Moneydesks

Guides: money, investing and starting a business, in plain English

Everything here is free to read, with no account. The same guides sit inside the app next to the tools they describe.

Learn: money basics in plain English

Bank accounts, CDs, Treasuries, brokerage accounts, the basics of investing and the order to do things in. Written for people starting from zero.

  1. 🇺🇸 Economy words, explained simply (GDP, debt, trade & more)
  2. 🏦 Bank accounts — the basics
  3. 💿 Certificates of Deposit (CDs) & finding the best rates
  4. 🏛 Treasury bills, notes & bonds
  5. 📈 Brokerage & trading accounts
  6. 🎚 Levels of trading (options approval)
  7. 🧠 The basics of investing
  8. 🛡 Securing your financial future — the order of operations
  9. 📚 How people actually make money with this site (what the evidence says)

Starting an export business

From zero to your first sale abroad: the free helpers, the money, the paperwork, and six worked game plans (food, energy, medical, aerospace, machinery).

  1. 🧭 START HERE — from zero to your first sale abroad (the universal path)
  2. 💻 Game plan 1: Software & services — a two-person studio selling to Europe & Australia
  3. 🌾 Game plan 2: Food & farm — a specialty-sauce brand exporting to the UK & Gulf
  4. ⚡ Game plan 3: Energy — refurbished generators & solar kits to West Africa
  5. 💊 Game plan 4: Medical supplies — Class I trading to Gulf & African clinics
  6. ✈️ Game plan 5: Aerospace — surplus parts brokerage for A320/737 operators abroad
  7. 🛠 Game plan 6: Machinery — used CNC & woodworking machines to Latin America
  8. 🛒 Game plan 7: E-commerce — an American outdoor-gear brand sold worldwide from your garage
  9. 💰 How the money works — the financial model of a startup, in plain words
  10. 🧰 Financial tools & software — what to use, where to find it, what it costs
  11. 📣 Marketing campaigns that fit a tiny budget — ideas that actually work
  12. ⚠️ The hard truth: most startups don’t make it — how to be the exception
  13. ❤️ The emotional side — and the money side nobody posts about
  14. ☎️ The complete helper directory — who to call, for what, in one place

Starting a Main Street business

The path every local business walks, then eight game plans: cleaning, food truck, lawn care, detailing, handyman, laundromat, boutique, franchise.

  1. 🧭 START HERE — the path every local business walks
  2. 🧹 Game plan 1: A cleaning business — the honest workhorse
  3. 🚚 Game plan 2: A food truck — the restaurant apprenticeship that pays you
  4. 🌱 Game plan 3: Lawn care — the route is the business
  5. 🚗 Game plan 4: Mobile detailing — craftsmanship at premium prices
  6. 🔧 Game plan 5: Handyman work — small jobs, serious business
  7. 🧺 Game plan 6: Buying a laundromat — cash flow you can inspect before you own it
  8. 🛍️ Game plan 7: A boutique — prove it at markets before you rent a wall
  9. 🏢 Game plan 8: Franchising — renting a proven playbook, at a price
  10. ⛽ Game plan 9: A gas station — pennies at the pump, dollars at the coffee pot
  11. 🚿 Game plan 10: Car washes — real estate that scrubs
  12. 💰 Money on Main Street — the numbers that keep doors open
  13. 📍 Local marketing — being the name a zip code thinks of first
  14. 🤝 The first employee — where a job becomes a business
  15. 📋 Permits and inspections — the map of local law
  16. 🎓 For engineering & STEM graduates — the degree as a founding asset
  17. 🛡 Recession-resistant businesses — what people pay for when they’re scared
  18. 🏆 The Top 35 — America’s most survivable small businesses
  19. ☎️ The local helper directory — who to call, for what