Product evaluations
When we mention a specific product on this site — a high-yield savings account, a brokerage, a credit card, a piece of software — we've evaluated it against a consistent set of criteria for the category. We don't accept manufacturer-supplied marketing data as our basis for these evaluations.
For deposit accounts (savings, money market, CDs)
- Annual percentage yield (APY) at the deposit tier most readers would qualify for
- Fees: monthly maintenance, withdrawal limits, minimum balance penalties
- FDIC or NCUA insurance status and dollar limits
- Access: ATM network, mobile app rating from independent users, customer-service channels
- Length and consistency of competitive APYs (we discount banks that bait-and-switch)
For brokerages and investment platforms
- Trading commissions and other transaction fees
- Expense ratios on the platform's proprietary funds
- Account-level fees (minimums, transfer-out, inactivity)
- Available account types (taxable, IRA, 401(k) rollover, custodial)
- Investment selection: total stock-market funds, international, bonds, target-date
- Tax-loss harvesting and other automated tax features, where applicable
- SIPC insurance status
For credit cards
- Annual fee (and whether the rewards justify it under realistic spending patterns)
- Purchase APR and balance-transfer APR, plus length of any 0% introductory periods
- Rewards structure, expressed in cents-per-dollar after redemption (not advertised “points”)
- Foreign-transaction fees
- Sign-up bonus, expressed as effective return on the spending requirement
- Issuer customer-service track record (CFPB complaint volume relative to portfolio size)
For loans (personal, auto, home, student)
- Annual percentage rate (APR) range, by credit-tier
- Origination fees and prepayment penalties
- Loan term options
- Funding speed
- Hardship-and-deferral options
- Lender regulatory and complaint history
Data sources
The numbers in our articles come from one of these tiers, in order of preference:
- Tier 1 — Government and regulator data. Federal Reserve (FRED), Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI, wage data), Treasury (T-bill yields, I-bond rates), IRS (contribution limits, tax brackets), CFPB (complaint data), FTC (enforcement actions), SEC (filings).
- Tier 2 — Peer-reviewed academic research and major research institutions. NBER, Brookings, Pew Research, Federal Reserve Banks (the SHED report, the Survey of Consumer Finances), academic journals.
- Tier 3 — Established industry research.S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPIVA Scorecard), Morningstar fund-data, Vanguard's research notes, academic-affiliated retirement researchers.
- Tier 4 — Direct disclosures from financial institutions.Used only for sourcing the institution's own product terms, never as evidence about the broader market.
How we build our calculators
Every calculator on this site is built from the standard formulas for its category — compound interest, amortization, percentage-of-income budgeting — and cross-checked against a spreadsheet model and, where one exists, the corresponding tool published by a regulated source. We test edge cases (very large inputs, very small inputs, boundary values) before publishing changes.
The compounding interval and order of operations for each calculator are described in plain English on the calculator's page so readers can see exactly what assumptions are being applied to their numbers.
Calculators are tools for understanding, not for binding financial decisions. Real-world products may use different conventions (daily versus monthly compounding, 360-day versus 365-day year), and your actual results will vary. Use the calculator's output as an order-of-magnitude estimate, not a quote.
What we exclude on principle
We don't cover, recommend, or run advertisements for:
- Multi-level marketing (MLM) and network-marketing programs
- Cryptocurrency “trading bots,” signal services, or speculative tokens
- Forex and binary-options brokers
- Debt-settlement services that charge a percentage of enrolled debt
- Credit-repair companies that promise score increases by disputing accurate information
- Penny stocks, structured products, and other instruments where we believe the typical retail outcome is poor
- For-profit educational institutions with documented patterns of poor student outcomes
Limits of this methodology
We try to be transparent about what we don't know. The financial-products landscape changes constantly, and individual circumstances differ. Our evaluations represent a considered view, not a guarantee. Where we aren't sure, we say so — and we'd rather publish a careful “it depends” than a confident-sounding answer to a question we can't actually answer for everyone.
For more on what our advice can and can't do for your specific situation, see our disclaimer and editorial policy.