How we write, review, and stand behind every lesson.

Who writes the lessons

Every lesson on ClearMoneySchool is written by Joseph Citizen — a one-person editorial operation. There's no team of finance writers, no AI content farm, no outsourced contractors. That's both the weakness (slower output) and the strength (consistent voice and accountability).

Joseph has a BBA in Finance from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi and is completing an iMBA at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business. None of that makes him a registered financial advisor — and the site is deliberately structured so it never needs to be.

The writing process

Each lesson follows the same five-step process:

1. Topic selection. Lesson topics come from three sources: gaps in basic financial literacy, reader questions submitted via the Q&A form, and recurring patterns in market news that everyday people are trying to understand.
2. First draft. Each lesson is drafted in plain English first, before any technical research, with the goal of explaining the concept the way you'd explain it to a smart friend who works in a different field.
3. Fact-checking against primary sources. Specific numbers, rules, and definitions are checked against authoritative primary sources (see "Sources we use" below). When sources conflict, the more conservative reading wins.
4. Plain-English review. Drafts are re-read specifically to remove jargon, replace technical terms with everyday language where possible, and add concrete examples with real numbers.
5. Disclaimer review. Every lesson is checked to ensure it provides general education only, never personalized investment, tax, or legal advice for any specific reader.

Sources we use

When we cite specific facts, rules, or numbers, we rely on these types of sources, in roughly this order of preference:

• Government and regulatory sources: IRS, SEC, FINRA, FDIC, NCUA, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Academic finance research: Peer-reviewed papers from finance and economics journals; published research from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve banks
• Established financial reference works: The CFA Institute body of knowledge, primary textbooks like Bogle on index investing, Bernstein on asset allocation, Damodaran on valuation
• Verified market data: S&P, MSCI, Morningstar, and other widely-cited data providers — used for historical performance numbers
• Reputable financial journalism: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Reuters — for current events context, with the original primary source verified when possible

We do not use anonymous blog posts, personal-finance influencer content, or any source whose business model is selling financial products. We don't think those sources are necessarily wrong — we just don't think they belong in our citation chain.

What we will not do

These are firm lines. Crossing any of them would change what ClearMoneySchool is, so we don't.

• We will not give personalized investment advice. Even if we could (legally we can't), it wouldn't be appropriate without knowing your full financial picture.
• We will not recommend specific securities, brokerages, or financial products. Generic categories ("a low-cost index fund") are fine. Specific tickers and brand names are not.
• We will not take affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or kickbacks. The minute you take money to recommend a product, your content quietly tilts toward that product. We don't take that money.
• We will not link bank accounts or store financial data. We don't want it. The fewer ways we touch your actual finances, the more honestly we can teach you about them.
• We will not let AI publish without human review. AI tools may help with brainstorming, outlines, formatting, or finding sources to verify — but every lesson is reviewed, edited, and approved by a human before it goes live. No unedited AI output ever publishes here.

What we'll fix when we get it wrong

We will get things wrong. When we do, here's how we handle it:

• Factual errors get corrected as soon as they're identified, with a note about the change at the bottom of the affected lesson.
• Outdated information (tax limits change, rules update) gets updated each year, generally in January after the new IRS limits are published.
• Reader-spotted issues are taken seriously. If you find something wrong, please tell us. We respond personally, and credible corrections usually happen within a week.

What this site is not

ClearMoneySchool is not:

• A registered investment adviser (RIA), broker-dealer, or financial planning firm
• A licensed accountant, CPA, or tax preparation service
• A licensed attorney or legal advice service
• An insurance broker or licensed insurance agent
• A platform for trading, investing, or holding financial products

For any decision involving real money, real taxes, or real legal consequences, consult a licensed professional whose job is your specific situation. ClearMoneySchool exists to help you understand enough to ask better questions of those professionals.

How to verify what we say

Don't take our word for it. We deliberately use specific examples with real numbers so you can verify them yourself. If we say a contribution limit is $7,000, you should be able to look that up at IRS.gov in 30 seconds. If we say long-term capital gains rates are 0%, 15%, or 20% federal, the IRS publishes the brackets publicly.

The point of plain-English finance education isn't to replace authoritative sources. It's to make you a better reader of them.

Last updated: April 2026. This page is a living document. As ClearMoneySchool grows and our process evolves, this page will be updated to reflect what's actually true about how lessons get made.