THE BARATELLI INSTITUTE · Mentoring at Scale
ROUTE 1 OF 6 · FOR STUDENTS

For high schoolers, college students, and the year after the cap and gown comes off.

The Money Reality series is the financial-literacy track of the Institute — written for the student, not at the student. Compound interest as the most powerful force in finance, the Hidden Balance Sheet of activity-derived intangibles, the Roth as a tax-free lottery, the first apartment, the first paycheck, the first 1099, the credit-card trap. Direct voice. Real math. The lessons travel with you from the locker to the dorm to the first job. Four volumes, $39 to $59 each.

Parents buy this for their kid. Teachers use it as a course supplement. Career-services counselors hand it out. The student reads it themselves and keeps it through the first paycheck.

BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER · A FORK IN THE PATH

If you’re rising-gen at a family enterprise, read this path instead.

The rest of this page is the Money Reality track — financial-literacy from the locker to the first 1099, built for the student who is earning their first paycheck and starting from zero. That is the right path for most students.

It is not the right path for the rising-gen principal of a family that already has the wealth, the operating business, or the family office. The starting position is different: the cash is there, the structures exist, the advisors are already on the call. The work is not how to compound a first $1,000 — the work is stewardship, governance, and family-office mechanics. The urgency is not the first Roth; it is being competent enough to sit at the table the family is already at. The end state is not financial independence; it is custody — keeping intact what was handed to you, and handing it forward.

RISING-GEN STARTER PATH · READ IN THIS ORDER
  1. Wealth Psychology — the shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves problem and how rising-gen principals don’t become the generation that dissolves it.
  2. Family Office Reference Guide — the operating model of the seat you’re inheriting: governance, IPS, treasury, the pack of advisors.
  3. Estate Planning Decoded — the documents and structures the family is already inside, read so you can read your own trust agreement.
  4. Trust Administration — the five fiduciary duties from the beneficiary’s seat, so the conversation with the corporate trustee is not one-sided.
  5. Decide. Act. Now. — the action companion, because reading is not the same as picking up the phone and calling the family-office CEO with a real question.

Arrived here from the international door? The rising-gen door on that page also points at this fork. If your family enterprise is outside the U.S., pair the list above with the international skip-list guidance on the international page — the operating chapters travel; the U.S.-tax overlay does not.

Recommended path.

If you only buy one, buy this. If you buy three, add these. If you buy the full route, here’s the bundle. The compounding starts the day the first book lands.

These are reading paths, not bundles. Every Guide is sold individually on Gumroad — there is no discount, no package, no “buy three save X.” The dollar totals below simply add up the à-la-carte prices for the practitioner who follows the recommended path. Buy one and stop. Or buy the three that match your week. The Library is built to compose on the shelf, not to upsell at checkout.
If you buy one
Money Reality — High School Edition
$39
  • 147 pages · 14 chapters
  • Compound interest, visualized
  • The Hidden Balance Sheet (your 15 activity-derived intangibles)
  • The Roth as a tax-free lottery
Preview the listing → · International edition at $39 for outside the US.
If you buy three
HS + College + First Job
~$157
The series carries the same reader from junior year through the first apartment. One financial vocabulary, four life stages.
The full route
All four volumes (with International)
~$196
  • HS US + HS International + College + First Job
  • The same lessons in every currency, every country
  • + 12 free interactive Money Reality calculators (no signup)
Best for the parent who has kids in multiple stages, or the teacher / career counselor who hands them out across the four-year arc.

Every guide in this route.

Primary first. Each cover links to the listing page, which links to the free chapter extract.

Money Reality HS
Primary · Vol I

Money Reality — High School Edition

14 chapters · $39

Financial literacy written for the student, not at the student. Compound interest, the Hidden Balance Sheet of 15 activity-derived intangibles, nominal vs. real returns, the Roth as a tax-free lottery, sales-as-skill, the rejection cascade.

View the listing →
Money Reality HS International
Primary · Vol I (International)

Money Reality — High School (International)

14 chapters · $39

Same architecture, rebuilt to travel. Every currency, every country. Tax-advantaged-savings as the universal mechanism. The intangibles framework, the compounding tables, and the rejection-cascade chapter apply on every continent.

View the listing →
Money Reality College
Primary · Vol II

Money Reality — College Edition

$59

The college student living the financial reality the HS edition warned about. First apartment, first real paycheck, first 1099, the Hidden Balance Sheet of campus activities and alumni networks, the no-parental-health-insurance pathway, the Roth maxed at 19.

View the listing →
Money Reality First Job
Primary · Vol III

Money Reality — First Job Edition

$59

The year after secondary school for both paths — recent college grad and recent HS grad who went straight to work. First salaried paycheck, first 1099, first health insurance, first credit card, first compounding. Different starting points, same compounding battle.

View the listing →
Decide. Act. Now.
Secondary · Companion

Decide. Act. Now. (DAN)

In editorial · The friction-removal companion to Money Reality

The companion volume on the action gap — the chapter you read between "I get it" and "I did it." Built for the student who has read the book but hasn’t opened the Roth, hasn’t set up the 401(k), hasn’t signed the apartment lease. Forthcoming.

See the DAN listing →

Free Money Reality calculators — the same math the guides teach.

No signup. Runs in the browser. Designed for a 16-year-old to use without help.

Compound Interest, VisualizedThe most powerful force in finance. Hidden Balance SheetInventory your activity-derived intangibles. Roth as Tax-Free LotteryEarned income now → tax-free at 65. First Apartment BudgetSalary → net → rent verdict. Student Loan AmortizationFederal vs private, IBR/SAVE/PAYE. Credit Card Trap24.99% APR + minimums, visualized. First Paycheck WalkdownGross → FICA → net. 401(k) Match MaximizerThe 50% guaranteed return. Side Hustle / 1099 EstimatorSE tax + quarterly estimates. Emergency Fund BuilderTarget by income stability. College vs Trade NPVBoth paths, by the numbers. Job Offer Comparator3 offers on total comp + COL.

All 12 plus more on the filtered tool catalog →

Not for you?

Different door, same library. Pick the route that matches where you are right now.

Route 2
Working Adult
20s-30s, salaried, first 401(k), first wealth.
Route 3
Wealth Builder
Self-employed, business owner, founder.
Route 4
Family Office
$5M+ NW principals and the pack serving them.
Route 5
Specialist Practitioner
PE, CFO, CPA, attorney, RIA. The desk reference.