How we write and review lessons

Every lesson is written for a teenager with no prior background in banking, taxes or personal finance. We avoid jargon where possible, define terms the first time they appear, and use short sections, concrete numeric examples, and a summary quiz to check understanding.

Factual claims — account rules, tax concepts, filing requirements, consumer protections — are based on official Government of Canada material, primarily the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). Each lesson lists its official sources, and the full list is published on the Sources page.

• No refund estimates. We do not tell you what refund or balance owing you would receive.
• No CPP, EI or income tax calculations based on your personal numbers.
• No personalized advice tailored to your specific situation, province, or filing history.

These boundaries exist because accurate individual calculations require current rate tables, provincial rules and personal details we do not collect and are not positioned to keep authoritative. Lessons teach the concepts; the CRA and its official calculators handle the numbers.

Each lesson displays a "last reviewed" date. Lessons are checked against current official sources on a recurring basis, and whenever we become aware of a relevant rule change. If a lesson's content is updated, its "last reviewed" date is updated to reflect that check.

Where a lesson references a specific tax year, amount, threshold or deadline, it is labelled with that tax year explicitly. We do not present year-specific figures as if they apply indefinitely, because they change. If a figure is illustrative rather than official, the lesson says so.

The Teen Budget Builder, Savings Goal Calculator, Paycheque Decoder and Side Hustle Tracker perform simple, transparent client-side arithmetic on the numbers you enter — addition, subtraction, division and percentages. They do not use lookup tables of tax brackets, CPP/EI rates, or provincial rules, and they do not estimate deductions, credits or withholding amounts. This keeps the tools honest about being planning aids, not tax or payroll calculators.