Mouse Money
The money side
of Disney.
Plan a trip that fits your budget. Understand the business behind the magic. Learn how investing works, starting with a company you know.
By Katherine, former journalist and investment banker, Wharton MBA, and lifelong Disney fan.
Start here
Three ways in.
Plan your trip
Plan a trip you can afford.
Know the total. Compare the tradeoffs. Decide what is worth paying for.
Budget dashboard, planner and the AI courseDisney business
Understand Disney's business.
What prices, parks, films and earnings reveal about the company behind the castle.
Reporting on SubstackLearn about investing
Learn how investing works.
Shares, earnings, valuation and risk, taught with a company you already know.
Finance 101, opening soon01 · Plan your trip
Know the total before you book anything.
The free Disney Budget Dashboard prices a Walt Disney World trip line by line, then follows the money all the way to the trip.
- Answer a few questions. The budget fills itself in with suggested prices for resorts, tickets, Lightning Lanes, meals and airport rides.
- Replace each suggested price with your real quote as you book.
- Log what you pay. The dashboard shows what is left, how far under your limit you are and the days until the trip.
- The savings plan shows what to set aside to cover the rest.
AI trip planner
Mouse Money Planner
Tell it about your trip in a sentence. It prices your dates step by step, tickets to hotels to dining and Lightning Lanes, and keeps the total in front of you so the budget is a decision rather than a surprise.
- Prices updated every Monday
- Live waits and park hours
- Start free. $3.99 a month unlocks the full plan.
Free guide · AI prompts
Plan your Disney trip with AI.
20 copy-and-paste prompts for ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, in the order you book: budget, hotel, tickets, dining, Lightning Lanes and the final check. Each one makes the AI show its sources.
New course · Waitlist open
Using AI to Plan Your Disney Trip.
Plan a Walt Disney World trip with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, from the first budget to a working trip dashboard that keeps every price, booking and deadline in one place.
You are on the list. We will email you when the course opens.
02 · Fund the trip · Money for Mickey
Earn the trip between five and nine.
A Disney vacation is the first big purchase many families save for. Money for Mickey matches you to side income that fits your skills and your hours, with the trip as the goal and a real budget as the finish line. Practical, numbers first, no hustle talk.
You are on the list. We will email you when it opens.
What you will work through
- Which 5-to-9 income fits your skills and your hours
- Pricing your time so the math actually closes
- A twelve-month plan from first dollar to booked trip
03 · Disney business
The business behind the magic.
Every purchase has two sides: what it means for the guest, and what it means for Disney. Each piece opens with the thesis, states what the Street thinks before it says what we think, and names the data release that would prove us wrong.
November 9, 2026
More Hasn't Meant More for Disney's Movies
When Disney's animators made one film a year, they made hits that are still paying 35 years later.
October 29, 2026
Everyone Is Talking About Disney Debt. Disney Isn't.
A quarter of Disney-goers say they have borrowed for a trip, an average of $1,690.
October 16, 2026
Disney Raised the Annual Pass Again. Has It Gone Too Far?
A $100 pass in 1982 now costs $1,749, about five times as much after inflation.
Paid subscribers
The deep dives, the models, the archive.
Numbered exhibits, the financial models behind them, and every figure we have published with its date and source.
04 · Learn about investing · Finance 101
The stock market, taught on one company you already know.
My grandfather bought me Disney stock when I was born. It paid for my education. Finance 101 teaches how the market works using the company everyone recognizes: what a share is, how to read an annual report, what moves a price, and how to start owning something instead of only buying things.
Finance 101 Opening soon
Self-paced. Video lessons, a worksheet per lesson, and a reading list of the filings used in class.
You are on the list. We will email you when it opens.
Education, not investment advice. Mouse Money does not recommend buying or selling any security.
05 · About
Katherine.
Former journalist and investment banker, with bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and The Washington Post. Disney guest since 1982, more than 30 trips and counting.
Mouse Money began as the question I kept answering for friends: is it worth it? Answering it properly meant opening the filings, so Mouse Money explains both sides of the same transaction: what a purchase means for your trip, and what it means for Disney. The budget tools, the planner, the courses and the Substack all grew out of that question.
- Finance
- 12 years, including investment banking
- Bylines
- The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post
- Education
- Wharton MBA
- Investing
- Early-stage investor
- First trip
- Walt Disney World, 1982
The newsletter
What Disney costs, how Disney makes money, and what it means for you.
A free post every week, sourced and dated, plus a Note every day. Paid subscribers get the deep dives, the financial models behind them and the full archive.
Choose the free plan on the next page. Unsubscribe any time.
A separate path · For accredited investors
1923 Ventures
Access to the early-stage technology that fuels the magic.
Ticketing, queues, hospitality, payments, guest data and the production tools behind the films. The companies we love are rebuilding all of it, and most of the businesses doing the work are young and private. 1923 Ventures is a separate venture business for accredited investors who love the parks and want a seat at that table.
For informational purposes only. This is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security. Any offering will be made only to verified accredited investors through definitive offering documents.