If you understand the absolute basics of personal finance and investing, you’ll be more financially literate than the majority of people on Earth. The bar isn’t high. In fact it’s laughably low. If you apply this basic knowledge over a long period of time you’ll build wealth.

Don’t believe me? If you invested $10,000 today into an index ETF that tracked the S&P 500, you’d have $469,016.13 after 50 years if the annualised return was 8%. If you invested $1000 today and then $100 every month, you would have $760,320.91 after 50 years if the annualised return was 8%. Check for yourself.

I realise hypothetical numbers are just that, hypothetical. So I’ve created a public porfolio where you can see the real results. The ups and downs with real money. This is a long term game, so I’m sure that at some points in time this portfolio will be showing negative returns. That’s okay. This is a long term game. It’s not the only way to build wealth, but it is one of the only ways that makes it a near certainty.

Learning the basics of these topics will generate some of the most outsized benefits of anything you could ever learn in your life.

You’re already well on your way if you can explain what the following are:

• Compound interest
• Interest rates
• Cash rates
• Credit
• Shares
• Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)