)
Tier C Pricing: $150 ($15/hr or below wage earners)
See our Pricing + Generosity Policy for more information on tiered pricing.

PUGS is about both learning and community. Register with a friend and get 33% off with the code YOUVEGOTAFRIEND

Similar to the current Financial Freedom 1, 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 the 30ish lessons, each about 30 minutes long. And since this is the first time I'm running it and I'll be working out the kinks as participants go through (and be telling me the kinks), I'm offering a 30 day money-back guarantee. 

The Millionaire Next Door describes how Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth spend 8 hours a month studying and examining their investments. Under-Accumulators of Wealth spend an average of 4 hours a month. If you aren't spending this amount of time on your finances since Financial Freedom 1, this is an opportunity to pick back up with other FF1 alumni. If you haven't invested any savings you have since FF1, this is the chance to figure out where to put your money so it grows. 

As we discussed in FF1, capitalism creates stress and insecurity in order for it to grow. In addition to aiding consumerism, the pressure is on the labor side: a weakened social safety net, automatization, and the gig economy. This course is for people who want to reach escape velocity by creating enough passive income to exit from all of this.

Module 4: Investing Basics

The core unit of this course is: how do you invest? In FF1, you made a goal for how many years it would take to reach financial freedom. The math was based on 6% annual investment growth, after inflation. As you learned in FF1, 7% returns double in 10 years and 3% returns double in 25 years. That's a huge difference in life hours and a subject worthy of your time. If you're not spending time learning how to get that 6%, you are losing those years. 

In Financial Freedom 2, you'll learn the nuts and bolts of aiming for 6% after inflation (8-9% nominal). Module 4 covers topics including:

• eliminating debt
• buying real estate
• setting up brokerage accounts
• choosing stocks + bonds
• using retirement accounts
• the debate about socially responsible investing
• choosing investment advisors
• Managing risk and return.

We'll also cover important other topics like avoiding the heavy drag of fees by putting your money into "passive investing" and recognizing the often dirty, underhanded tactics of the financial industry which makes money from people's ignorance or lack of self-determination.

Module 5: Creating More Offense

Again, the only way to increase your savings rate is to widen the spread between your annual income and your annual consumption. For most people, creating more annual income is the greatest opportunity, more than cutting housing, transportation, or grocery costs. Making your labor more valuable has the effect of reaching financial freedom faster and giving you more of your life hours back, critical with a future of increasing job instability and change. You think about how you can create more income each year, gaining an increased sense of self while decreasing stress and worry about your finances. We will discuss

• How to make your life hours valuable to others
• The problems with Do What You Love
• Attitudes, skills, and behaviors you have that can be turned into income while being fulfilling and enriching.
• Negotiating, i.e. being paid what you're worth
• Understanding your money setpoint (i.e. your money script about how much is fair for your to earn) and moving it up 

Module 6: Behavioral Economics

Why do seemingly rational people make irrational financial decisions? What triggers the impulse to ignore common sense and act against our self-interest?  The emerging field of behavioral economics studies the predictably irrational financial behavior.  We’ll examine how people fall into common patterns of thinking in how we spend, save, borrow, invest, and waste money.  We’ll also talk about how our family histories play into how we understand and value money. 

• Framing and mental accounting are negatively impacting your life.
• Recognizing status quo bias and statistical illiteracy and improving your decision making.
• How to overcome the extremely powerful habits of anchoring, confirmation bias, and male overconfidence.     
• Understanding family histories and the emotional content of money.  
• Life dissatisfaction and the Paradox of Choice 
• Neurobiology of consumption: how companies take advantage of your domamine and seratonin response

Douglas is building this course out along with this first cohort. You'll be part of it, meaning your questions will build the curriculum. Because of that, there's a money-back guarantee to this course. If you don't think you got value, we will refund your money. Consider it a no-risk opportunity to improve your financial literacy. 

Douglas Tsoi, the founder of PUGS, was your instructor for Financial Freedom 1, so you know him. If you liked that course, you'll likely enjoy continuing to learn from him in this one.