Editorial Standards
A short, honest description of what's behind every page on CoastFIREWhen — who writes it, where the numbers come from, how often things get reviewed, and what we won't do.
Everything on this site is educational content. The calculators, examples, and case studies illustrate general concepts — they are not recommendations, not personalized financial planning, and not a substitute for a qualified fiduciary advisor. Your situation, tax bracket, state laws, and personal goals are unique. Use the tools to think through scenarios. Don't act on them without professional guidance.
Three kinds of content: calculators that show the underlying math (so you can verify the result yourself), explanatory guides that cover financial concepts in plain English without jargon or marketing fluff, and blog posts that share real numbers, case studies, and lessons from the Coast FIRE community.
We don't do listicles, "top 10" affiliate roundups, sponsored content, or product reviews. The site is supported by display advertising — not by selling your data, not by promoting financial products, and not by affiliate links.
Every page starts as a draft. Drafts are reviewed before publishing. The review pass checks for: factual claims that need a citation, math that should be shown step by step, missing disclaimers near any numbers that could be mistaken for a recommendation, and broken internal links.
Some drafting assistance is used to speed up research and structure. Every page is then reviewed, edited, and approved by the site owner before publishing. Numbers, examples, and recommendations reflect the owner's understanding and judgment — not a third-party source presented uncritically.
Every guide page is reviewed at least annually. The Coast FIRE calculator, the safe withdrawal rate guide, and any page that cites specific tax law or Social Security rules get reviewed when relevant thresholds change — for example, when the IRS updates contribution limits or when the Social Security Administration adjusts bend points. The review date is shown at the top of each page.
If you spot an error, the contact page is the fastest way to flag it. Corrections get made promptly and the review date is updated.
This site displays ads served by Google AdSense. AdSense uses contextual signals to choose which ads to show — it does not use data we collect (we don't collect any beyond what the ad networks themselves collect via standard cookies, as described in the Privacy Policy).
AdSense places ads based on page content. We do not control which specific ads appear, and we do not endorse the products or services advertised. Some ads may be for financial products — those are not recommendations. We don't receive any compensation beyond the standard ad impression payment.
We do not accept paid placements, sponsored posts, or affiliate links. If that ever changes, the change will be disclosed on the affected page.
If we get something wrong, we want to know. Email the address on the contact page with a link to the page and a description of the issue. Significant corrections are noted in the commit history for the site (this site is open source — the repository link is in the footer of each page once we publish it).