Plain Money Notes

Editorial standards and corrections

How Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet develop, source, review, correct, and eventually monetize Plain Money Notes.

Published Reviewed

Plain Money Notes is jointly operated by Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet. We are responsible for every editorial and business decision, including what is published, corrected, recommended, and removed.

The site’s articles are development drafts. They are visible so we can test the site and review the complete reader experience, but they are not approved for public launch until Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet complete the review described below.

What we aim to publish

We create general educational material that helps readers understand a financial idea, organize a decision, or take a practical next step. We also publish clearly scoped editorial essays about living well when they serve the publication’s broader human purpose. We aim to use plain language, define unfamiliar terms, show assumptions, acknowledge tradeoffs, and avoid promises about wealth or future results.

The site does not provide individualized financial, investment, tax, legal, insurance, or security advice. A reader’s circumstances may require a qualified professional.

Authors and responsibility

Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet are public editorial names used by the site’s human operators. Katy Buffet and Matt McNick are in-person human contributors publishing under owner-approved editorial names. They use AI-generated editorial portraits rather than photographs or exact likenesses. A human byline identifies contribution and approval; it does not imply a professional credential. Displayed locations are either owner-supplied public context or fictional editorial settings, never specific private residence data.

Author pages describe each contributor’s current role. If another person contributes later, we will not create a public author identity until that person approves the credit and biography.

Angela Brooks, Ren Navarro, Marisol Reyes, Lori Vale, Paul Voss, and Dave Vale are fictional editorial personas, not human contributors. Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet use them to present distinct, consistent voices and to test the work against a wider range of practical needs. Their names, biographies, family relationships, displayed locations, portraits, and writing voices are substantially created with AI. We do not attribute credentials, personal memories, lived experience, or financial outcomes to any persona. Their character identities help shape the questions a draft asks; they are not a claim that AI can supply the firsthand perspective of real people with those identities. See the full AI, authorship, and persona policy.

Morpheus is the project-specific Codex agent rather than a human contributor or fictional human persona. Morpheus may receive an AI-agent byline for substantial authorship about the collaboration and repository workflow. Those pages must disclose the agent status automatically, avoid invented experience or authority, and remain under Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet’s human publication responsibility.

How we use AI

AI may help organize research, suggest outlines, draft or edit language, check calculations, create imagery, and build the static website. Most pages involve substantial AI collaboration. AI is not treated as a source, expert, customer, or person with firsthand experience.

Before public launch, Jordan Buffet and Jack Buffet must verify AI-assisted claims, calculations, citations, examples, and wording. We will correct or remove material that cannot be supported. AI assistance does not transfer responsibility away from the human operators.

Sources and calculations

We prefer sources closest to the underlying fact. Depending on the subject, that may include regulators, statutes, government agencies, fund sponsors, official program documentation, original datasets, or a provider’s current terms.

For substantial financial examples, we aim to:

  • link sources close to the relevant claim;
  • identify the dates and period covered;
  • state important assumptions and exclusions;
  • distinguish historical facts from estimates or opinions;
  • explain whether values are nominal, inflation-adjusted, rounded, or affected by reinvestment;
  • make original calculations reproducible when practical; and
  • remind readers that historical performance does not predict future results.

A disclaimer does not make an unsupported claim acceptable.

Review dates and updates

Articles display publication and review dates. A review date should change only after a human checks the article’s material claims, calculations, links, assumptions, and relevance—not after a purely cosmetic edit.

Time-sensitive articles will require periodic review. If an article can no longer be maintained accurately, we may add a warning, replace it, redirect it, or remove it.

Corrections

We want readers and contributors to report factual, mathematical, sourcing, accessibility, and attribution problems.

Corrections can be submitted through the philyawj GitHub profile. Please identify the page and issue clearly, and do not include private financial or personal information.

When a correction is material, we will update the article, change its review date after verification, and add a visible correction note when readers would otherwise misunderstand what changed. Minor spelling and formatting fixes may be made without a correction note.

The site currently contains no affiliate links, advertising, sponsored posts, paid placements, or product testimonials.

If affiliate links are introduced later, we will explain near the recommendation that qualifying purchases may earn the site a commission. A general disclosure page will supplement—not replace—the nearby disclosure. Commercial eligibility will not turn an unreviewed product into a recommendation, and claims about a product must remain supportable.

We will update this page before changing the site’s editorial or commercial practices.