The book
Most adults are expected to make decisions about loans, cards, mortgages, insurance, pensions and investments that nobody ever taught them to make. The people selling those products were taught.
About this book
In Money, Explained From the Inside, banker A. Allazim explains how financial products really work, from the side of the desk where they are priced, sold and measured. Built around five questions to ask before any money decision, and written for readers anywhere in the world, it shows you how to:
“Clear, evidence-based and free of hype.”
At a glance
Inside the book
The Education Nobody Scheduled
Most adults are expected to make decisions about loans, insurance, pensions and investments that they were never taught to make. This book is the lesson that was never on the timetable.
Every working adult runs a small financial institution. Money arrives, some of it is committed before it lands, some is borrowed against, some is saved, and decisions are made, often in a few minutes at a bank counter or on a phone, that will shape the next twenty years.
Five questions
How long does this last, and what happens to the cost the longer it runs?
What does it really cost, all in, beyond the headline number?
What could go wrong, and who is left holding it if it does?
Who gains if I say yes, and how are they paid?
What else could I do with this money, including nothing?
Chapter 11 · The True Cost of Borrowing
The price of a loan is not the monthly payment. It is the total repaid minus the amount borrowed, plus fees, and it depends on whether the rate is flat or on a reducing balance.
Red Flag
A loan advertised only by its monthly payment.
Ask Before You Sign
Chapter Ledger
Remember
Ask
This week
Ask a lender to give the offer in writing, including the total repayable.
Illustrative case
David earns well and spends nearly all of it. There is a car loan, a card balance that never seems to shrink, and almost nothing set aside. Nothing is going badly wrong, and yet nothing is building. His situation is the clearest picture of the difference between income and wealth.
One month of David’s pay, as the companion models it:
Margin: 4%. A good income, and almost nothing left to build with.
Across the Desk
How it looks from inside the lender
Lenders look at more than pay: they look at how much of it is already spoken for. Two applicants on the same income can look very different once their commitments are counted.
That is why the book asks you to find your own margin before anyone else does.
Five people, five decisions
Do the Math
You borrow $10,000 for 24 months at 6% flat. Interest is charged on the full amount for the whole term:
Payment = (P + P × rate × years) ÷ n
= (10,000 + 10,000 × 6% × 2) ÷ 24 = $466.67
Interest paid: $1,200. But you are repaying the balance down as you go, so the same payment on a normal reducing-balance loan implies:
Equivalent rate11.1%
The picture
Flat interest keeps charging on the full $10,000 while what you actually owe shrinks.
Try It · about 20 minutes
Write each one once: what you owe, the yearly rate, and the minimum. Circle the most expensive.
| Debt | Balance | Rate | Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
Then pay every minimum and send every spare amount to the circled one.
Second Look
A popular belief, tested
“A loan with a low monthly payment is a cheap loan.”
Verdict: Myth
Stretching the term lowers the payment and raises the total cost. Judge a loan by its total cost of credit.
Take it with you
An Insider's Guide to Borrowing, Protecting, Investing and Building Wealth
Prefer to explore first? Try the tools or browse the chapters.
Start with the opening, and the five questions that frame everything.
Read more of the opening →The Chapter Ledger gathers what to remember, what to ask, and what to do this week.
Open the Chapter 11 companion →Ideas land through five ordinary people, and a view from inside the institution.
Explore David’s case, with live numbers →Where a calculation matters, the book works it through and highlights the result.
Run this calculation with your numbers →Short exercises put your own figures on the page, and a popular belief gets tested.
Fill in the debt worksheet →Take it with you, or keep it by the desk where the decisions get made.
Page previews show the book’s recurring formats using this site’s own examples. They are not scans of the printed pages.
The method
How long does this last, and what happens to the cost the longer it runs?
What does it really cost, all in, beyond the headline number?
What could go wrong, and who is left holding it if it does?
Who gains if I say yes, and how are they paid?
What else could I do with this money, including nothing?
Contents
Inside every chapter
Every claim carries a label so you can tell what is solid from what is opinion: established fact, research finding, industry practice, general principle, author’s interpretation, illustrative example. Source notes for each chapter are collected at the back.
A cast member’s situation, so the idea meets a real-feeling life.
A worked calculation with the key result highlighted.
How the same decision looks from inside the institution.
A few countries compared on the same question.
A popular belief tested, with a verdict.
A bias caught in the act.
A stop-and-check warning sign.
Questions for a bank, lender, insurer or adviser.
A 10–45 minute exercise with your own figures.
What to remember, what to ask, what to do this week.
A companion workbook with live formulas accompanies every calculation in the book. Meanwhile, the online tools and the chapter companion let you try the same ideas with your own numbers.
Read the opening
The first lines of the introduction.
Most adults are expected to make decisions about loans, insurance, pensions and investments that they were never taught to make. This book is the lesson that was never on the timetable.
Every working adult runs a small financial institution. Money arrives, some of it is committed before it lands, some is borrowed against, some is saved, and decisions are made, often in a few minutes at a bank counter or on a phone, that will shape the next twenty years.
Enjoyed the opening? See how the book thinks. Checklists, questions and worksheets inspired by the book, for the next time money is on the table. Part of the Reader’s Letter: a few times a year, never more.
Thank you. Your toolkit is ready.
The people in the book
Their situations carry the ideas through every part of the book, and each has a case you can work through here.
Watch the book
A short film about what is happening underneath the numbers: the pitch, the price, the people, and the questions that change the outcome.
Before you buy
Working adults who must make decisions about loans, insurance, pensions and investments without ever having been taught how; people who have lived in more than one financial system; younger adults starting out; and anyone who suspects the product pitch is not on their side.
No. The book starts with the language of money and builds up, with worked examples and a companion for every chapter. It is written for people who were never taught, not for specialists.
No. It is written for readers anywhere in the world. Boxes compare how several countries handle the same question, and examples use US dollars as a neutral unit.
No. It makes no product recommendations and gives no personal advice. It teaches you how products are priced and sold, and five questions to ask before any decision, so you can judge for yourself.
It is written by a banker, from the side of the desk where products are designed, priced and sold. It is evidence-based, labels every claim by how well it is established, and gives source notes chapter by chapter, with no hype.
Paperback (about 300 pages, 6 × 9 in) and ebook, available on Amazon.
Yes. Every calculator, quiz and checklist is free and runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type into a tool is sent anywhere.
A. Allazim has worked as a Relationship Manager with American Express and First Abu Dhabi Bank, after a career in lifestyle management and hospitality, and holds a baccalaureate in economics and the International Certificate in Wealth and Investment Management (ICWIM) from the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Before your next money decision
Read it once for the argument. Come back to it, and to the tools, whenever a bank, an insurer or an adviser puts something in front of you.
Money, Explained From the InsideA. Allazim
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