Our Methodology
How we research, calculate, verify, and maintain every piece of content on DigitalWealthSource — including our sources, update schedule, and correction policy.
Content Can Be Dangerous When Wrong
Personal finance falls into Google's "Your Money or Your Life" category — content that can directly affect someone's financial security. A miscalculated tax estimate, an outdated contribution limit or a misread IRS rule can cost readers real money.
So this page describes what we actually do — the checks that run, the sources we use and the limits of what we can promise — rather than what a finance site is supposed to say.
One Accountable Editor, No Invented Experts
DigitalWealthSource is written and reviewed by its founder, Derek Giordano, working from primary sources. We do not currently have a credentialed reviewer (a CPA, CFP® professional or enrolled agent). If one joins, we will name them, with credentials you can verify. We never attribute content to experts who didn't review it, and we don't publish results from surveys we didn't run.
How Our Figures Are Checked
Every federal figure our calculators compute with — tax brackets, standard deductions, contribution limits, Social Security and Medicare amounts, mileage rates and more — lives in one registry. Each entry records its value by tax year, the primary source it came from (the IRS, SSA, CMS or the statute itself on Congress.gov) and the date it was last checked against that source.
In September 2026 this process found and corrected more than 400 outdated figure mentions across about 90 pages, from contribution limits to repealed credits.
Primary Sources
We cite primary sources wherever we can — government agencies, the statute itself and original research. When a page relies on a secondary source, we name it so you can judge it yourself.
How We Build and Test Calculators
Standard Calculator Assumptions (2026)
When Content Gets Updated
| Content Type | When It Changes | What Enforces It |
|---|---|---|
| Federal tax brackets, deductions and limits | When the IRS publishes (October–November; HSA limits in May) | The release-calendar gate fails until the registry is updated |
| Social Security and Medicare amounts | When SSA (October) and CMS (November) publish | Release-calendar gate |
| Mileage rates | When the IRS announces them — usually December, occasionally mid-year | Release-calendar gate |
| Policy-dependent pages (student loans, health coverage, new deductions) | When the policy changes | Re-verified before each update and dated on the page |
| Other guides and articles | In scheduled refresh passes | Superseded-figure scan on every release |
| Interest and mortgage rates | Not published | Tools ask you for the rate instead |
Corrections Policy
We get things wrong sometimes. When we find an error — or a reader tells us about one — we fix it and update the page's "Updated" date. High-impact errors (calculator math, contribution limits, legal rules) are fixed first. Because figures flow from one registry, a corrected number updates every tool that uses it, and the superseded-figure scan keeps the old number from creeping back.
To report an error or an outdated figure, please use our contact page. Reader corrections are among the most useful things we receive.
No Ads, No Affiliates, No Sponsored Content
- No advertising. There are no ads on DigitalWealthSource.
- No affiliate links or referral fees. We don't earn money when you open an account, buy a product or click a link.
- No paid coverage. Nobody can pay to be mentioned, ranked or reviewed.
- No product sales. We are not licensed to sell insurance, investments or financial products, and we don't.
- Education, not advice. Our content explains how things work and shows the math. It isn't personalized financial, tax or legal advice — for decisions with real stakes, talk to a qualified professional.