Editorial policy

Last updated 2026-09-10.

Retirement figures are only useful if they are right and you can see where they came from. These are the rules every number on this site has to pass before it is published.

Primary sources only

Every rate, age, table and threshold is taken from the document that has legal force or is published by the agency that administers the rule: the Social Security Administration's actuarial pages, the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, IRS notices, revenue rulings and publications. Summaries by financial firms, news articles, encyclopedias and AI-generated answers are never used as a source, though they are sometimes used to find the primary document. Each data file lists what was read, and the methodology page links to the official copy wherever one is online.

Two independent reads, then an adversarial one

A data file reaches verified only after two separate reads of the primary documents produce the same figures, and every difference between them has been resolved from the document rather than by choosing one reader's figure. A third pass then tries to break the result: it recomputes the agency's own worked examples and tables by hand and compares them with the calculator's output line by line. Differences of a dollar or more are treated as errors until explained. The passes are done with software agents reading the documents, and every reconciliation is reviewed by the maintainer; the method, the documents and the date are recorded in the file and shown on the methodology page. Until the second read is done a file is marked draft, and the page says so.

"Verified" is a documentary claim, not a professional one. Tallyvane is independent developer and publisher and not a financial adviser, actuary, CPA or attorney; the site does not describe any figure as reviewed by a licensed professional unless a named professional has actually reviewed it.

Tests that pin the figures

The official examples and tables used in verification are written into automated tests, and the site cannot be built while any test fails. If a later edit moves a figure that an agency's worked example depends on, the build stops.

What gets modeled

A rule is modeled when it applies to a typical reader of the page and can be computed from the inputs the calculator asks for. Rules that need information the calculator does not collect — a spouse's earnings record, a state of residence, an itemized return — are either left out and named on the page, or added together with the input they need. Nothing is approximated silently: when a calculator simplifies, the page says so, and the methodology page keeps a complete list of what is not modeled.

Keeping figures current

The AFR history gains a month when the IRS publishes each revenue ruling. Federal brackets are refreshed when the annual revenue procedure appears; the Social Security rules change only by statute and are re-read when they do; the life-expectancy tables are the 2022 tables until the Treasury issues new ones. Every data file carries a "last verified" date, and each calculator shows the earliest date of the data it is using.

Corrections

Reports of wrong figures are the most valuable mail this site receives. Confirmed corrections are applied to the data file, dated in its notes, and listed on the corrections page, including the ones found by the site's own audits. See the contact page for what to include in a report.

Advertising and independence

The site is intended to be funded by advertising. Advertisers have no influence on which rules are modeled, which sources are used, or what the pages say; ads are never placed between a calculator's inputs and its results; and no page recommends a product in exchange for payment. Sponsored content, if it ever appears, will be labeled as such. The site does not sell leads and does not refer readers to advisers, annuity sellers or brokers.

Writing

Pages are written to be read by the person making the decision, not by a search engine. Drafting and cross-checking make use of language-model tools; every published sentence is reviewed by the maintainer, and every figure in prose comes from the same data files the calculators use, so text and numbers cannot drift apart.

Questions about this policy: support@retirematics.com.