Sources
Primary sources first for rules, limits and public benchmarks.
Financial information changes. ShareCapsule Finance prefers authoritative first-party sources for laws, contribution limits, consumer protections, official definitions, public statistics and government guidance.
Primary institutions used by the platform
Financial Health benchmark sources
The current peer benchmark uses values transcribed and reviewed from the BLS Consumer Expenditures in 2023 report: national income-quintile means and Census-region means. ShareCapsule regionalizes the income-quintile values using the region-to-U.S. ratio for each category.
The resulting values are a ShareCapsule estimate derived from BLS inputs. They are not the official BLS region-by-income cross-tabulated means. The benchmark file carries an explicit isExactCrossTab: false marker, source year and calculation method, and automated publishing checks reject a mislabeled dataset.
Source-quality hierarchy
| Priority | Source type | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Law, regulator, agency or official program | Rules, limits, definitions, deadlines, consumer protections, official guidance and public statistical inputs. |
| 2 | Original research or recognized standards body | Evidence, technical standards and methodology where primary public-agency guidance is not the right source. |
| 3 | Qualified professional or major institution education | Context and practical explanation, checked against primary material when the topic is regulated or time-sensitive. |
| 4 | Secondary articles and commentary | Discovery and perspective, not the sole authority for a material rule, numeric limit or public benchmark. |
How sources appear on guide pages
Each specialist guide includes an “Authoritative resources” section when primary references are directly relevant. Time-sensitive numerical values should state the applicable year. If ShareCapsule makes a planning judgment that is not an official rule, it should appear in a labeled “ShareCapsule opinion” block.
Correction policy
If a source changes or a page is materially outdated, the page should be updated and its “Last reviewed” date refreshed.
Annual tax, retirement, insurance, benchmark and similar values should be updated or clearly labeled with their year.
Official facts should remain attributable; ShareCapsule estimates and heuristics should remain visibly labeled as our calculation or planning opinion.