The Balance

Welcome to The Balance: Simplifying Personal Finance

The Balance makes personal finance easy to understand. Our home of experts provides clear, practical advice on managing your money. Every day, we publish news, how-to guides, and product reviews to help you make sense of every aspect of your financial life.

Expert Guidance for Your Financial Journey

Whether you’re looking to invest, buy a home, save for retirement, or achieve another financial goal, The Balance’s 20-year-strong library of more than 10,000 pieces of content will answer your questions with straightforward personal financial advice. Our more than 50 expert writers have extensive qualifications and expertise in their topics, including MBAs, PhDs, CFPs, and other advanced degrees and professional certifications.

Our Commitment to Quality

Editorial Guidelines

At The Balance, we take great pride in the quality of our content. Our writers create original, accurate, engaging content that is free of ethical concerns or conflicts. We also uphold the principles of the Dotdash Meredith Content Integrity Promise. If you ever come across an article that you think needs to be improved, please reach out by emailing contact@thebalance.com.

Fact Checking

Our writers and editors investigate claims and verify all information gathered for all articles. We consult relevant, diverse, qualified sources to ensure we’re providing proper context and background to the reader. All of our news and information are thoroughly reviewed by a staff editor and fact-checked by staff or a member of our experienced fact-checking team. They rigorously evaluate articles for accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. If you have noticed an issue you would like to bring to our attention, please let us know by emailing corrections@thebalance.com.

Corrections Policy

The Balance is committed to telling readers whenever a factual error has been made, regardless of the magnitude of the error, how it was made, or who made it. We will correct the information as quickly as possible and alert readers with a transparent statement clearly labeled as a correction. Please report possible errors to corrections@thebalance.com.

Sourcing

The Balance requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data and organizations, original reporting, professional and academic institutions and studies, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. All data points, facts, and claims are backed up by at least one credible source. We strongly discourage the use of anonymous or unnamed sourcing, as this can erode transparency and reader trust. In rare instances where an unnamed source is used, we will disclose to readers the reason behind the anonymity and provide necessary context.

A cornerstone of our reporting and sourcing is to consider often overlooked perspectives from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women. We strive to serve all communities and reflect diverse voices and perspectives.

Product Recommendations

Our product reviews are independent and based on research and product testing—if you visit links within our content, we may receive commissions from your purchases, but we never receive any compensation or consideration for the content of our recommendations. Learn more about our review process here.

The Balance prohibits writers and editors from giving preferential treatment to any outside resource (company, publication, video, affiliate, website) based on their relationship with the person or company who authors or owns that resource. All of our writers and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest, which we define as any relationship—financial or personal—with any source or resource that may compromise their ability to provide fair and impartial information. As with many publishers, our writers and editors sometimes receive complimentary products or services for review purposes. We are transparent and disclose when any valuable products or services are provided to our editorial teams. Our editorial staff and editorial contributors must not solicit gifts or services for personal purposes.

Independence & Impartiality

The Balance is committed to independent, impartial, fair journalism. Our editorial content is not influenced by our advertisers. Every staff member and contributor is held accountable to a high standard of honesty and transparency. We maintain a strict separation between advertising and editorial content. We label “Sponsored Content” to make clear that such content is provided by or on behalf of an advertiser or sponsor.

No Individual Investment Advice

The Balance does not provide individual or customized legal, tax, accounting, or investment services. Since each individual’s situation is unique, a qualified professional should be consulted before making financial decisions.

Originality

The Balance provides original, useful, and unbiased content. All information must be verified, properly attributed, and may not infringe on the copyright or anyone’s intellectual property rights. Any suggestion of plagiarism is investigated fully and is grounds for dismissal. We expect all contributors on the network to abide by all applicable laws, standards, and accepted journalistic practices, including:

• Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Code
• Copyright Law of the United States
• FTC Guidelines on Disclosures
• Fair Use

Diversity & Inclusion

The Balance is committed to answering your money questions. But we know many of our answers do not include solutions for readers underserved by the financial industry and financial publishing community. There are more complex challenges facing our Black, Indigenous, and other Readers of Color, and we must address these challenges in our content, or we fail our core mission. Our pledge to improve diversity & inclusion outlines actions we will take to fulfill our commitment to all of our readers.