AI Content Policy

Last updated: July 22, 2026

The honest version: AI tools help us draft and edit, and every image on this site is AI-generated artwork; humans supply the experience, check the facts, and approve every word before it publishes. Here’s exactly where the line sits.

What AI tools are used for

• Drafting and restructuring text from our own outlines, research, and lived-experience notes.
• Editing passes — grammar, clarity, and formatting.
• Research assistance, always verified against primary sources before use.
• All imagery on this site. Every photograph-style image and illustration here is AI-generated artwork made to match our house style. The images set a mood; they are not documentary evidence. They do not show real events, real places we are claiming to have visited, or specific products we are claiming to have tested — when a guide says we used something, that claim lives in the written text and its sourcing, never in the picture.

What AI is never used for

• Inventing experiences. Every anecdote, number, and “here’s what happened when I tried it” on this site comes from real, documented experience — the writer’s or a reader’s. AI never fabricates a story, a result, or a review.
• Publishing without human review. No article goes live without a human fact-check and edit — see the Editorial Guidelines for the full process.
• Fake identities, or fake photos of a person. Rachel Bennett is a pen name; the person, experiences, and numbers behind it are real. The author portrait is a drawn illustration, clearly styled as artwork — we do not generate a realistic photo of a face and present it to you as a photograph of a real person.

Why this policy exists

This site covers money — decisions where wrong information costs real dollars. Readers deserve to know how the content is made, and “AI-assisted and AI-illustrated, human-verified, experience-based” is the accurate description. If any of that changes, this page changes first.

Spotted something off?

If an article reads wrong or a fact looks shaky, tell us — verified errors are corrected within 3 business days under our corrections policy.