Course Index

Reading Financial Statements to See the Truth About Money

Twenty short lessons that teach you to read a real company's income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement — grounded in real, audited numbers from Safaricom PLC and Equity Group Holdings PLC — so you can judge for yourself whether a share price matches the company's actual financial position.

How to use this course

Work through the lessons in order — each one builds on the last. Every lesson is short by design (10-15 minutes). If anything is unclear, ask your teacher rather than pushing ahead confused — that's what these sessions are for.

Lessons

  1. The Three Statements, and Your First Real Read
  2. The Balance Sheet: What Safaricom Owns and Owes
  3. Connecting the Statements: Where Does Profit Go?
  4. The Cash Flow Statement: Does Profit Mean Cash?
  5. Free Cash Flow: What's Left After Keeping the Lights On
  6. Reading a Bank Is Different: Meet Equity Group
  7. Equity Group's Income Statement: Net Interest Income Explained
  8. Equity Group's Balance Sheet: Deposits, Loans, and Solvency
  9. Profitability Ratios Part 1: Margins
  10. Profitability Ratios Part 2: Return on Equity (ROE)
  11. Liquidity and Solvency: Can the Company Pay Its Bills?
  12. Debt-to-Equity in Practice: Safaricom vs Equity Group
  13. Growth That Isn't Real: Revenue vs Cash vs Inflation
  14. The Red-Flag Checklist
  15. What Is EPS, Really?
  16. The P/E Ratio: Price vs Earnings
  17. Dividend Yield: Getting Paid to Wait
  18. Putting a Company Under the Microscope: Full Walkthrough on Safaricom
  19. Putting a Company Under the Microscope: Full Walkthrough on Equity Group
  20. Your Investment Decision Framework

Reference documents

Quick-reference cards, distilled from the lessons above. Come back to these whenever you need a fast lookup instead of re-reading a full lesson.

Something unclear, or want to go deeper on a specific lesson? Ask your teacher — that's what these sessions are for.