Sources and references

How to read this page

The lessons, calculators and fraud guides are original explanations written by the author. They were not copied from the works below. These are the standard textbooks, standards, official bodies and scholarly works that the topics rest on, so that you can read further and so that a reviewer can check our statements.

Worked examples use invented numbers (in rupees) and are checked arithmetic, not data from any person or product. Tax, legal and regulatory facts are examples and must be confirmed with the official source for your country.

Publication details were assembled from the author's knowledge of standard references and have not all been verified against a library catalogue. Please check details before citing, and tell us about any error on the feedback page.

Drafting transparency: parts of the text were drafted with an AI writing assistant (Claude, by Anthropic) and then reviewed and edited by the author. The author is responsible for the content.

General reference sources

Indian regulators and public bodies

Primary sources for rules in India.

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI): Central bank: banking rules, payments, consumer education.
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI): Securities regulator: investor education and investor protection.
• Income Tax Department: Tax rules, forms and filing.
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI): Insurance regulator.
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs: Company law and filings.
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI): UPI and other payment systems.
• National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE): Public financial-education material.
• National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM): Securities-market education and certification.
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI): Accounting profession and standards.

International bodies

Cross-country data and standards.

• International Monetary Fund (IMF): Economic data and explainers.
• World Bank: Development data and financial-inclusion research.
• OECD: Tax and economic statistics, financial-literacy research.
• Bank for International Settlements (BIS): Central-bank and payments research.
• IFRS Foundation: International accounting standards.

Other governments' consumer-finance sites

Useful for comparison.

• MoneyHelper (UK): Government-backed money guidance.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (US): Consumer finance guides.
• MoneySmart (Australia): Government money guidance.

Universities and open courses

Free, openly available teaching material.

• MIT OpenCourseWare: Free course materials, including economics and finance.
• NPTEL (IITs and IISc): Free Indian university-level courses.

General reference

Good for orientation and finding primary sources. Check what an article cites before relying on it.

• Wikipedia: Background articles on money, banking, tax and accounting terms. Follow the citations to the primary source.
• Standard textbooks: See the references listed under each lesson (for example Brealey, Myers and Allen; Bodie, Kane and Marcus; Weygandt, Kimmel and Kieso).

Accounting and reporting standards

• IFRS Foundation: IAS 1 (Presentation of Financial Statements) and IAS 7 (Statement of Cash Flows).
• National accounting standard-setters for local rules.

Official bodies used for orientation

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI): Central bank. Consumer education and complaint channel. (India)
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI): Securities regulator. Investor education. (India)
• Income Tax Department: Tax rules, forms and filing. (India)
• MoneyHelper: Free government-backed money and pensions guidance. (United Kingdom)
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Consumer finance guides and complaints. (United States)
• Investor.gov: US securities regulator's investor education. (United States)
• MoneySmart: Government money guidance (ASIC). (Australia)
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Consumer finance information. (Canada)

Fraud reporting channels

• India: Call 1930 (national cyber-crime helpline) and report at cybercrime.gov.in; tell your bank immediately.
• United Kingdom: Action Fraud (report fraud and cyber crime).
• United States: Federal Trade Commission report site.
• Australia: Scamwatch (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission).
• Canada: Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Arthashastra pathway reading list

• Olivelle, Patrick (2013). King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya's Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. A full English translation with introduction.
• Kangle, R. P. (1960 to 1965). The Kautilya Arthasastra, 3 parts. University of Bombay. Critical edition, translation and study.
• Rangarajan, L. N. (1992). Kautilya: The Arthashastra. Penguin Classics. An abridged, rearranged English version.
• Shamasastry, R. (1915). Kautilya's Arthasastra. Mysore. An early English translation, now in the public domain; verify wording against later editions.
• Trautmann, Thomas R. (1971). Kautilya and the Arthasastra: A Statistical Investigation of the Authorship and Evolution of the Text. Brill.
• McClish, Mark (2019). The History of the Arthasastra: Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India. Cambridge University Press.

References by lesson

Money, inflation and interest

• Your country's central bank and statistics office (current inflation and policy-rate data).
• Mishkin, F. S., The Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets (Pearson), chapters on money and interest rates.

Compounding and the time value of money

• Brealey, Myers and Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance (McGraw-Hill), time value of money chapters.
• Bodie, Kane and Marcus, Investments (McGraw-Hill).

Mapping your cash flow

• Mullainathan and Shafir, Scarcity (Times Books, 2013), on how pressure affects financial decisions.
• National consumer finance agencies publish budget worksheets; use ones from your country.

Needs, wants and ABC analysis

• Juran's Pareto principle literature on ABC classification in inventory management.
• Consumer finance agency budgeting guides for your country.

Budgeting with regular and irregular income

• Consumer finance agency budgeting tools in your country.
• Morduch and Schneider, The Financial Diaries (Princeton University Press, 2017), on income volatility in households.

Resilience: buffers and insurance concepts

• Your national insurance regulator's consumer pages.
• Kunreuther, Pauly and McMorrow, Insurance and Behavioral Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Understanding and managing debt

• National consumer finance regulators' debt pages (see Resources).
• World Bank, Financial Consumer Protection: Policy Approaches and Practices, for background on lending conduct.

Risk, return and investing fundamentals

• Investor education pages of securities regulators (see Resources).
• Bogle, J. C., The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (Wiley, 2007), for one widely cited view on costs and diversification; read other views too.

Banking, payments and staying safe from fraud

• Your central bank and consumer protection agency pages on fraud and deposit insurance.
• Stajano and Wilson, 'Understanding scam victims: seven principles for systems security', Communications of the ACM, 2011.

Money markets and the financial system

• Bank for International Settlements and your central bank's pages explaining money markets and monetary policy.
• Fabozzi, F. J., ed., The Handbook of Money Market Instruments (Wiley).

Tax basics and good records

• Your national tax authority's guidance and forms.
• OECD, Taxing Wages and Revenue Statistics, for comparisons across countries.

Bookkeeping and the accounting equation

• IFRS Foundation or your national standard-setter, for accounting standards.
• Weygandt, Kimmel and Kieso, Financial Accounting (Wiley), standard introductory textbook.

Reading the three financial statements

• IAS 1 and IAS 7 (IFRS Foundation) for presentation and cash-flow statements.
• Penman, S. H., Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation (McGraw-Hill).

Small business and self-employment finance

• Your national small-business agency and tax authority guides.
• Berry, T., The Plan-as-You-Go Business Plan (Entrepreneur Press), for planning basics.

Goals and time horizons

• Locke and Latham, 'Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation', American Psychologist, 2002.
• Consumer finance agency goal-planning tools in your country.

Credit reports and credit scores

• Reserve Bank of India, Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 and related directions.
• Your country's consumer finance agency pages on credit reports (see Resources).

Insurance: protecting against large losses

• Your national insurance regulator's consumer pages (in India, IRDAI).
• Kunreuther, H., Pauly, M. and McMorrow, S., Insurance and Behavioral Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Retirement: how much and how soon

• Bengen, W. P. (1994), 'Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data', Journal of Financial Planning 7(4).
• Your country's pension regulator or government pension pages (in India, PFRDA and EPFO).

Money and the mind: habits and biases

• Kahneman, D. (2011), Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979), 'Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk', Econometrica 47(2).
• Thaler, R. and Sunstein, C. (2008), Nudge, Yale University Press.
• Laibson, D. (1997), 'Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting', Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(2).

Reading your payslip

• Your tax authority and social-security body (in India, the Income Tax Department and EPFO).
• Your employment contract and payslip.