How We Research & How Our Tools Work

Transparency is part of trust. Here's exactly how we produce a guide, and what our calculators do and don't do.

The research process for every guide

1. Gather & verify the volatile facts against official sources, recording the source link and the date checked.
2. Draft in plain English in our standard warm, honest voice — covering downsides, not just upsides.
3. Quality-check against a checklist: every figure sourced and dated, disclaimers present, claims balanced.
4. Publish & date, then schedule re-review because the rules change.

How our calculators work

Our tools run entirely in your browser. We never see, store or transmit the numbers you enter — there's no server and no database. Each tool uses a set of editable benchmark figures (for example, typical monthly costs at different lifestyle tiers) that we keep in a single, openly-documented configuration and review on a schedule.

What the tools are — and aren't

They're a fast, honest starting point to help you think, using reasonable benchmark ranges. They are not a personalised forecast of your costs, and they can't know your circumstances. Treat the output as "roughly, here's the shape of it," then pressure-test it with real quotes and a professional.