Our standards
How we use evidence
Teachers, families and partners make real decisions with what we publish, so every claim has to hold up. These are the rules behind every page, lesson, guide and report from WealthWise Kids™. Updated 23 October 2026.
Every fact names its source.
A statistic, a research finding, a law or requirement, a date: each one is attributed in the sentence where it appears, by author and year, and listed in full at the bottom of the page with a link to the original.
We go to the original.
Peer-reviewed studies, government agencies and official data come first. News coverage and blogs can point us to a source, but they never stand in for it. When popular coverage overstates a study, we report what the study itself says.
Facts that change carry a date.
Counts, laws, prices and rankings move. We write them as “as of” a date, and every guide shows when it was last updated, so a reader always knows how fresh a number is.
We separate evidence from our view.
Some of what we publish is belief: for example, that money is best taught through decisions rather than definitions. We say so in our own voice, “we believe” or “our approach,” and show the evidence that led us there. Where the evidence is mixed, we say that too.
We show the honest range.
When studies disagree or estimates differ, we give both rather than the more flattering one. Our guide to teaching financial literacy, for instance, reports the effect of school money lessons across all studies and across randomized studies alone.
Our own measure is described as it is.
The FLIQ Score™ is an emerging measure, and every page that mentions it says so. Its validation status is published in full at fliqscore.org/validation.
We correct mistakes in the open.
If you find an error, tell us at info@wealthwisekids.org. We fix it everywhere it appears and log the correction below, with the date.
Where the sources live
The research we draw on is catalogued in The Stacks, our open financial literacy research library: each entry with its full reference, what it found, and a link to the original.
Corrections
Newest first.
- 23 October 2026
- Our research library said 56% of Americans could not cover a $1,000 emergency from savings, without a date. The current figure, from Bankrate's December 2025 survey of 2,564 adults, is that 47% say they could cover it. Updated, with the date, in our research library and the Research & Evidence Base document.
- 23 October 2026
- The number of states that guarantee a standalone high-school personal finance course was given as 32. Next Gen Personal Finance's count is 30 (11 fully in place, 19 phasing in). Corrected in our “Financial literacy for kids” guide, our research library, and the Standards Crosswalk and Research & Evidence Base documents.
- 23 October 2026
- A University of Cambridge review (Whitebread & Bingham, 2013) was described as finding that money habits are “largely formed” by age seven. The review finds that the foundations beneath money habits, like self-control and planning, take shape in early childhood, and that by about age seven a child can grasp what money is worth. Corrected on four pages (Financial literacy for kids, the curriculum overview, First Grade, and requirements by state), in our research library and in the Research & Evidence Base document.