How Money Scale gets paid.

What "affiliate" means here

Some links on Money Scale are affiliate links. When you click one of those links and sign up for the product on the partner's site, the partner pays Money Scale a small commission. It doesn't change the price you pay, and it doesn't give us access to any of your account or financial data on the partner's side.

Every affiliate placement on Money Scale is labeled with a "Partner offer" tag and an outbound link that carries rel="sponsored nofollow". This follows the FTC Endorsement Guides and Google's webmaster guidance on commercial links.

Categories of partners we work with

We only partner with categories of products that fit the calculators and lessons on Money Scale. Today that includes:

• High-yield savings accounts and money market funds — placed alongside the Emergency Fund and Save vs Invest tools.
• Brokerages and robo-advisors — placed alongside the Investment Projection and Save vs Invest tools.
• Personal loans, debt consolidation, and balance-transfer cards — placed alongside the Debt Payoff tool.
• Mortgage marketplaces and refi services — placed alongside the Rent vs Buy tool.
• Tax software — placed alongside tax-season content.
• Independent fiduciary-advisor matching networks — placed alongside the Retirement and Net Worth tools.
• Identity protection, credit monitoring, and budgeting apps — placed alongside related lessons.

What we won't do

• We don't list partners we wouldn't point a friend to.
• We don't pretend Money Scale is "the best" at anything just because a partner pays better. Every recommendation is category-level (e.g., "consider a high-yield savings account") first, with specific partner options shown alongside.
• We don't give personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Everything on Money Scale is educational. For your specific situation, talk to a licensed professional.
• We don't take payment to bury negative information about a partner. If a partner's offer changes for the worse, we update the placement or remove it.

How we keep recommendations honest

• Rates and APRs are stamped with an "as of" date. Financial products change fast — we mark the date so you know how fresh the number is and always link to the issuer for the latest.
• Defaults in our calculators are sourced. Mortgage rates, inflation, savings APYs, expected returns — every default value links to the public dataset behind it.
• Plain language about risk. Returns are illustrative, past performance is not a guarantee, and we'll say so in plain English on every calculator and article.
• You can always opt out. Skip the partner cards. Use the calculator. The math doesn't change either way.

Not financial advice

Money Scale provides educational information about personal finance. We are not a registered investment adviser, broker, tax professional, attorney, or financial planner. Information on this site — including calculator outputs, partner offers, and lessons — is for your general education and should not be relied on as advice for your specific financial situation. For decisions that affect your money in a material way, consult a licensed professional you've personally vetted.