Editorial methodology

Retiris publishes two kinds of thing: tools that model retirement plans, and analysis built on those tools. This page explains how both are produced, checked and corrected, so you can judge how much weight to put on what you read here.

1. Where our figures come from

• Rules and rates — pension ages, contribution limits, benefit rates and tax thresholds — come from the responsible government body or regulator: GOV.UK, HMRC, the FCA and MoneyHelper in the UK; the IRS, SSA and Medicare.gov in the US. Never from other blogs.
• Modelled outcomes — success rates, depletion ages and balance paths — come from our own model, documented at how the Retiris model works. Anyone can reproduce them in the calculator.
• We do not publish survey results, averages or claims about real households unless they are cited and linked to the original publisher.

2. Modelling standards

• Every modelled figure states the assumptions that produced it on the same page.
• Simulations use a fixed seed, so results are stable and reproducible rather than changing on refresh.
• We publish a range as well as a headline number. A single projection without a range overstates certainty.
• Where the model excludes something material — tax, charges, care costs — we say so rather than letting a clean number imply precision it does not have.

3. Review cycle

Each scenario and analysis page carries a published date and a last-reviewed date. Pages covering rules that change with the tax year are reviewed at least annually and whenever a Budget, Autumn Statement or federal change alters the underlying numbers. Pages that are purely about method are reviewed when the method changes.

4. Corrections

If a figure is wrong we fix it, update the review date, and note what changed where the change is material. Report an error to retirisfinance@gmail.com and we will respond.

5. Independence and funding

The site is funded by display advertising. We take no affiliate commissions, no sponsored placements and no paid links inside editorial content, and we do not recommend specific products or providers. Advertising is visually separated from editorial and has no influence on what we model or conclude. See the cookie policy for how advertising cookies work.

6. Scope

Retiris focuses on the UK and the US, where we can keep rules current, with a smaller set of guides for Australia and Canada. Everything we publish is educational. It is not personalised financial advice — see our disclaimer. Who writes it is set out on the authors page.