One rate decision moves your mortgage, your savings and a billion-dollar buyout.
Finance Bootcamp is a free course that explains how money really works, from the Bank of Canada to banks, funds, insurance and private equity. Plain language, Canadian examples, and tools you can play with.
Start with the machine. Then see who runs each part of it.
The first four lessons build the foundation every part of finance sits on. The sector lessons then go inside each kind of firm, each with a page on how the work actually gets done.
Foundations
- Lesson 1The financial systemEvery kind of firm, how each makes money, and who works where.
- Lesson 2How money worksSupply and demand, inflation, interest rates, bonds and loans.
- Lesson 3Reading a companyThe three statements, ratios and what a business is worth.
- Lesson 4Markets and investingStocks, portfolios, real estate and commodities.
Sectors
- Lesson 5BankingDeposits, loans, capital, and inside an investment bank.
- Lesson 6FundsThe containers, and everything institutions put inside them.
- Lesson 7Portfolio managementFront, middle and back office, and the life of a trade.
- Lesson 8Wealth managementAdvisors, fees, TFSA vs RRSP and the full plan.
- Lesson 9InsuranceHow risk is priced, the products, and how insurers make money.
- Lesson 10Private equityBuyouts, value creation and how the work gets done.
Every term, explained three ways.
Tap any underlined word in the course and it opens in place: the textbook definition with its formula, an everyday picture you already understand, and what it means for your own money.
Statements become a pizza shop. Buyouts become a rental property with a mortgage. Insurance becomes a cracked phone screen.
The base rate banks lend from. In Canada the big banks set prime at the Bank of Canada's rate plus about 2.2 points, and it moves the same day the Bank does.
Prime ≈ Bank of Canada rate + 2.20%Think of the Bank of Canada as the wholesaler and your bank as the store. Prime is the store's sticker price for money: the wholesale price plus the store's markup.
Your variable mortgage, HELOC and line of credit are priced as prime plus or minus something. When the Bank of Canada moves, your payment changes the same day.
Learn by moving the numbers yourself.
Fourteen interactive tools sit inside the lessons. Change one input and watch what happens, the way analysts and advisors actually think.
- Rate sliderMove the Bank of Canada rate and see mortgages, savings and loans react.Lesson 2
- Bond price seesawWhy rising rates push bond prices down, and by how much.Lesson 2
- DCF calculatorValue a company from its future cash and see what drives the price.Lesson 3
- Asset mix builderMix real asset types and replay 2008 and 2022 against your portfolio.Lesson 4
- Rental property calculatorCap rate, cash-on-cash and the real monthly cost of being a landlord.Lesson 4b
- TFSA vs RRSPWhich account leaves you more after tax, at your rates.Lesson 8
- Insurance poolHow premiums are priced, and why bigger pools are safer.Lesson 9
- LBO playgroundBuy a company with debt and see where the return really comes from.Practice
Written for Canada, not translated from New York.
Most finance courses assume 401(k)s and the Fed. This one uses the accounts, institutions and rules you'll actually meet here.
- Your accounts
- TFSA, RRSP, FHSA and RESP, with this year's limits and a calculator to choose.
- Your institutions
- The Big Six banks, CPP Investments and the Maple 8 pensions, Canadian insurers and asset managers.
- Your rules
- CIRO, OSFI, CDIC coverage and the mortgage stress test.
- The industry's designations
- CIRO exams, CSC, CFA, CFP, LLQP, CPA, IFRS, CAIA, FRM, actuarial (FSA, FCAS, FCIA) and more, and the roles each one leads to.
Ten minutes from now, the news will make more sense.
Start with Lesson 1, the map of who's who in finance. Free, no sign-up.