Editorial policy

This page describes how The Budget Compass decides what to publish, how we verify it, and what commercial relationships do and do not exist. It is written to be checkable: if we ever depart from it, you should be able to point at the paragraph.

#Independence

Advertising is separate from editorial. The site is free to read and funded by display advertising served programmatically by third-party ad networks. We do not know in advance which advertisers will appear on any given page, advertisers cannot request coverage, and no advertiser has ever been shown a guide before publication. Nothing about the placement, quantity or existence of ads is allowed to influence a guide's conclusions.

No affiliate revenue. We do not use affiliate links, referral links, tracked outbound links or any arrangement that pays us when a reader opens an account, applies for a card or buys a product. This is the single largest source of distorted incentives in personal finance publishing and we have removed it entirely rather than tried to manage it.

No sponsored or paid content. We do not publish sponsored posts, paid guest posts, paid link insertions, or "partner content". We decline requests to add links to existing guides in exchange for payment. If you are contacting us to buy a link, the answer is no.

No products of our own. We do not sell courses, coaching, memberships, templates, books or software, and we do not collect email addresses to market anything later.

#What we publish

We publish general financial education for a United States audience: explanations of how a system works, what the rules currently are, what the arithmetic implies, and what the common trade-offs are. Guides are long because the useful version of most of these topics is long — the short version is where the misleading simplifications live.

We do not publish:

• Personalized recommendations, or anything framed as advice for a specific reader.
• Predictions about markets, interest rates, home prices or the economy.
• Specific security recommendations — no "buy this fund", no ticker picks.
• Claims about income, returns or outcomes that we cannot support with a cited source.
• Content on speculative or high-risk trading strategies.
• Anything that requires a license we do not hold.

#How a guide is made

1. Scoping. We define the question a reader is actually asking and identify what they need to know to decide, rather than what is easiest to write.
2. Primary source research. We work from the original document wherever one exists — the statute, the agency guidance, the official data release — rather than from secondary coverage. See how we research.
3. Drafting. Written in plain English. Jargon is defined at first use. Every numerical claim is either shown in full or reproducible from figures on the page.
4. Numerical check. Worked examples are recomputed independently. Calculator outputs are tested against hand calculations at several input values.
5. Source verification. Every citation is opened and confirmed to say what the guide says it says, and every figure is traced to its source.
6. Advice check. A final read specifically for language that could be read as personalized advice, guaranteed outcomes, or pressure to act.

#Accuracy, dates and updates

Every guide carries a visible "last updated" date. Personal finance is unusually time-sensitive: contribution limits, tax brackets, benefit amounts and deposit rates change on a schedule, and rules change with legislation. Figures stated on this site were accurate to the cited source at the time of the last update. Before acting on any specific number, confirm it against the primary source we link to.

Where a figure is expected to change annually, we say so in the text and name the body that publishes the update, so the guide remains useful even when a number goes stale.

#Corrections

We correct errors of fact promptly and transparently. Our corrections policy explains how to report one and how we handle it.

#Reader data

We do not ask for, collect or store personal information. There is no account, no newsletter, no comment system and no contact form that transmits to us — the contact page gives an email address instead. Our calculators run entirely in your browser and transmit nothing. Third-party advertising and hosting do involve data processing that is outside our control; this is set out in full in our privacy policy and cookie policy.

#Use of AI tools

We use software tools, including AI-assisted drafting and research tools, as part of the production process. No guide is published on the basis of AI output alone. Every factual claim, figure and citation in a published guide has been checked by a human editor against the primary source, and the editorial team is responsible for everything that appears on the site. Where a tool could not be verified against a source, the claim is removed rather than published with a hedge.