Practicing, not retired
Our contributors are active CFPs and former equity and fixed-income analysts who still manage client portfolios or advise on real financial plans, not just write about them.
About
A finance newsletter written by people who still manage real money
Smart Money Guide started because most personal finance content is written for two extremes: people who need to be told to stop buying coffee, or professionals who already have a CFA. We write for the much larger group in between.
The problem we saw
Financial media optimizes for clicks, not outcomes
Most finance content is built around headlines that spike on bad days: "the market is crashing," "this stock could 10x," "the one trick that saves you thousands." It performs well and teaches almost nothing.
The people who actually build wealth over a decade are rarely reading that content. They're reading plan documents, IRS publications and the occasional dense article that explains why a rule works the way it does — because understanding the mechanism is what lets you apply it correctly to your own situation.
What we actually do
One issue a week. No daily noise.
Every Sunday we publish one issue built around a single topic — a rule, a mechanism, a decision most subscribers will face at some point. We show our work: the math behind a claim, the source behind a number, the trade-off behind a recommendation.
We don't publish daily market commentary, and we don't chase news cycles. If nothing meaningfully changed this week, we'd rather write about a foundational concept well than manufacture urgency around something that doesn't matter.
Who writes it
Certified Financial Planners and former analysts, still working
Sourced and fact-checked
Every figure we cite — contribution limits, tax brackets, historical returns — is checked against primary sources like the IRS and the Federal Reserve before publication.
No hidden incentives
We don't accept payment to feature a specific fund, app or advisor in editorial content. Sponsored content, when it exists, is clearly labeled as such.
By the numbers
Four years of weekly issues
- Subscribers
- 28,400+
- Issues published
- 184
- Average rating
- 4.9/5
- Years publishing
- 4
Every Sunday
Read one, judge for yourself
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