It’s your money.
Own it.
Finance 101 teaches how finance and capital markets actually work — the system you are operating in, not a list of vocabulary to memorize.
Most of us make money decisions for decades without ever being taught how finance works.
Litmus exists to change that: the information, the knowledge and the organizational tools to manage your financial life — and to understand the system you are operating in.
Concepts and intuition over jargon
The emphasis is on how the system works and why, not on memorizing financial vocabulary.
Enough math, and no more
There will be a little math, because this is finance. If you are comfortable with basic algebra, fractions, decimals and exponents, you have what you need.
Ten questions close every module
Each module ends with ten multiple-choice understanding questions, so you know you are absorbing the content before you move on.
The Finance 101 Bootcamp
Six modules covering the basic building blocks of finance, in the order they build on one another.
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01
Money and cash flow
Begins with the time value of money: why a dollar today is generally worth more than a dollar in the future, and the interest rate that connects the two.
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02
Stocks and bonds
What each instrument is, who issues it, and what the holder actually owns.
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03
Pooled investments such as mutual funds
How many investors’ money is combined and managed as one, and what that costs.
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04
Valuation
How to put a number on a stream of future cash flows.
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05
Risk
What can go wrong, how it is measured, and why diversification matters.
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06
Return
What you actually earned, how to measure it, and how it relates to the risk you took.
Module 1’s description follows the Preamble. The one-line descriptions for Modules 2 through 6 are placeholder copy until Kit supplies the outlines.
Then go deeper.
The Advanced Course adds five modules that go deeper into alternatives and derivatives, the financial-industry players, government involvement and the global capital-market context.
Included in the Bootcamp + Advanced plan.
- IAlternatives and derivatives
- IIThe financial-industry players
- IIIGovernment involvement
- IVThe global capital-market context
Four areas across five modules. Module titles to follow.
Finance 101 as an employee benefit.
Litmus already works with business owners one-on-one. The Bootcamp lets you extend that to the people who work for you: the same six modules, at their own pace, paid for by the company rather than out of pocket.
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01
Financially comfortable, never taught finance
Money, markets, risk and return, explained as a system rather than a vocabulary list. No prior finance background assumed.
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02
Self-paced, in order
Each person works through the six modules on their own schedule. Ten understanding questions close each one.
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03
The company pays, not the employee
One sponsorship covers the cohort. Nobody on your team pays out of pocket, and nobody is asked to buy anything.
Sponsor a cohort
Tell us the size of your team and when you would like to start. We will come back with a plan and a price.
Talk to us about a cohortHow it works
One account, one payment or an employer sponsorship, and a set of modules that unlock in order.
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1
Create an account
One login. Your progress is saved as you go.
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2
Choose your path
The Finance 101 Bootcamp on its own, or Bootcamp + Advanced. Pay once, or join through your employer.
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3
Work through the modules
Modules unlock in order. Ten understanding questions close each one before the next opens.
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4
Finish with the five-pillar lens
Leave with a way to look at your own finances: cash and liquidity, savings, investments, taxes and retirement.
Finance 101 Bootcamp
Price TBD one-time
- The Preamble and all six modules
- Ten understanding questions per module
- Modules unlock in order
Bootcamp + Advanced Course
Price TBD one-time
- Everything in the Bootcamp
- Five advanced modules
- Alternatives, the industry, government, global markets
Paying through your employer? See For employers.
When you want it personal, Litmus works with you one-on-one.
The Bootcamp is financial education. It is not an individualized financial health assessment or personalized financial advice. Litmus is happy to make it personal for you if you become a client.
- 01Cash and liquidity
- 02Savings
- 03Investments
- 04Taxes
- 05Retirement
An assessment across the five pillars of financial health, with specific action steps you can take to improve them.
The people behind Litmus
A financial education and wellness company, co-founded by its President and its CEO.
Kit Boyatt
President, co-founder
More than 35 years in capital markets and investing. Kit built the Finance 101 Bootcamp around a conviction he kept arriving at: too many people are asked to make important financial decisions without ever being taught how finance and capital markets actually work.
Irene Chow
CEO, co-founder
Irene runs Litmus day to day and leads the one-on-one side of the business: the financial-health assessment across the five pillars, and the action steps that follow it. She co-founded Litmus with Kit on the belief that sound finances belong alongside body and mind as part of living well.
Irene’s photograph to come from Litmus; her bio is placeholder copy until she supplies her own.
Finance 101 blog
Short pieces on the ideas the Bootcamp is built on. Three placeholder posts are shown here.
Kit opens every module with a song lyric, mostly the rock ’n’ roll he grew up with.Send him one from your own music, or post it to the blog.