You and your money
Needs and wants
A need is something you really need to live healthy, warm and safe and to go to school. A want is nice, but you can do without.
Topics
All topics
Pick a topic. Every topic starts with a question from your life, shows a picture to play with, explains the rule and lets you calculate with real amounts.
17 topics
You and your money
Needs and wants, your budget, saving and interest, borrowing and the real cost of credit, and spotting scams.
- You and your money
Making a budget
With a budget you decide in advance where your money goes: what you spend, what you save and what you give away.
- You and your money
Saving and interest
Money in a savings account earns interest from the bank. With compound interest, the interest itself starts earning too, and that makes a big difference over many years.
- You and your money
Borrowing and credit
Borrowing costs money. The APR puts interest and fees together in one yearly percentage, so you can compare loans fairly.
- You and your money
Spotting scams
Scammers push you to pay fast, tap a link or hand over codes. Learn their red flags and you will be much harder to catch.
Markets and prices
Paying, prices and VAT, discounts and unit prices, supply and demand, the market and competition.
- Markets and prices
Paying: cash, card, app or transfer
You can pay in cash, with a bank card, a payment app or a bank transfer. Each time the money takes a different route, but it is always real money.
- Markets and prices
Prices and VAT
Almost every price contains VAT, a tax for the government. In Belgium it is 6, 12 or 21%, depending on what you buy.
- Markets and prices
Discounts and unit price
You work out a discount as a percentage of the price. With the price per kg or per litre you compare fairly which pack is really cheaper.
- Markets and prices
Supply and demand
Buyers want more when something is cheaper, sellers offer more when it is dearer. Where supply and demand cross, the market price appears.
- Markets and prices
Markets and competition
How many sellers there are on a market helps decide the price. With lots of competition the price falls towards the costs, with one seller it does not.
Work and income
A company with costs, revenue and profit, gross and net on your payslip, and the circular flow of the economy.
- Work and income
A business: revenue, costs and profit
You make a profit when revenue is higher than all your costs. The break-even point tells you how much you need to sell to break even.
- Work and income
Gross and net
From the gross wage in your contract to the net wage in your account: social security contributions and withholding tax come off in between.
- Work and income
The circular flow
Households, firms, the government and banks keep passing money and goods to one another. Every bit of spending becomes someone else's income.
Government and the world
Taxes and what the government does with them, inflation and the index, international trade and sustainable consumption.
- Government and the world
Taxes: paying together for what we share
With taxes and social contributions we pay together for schools, roads, care and pensions. How much, and who pays how much, is something people disagree about.
- Government and the world
Inflation and the index
Inflation means that prices rise on average, so the same money buys less. The index measures that rise, and in Belgium most wages follow it.
- Government and the world
International trade
Countries buy and sell across borders. If each country focuses on what it does relatively best and they trade, there is more for everyone.
- Government and the world
Buying sustainably
The cheapest product is not always the best value. If you count the cost per year or per use, and dare to repair or buy second hand, you save money and things.