The First Year
Twelve months on your own. No perfect month — only wiser and poorer ones.
The brief
Run your own money for a year. A paycheck lands each month, the rent and bills come due, and life happens. You decide where every leftover dollar goes. It starts easy. By December you'll face a layoff and a dead car in the same week — and only the fund you built in the quiet months will carry you through.
How you play it
Split every paycheck between rent, debt, savings and a life — twelve months, no rewinds.
The job: Your Own Money — The one job on this list nobody applies for and nobody can decline — running your own finances, with no analyst, no committee and no second opinion.
What this chair actually asks of you →What you're judged on
Every decision is marked to market server-side. These are the meters that move — run one to zero and the simulation ends there.
What it tests
No trivia — the simulation only asks what the chair actually has to know.
Where you learn this
The First Year is the finale of Money Basics, waiting past Level 6 — The Paycheck Exam. You can sit down right now and find out how much of it you already know; the course is there for the parts you don't.
Play Money Basics →Other chairs
The Weekend
Sixty-two hours to Tokyo's open. You cannot save everyone — and one of them you cannot lose.
The Structurer
Every note is a bond plus options. Pick the wrong shape and the client finds out at maturity.
The President
Every policy has two halves: what you do, and who pays. The bond market grades the second one.
The Newsroom
One shift on the data desk. Every story is a stats trap in disguise.
Mission Control
No options to pick — do the math, key in the number, bring them home.
The Policy Chair
You are the central bank. One rate, every quarter, a whole economy on the line.
The CFO's Chair
You run the firm's capital. Ten board meetings, one question every time: where does the cash go?
The Pit
You run the book. The tape moves, the Greeks bite, margin is real. Survive the session.
Your Own Worst Enemy
The market can't hurt you. You can. Ten moments, one enemy — the one making the decisions.
The Desk
Run a derivatives desk for one week — it does not stay calm.
Rotation Day
Ten desks, one stack of cards each. Sort them right — and never, ever misfile ethics.
The Expert Witness
Ten regression tables enter evidence. The significant one is usually the trap.
The War Room
The VaR says you're fine. The tail says otherwise. Ten audits — read which one is lying.