Why This Site Exists

Let me be clear about something: I am not a financial advisor, accountant, or lawyer. I have no formal training in finance. What I do have is a methodical approach to research (thanks, programming background), access to the same publicly available information everyone else has, and firsthand experience with the confusion that financial systems create for regular people.

The financial industry has an incentive to be confusing. Banks profit from fees that catch you off guard. The tax code's complexity supports an entire industry of preparers. Insurance products are deliberately hard to compare. When things are confusing, institutions win and consumers lose.

I write because I think most financial information for regular people should be free and plainly stated. The IRS website actually explains tax obligations pretty well — if you know where to look and can parse government writing. Banking regulations are publicly available but scattered across dozens of agencies. Tipping norms are genuinely unwritten, existing only in collective cultural knowledge.

My job is to pull that information together, verify it against authoritative sources, filter it through my own experience, and present it in language that doesn't require a finance degree to understand.

What I Don't Do

I don't give personalized advice. I can explain how tax brackets work, but I can't tell you how to minimize your specific tax burden — that requires knowing your situation in detail, and honestly, that's what professionals are for.

I don't accept sponsored content. There are no affiliate links on this site. When I recommend consulting a CPA or linking to a government resource, it's because that's genuinely useful, not because I'm getting paid for referrals.

I don't pretend to be comprehensive. Finance is vast. I focus on areas where I see common confusion and where I've personally had to figure things out. If a topic isn't covered here, it's either outside my experience or I haven't gotten to it yet.

My Research Process

Every article on this site follows a similar process:

  1. I encounter something confusing or make a mistake related to money
  2. I research the topic obsessively until I understand it
  3. I verify information against primary sources (IRS publications, FDIC guidelines, actual legislation)
  4. I talk to people who deal with these issues professionally when I can
  5. I write it up in language I wish someone had used when explaining it to me
  6. I update articles when regulations change or I learn something new

You'll notice most articles include external links to official sources. That's intentional. I want you to be able to verify what I'm saying. If I've misunderstood something, those primary sources should help you find the truth.

Get In Touch

I genuinely enjoy hearing from readers. If you've found an error, have a question I haven't covered, or just want to share your own financial learning experience, drop me a message. I read everything, though I can't always respond individually.

Thanks for reading. I hope this site saves you some of the expensive lessons I had to learn the hard way.

— Marcus