The Personal Finance Report USA is an independent publication covering money in the United States: budgeting, debt and credit, housing and mortgages, retirement saving, and the finances of running a small business.
What we cover, and why
Most personal finance writing fails in one of two directions. It is either so general that it tells you nothing you did not already know, or it is a thinly disguised advertisement for a product. We try to sit between those: specific enough to be useful, and honest about what we do not know.
The topics we return to are the ones where the stakes are high and the information is genuinely confusing — what closing costs actually cover, how a mortgage escrow account works, why the order you pay debts in changes what you pay, how much of an emergency fund is enough. These are decisions people make a handful of times in a life, with real money attached, and usually without a second opinion.
What we are not
We are a publication, not a financial services firm. Nobody here is a licensed adviser, and nothing on this site is personalised advice. Our Disclaimer sets that out in full, and it is worth reading before you act on anything you find here.
How we work
Our Editorial Process describes how articles are researched, checked and updated, and the standard guest contributors are held to. Where we cite a figure, we try to cite the body that publishes it — the IRS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Small Business Administration — rather than another article quoting it second-hand.
We get things wrong sometimes. When we do, we fix it in public rather than quietly editing the page. Our Corrections Policy explains how, and how to report an error to us.
Our use of AI, stated plainly
A substantial part of this site’s older archive was produced with AI assistance, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Our AI Content Disclosure sets out exactly what that means, what we are doing about it, and what the current standard is for new work. We would rather lose a reader to that disclosure than keep one under a false impression.
Tools
We build calculators for decisions where the arithmetic is the confusing part. They run entirely in your browser, so nothing you type is sent to us or stored anywhere. Currently available: the debt payoff calculator, the emergency fund calculator and the 50/30/20 budget calculator.
How we are funded
We accept guest contributions and sponsored placements under the conditions set out in our Sponsored Content Policy. Anything commercial is labelled on the page it appears on. We do not sell reader data, and we do not let a commercial relationship decide what a review says. The current position on advertising and affiliate links is on the Advertisement Policy and Affiliate Disclosure pages.
Get in touch
Corrections, questions, story tips and contributor pitches all go to [email protected]. More on what to expect is on the Contact page.
