Editorial Standards & Methodology

1. Source hierarchy

We prioritize sources in roughly this order:

1. Primary government and regulatory data: the Federal Reserve (FRED), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), SEC, IRS, Social Security Administration, FDIC, and Census Bureau.
2. Peer-reviewed academic research from finance and economics journals.
3. Research from reputable asset managers (Vanguard, Morningstar, BlackRock) when their methodology is public and reproducible.
4. Textbooks and reference works for foundational math and definitions.

We do not cite other personal-finance blogs, social-media posts, or AI-generated summaries as primary sources. We do not pay for placements, and we do not accept sponsored or guest content disguised as editorial work.

2. Calculations

Every calculator implements a documented financial formula (compound interest, future value of an annuity, the Rule of 72/114, etc.). The formula is named on the page where it appears. Our calculators are spot-checked against the SEC's official compound-interest calculator and against published reference tables before release and after any change.

All projections are deterministic, not stochastic — they assume a fixed return rate, not a Monte Carlo distribution. This is intentional: our goal is to give readers an intuition for how a fixed rate compounds, not to forecast actual outcomes. Real markets are volatile, and any single-number projection is a simplification.

3. Review and publication

Every article is drafted by one editor, fact-checked against the cited sources by a second editor, and reviewed for clarity by a third pass. Numbers, dates, and direct quotes are verified independently. Calculations in worked examples are reproduced from scratch by the fact-checker.

Publishing dates appear on every article. When we substantively revise an article, we add an "Updated" date and note the change in the body where appropriate.

4. Corrections policy

If we get something wrong, we fix it openly. Substantive corrections — a math error, a misquoted statistic, an out-of-date figure — are noted at the bottom of the corrected article with the date and a short description of what changed. Typographical fixes are made silently.

To report a correction, email contact@fundgrowthx.com or use our contact form. We respond to every correction request.

5. Conflicts of interest

GrowthLab is supported by display advertising (currently Google AdSense). Ad placement decisions are made independently of editorial decisions; advertisers do not see or approve content before publication. We do not currently participate in affiliate programs, and we do not earn commission on any financial product mentioned on the site.

If we ever add affiliate links, sponsored content, or any other form of paid placement, they will be clearly disclosed at the point they appear, in line with the FTC's endorsement guidelines.

6. AI usage disclosure

We use AI assistants as drafting and copy-editing tools, in the same way a writer might use a spell-checker or a research assistant. All published content is reviewed and edited by humans, and no source citation, calculation, or factual claim appears on the site unless a human editor has verified it against the primary source. We do not publish raw AI output.

7. What we don't do

• We do not provide personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.
• We do not recommend individual stocks, funds, brokerages, or insurance products.
• We do not publish "best of" listicles, sponsored rankings, or pay-to-play reviews.
• We do not auto-generate or scrape content from other sites.