Editorial Policy
RetireFree publishes educational retirement planning content. Because retirement topics affect money, taxes, healthcare, and family decisions, our pages are written to be useful, sourced, transparent, and clear about what they cannot decide for you.
Research and sourcing
We prefer official and primary sources for rules and data: IRS publications and FAQs for tax and RMD topics, SSA resources for Social Security, Medicare.gov and CMS for Medicare, HealthCare.gov for ACA coverage, and public datasets where relevant. Industry research may be used for context, but core rules should be traceable to primary sources when possible.
Calculator assumptions
Calculator pages use deterministic engines and documented assumptions. AI-generated explanations may summarize the result, but the numeric output should come from code and visible assumptions, not from a language model. Assumptions are summarized on the methodology page.
Review and updates
Retirement rules change. Pages with year-specific content should be reviewed when IRS, SSA, Medicare, CMS, or healthcare marketplace assumptions are updated. When material assumptions change, page copy, metadata, examples, and structured data should be updated together.
Independence and monetization
RetireFree may earn referral or affiliate revenue from clearly labeled partner links. Monetization should not change calculator outputs or turn educational content into personal recommendations. Product or partner mentions should be relevant to the planning context and should not replace a qualified professional review.
Important limitations
RetireFree does not provide financial, investment, tax, legal, insurance, or healthcare advice. The site is designed to help visitors understand tradeoffs and prepare better questions. Personal decisions should be reviewed with an appropriate licensed professional.