Education, not advice.
Everything on this site — the guides, the calculators, the one-on-one sessions — is financial education. It is not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice, and reading a page here does not create an advisor relationship between you and us. We want you to make better decisions about money; the decisions themselves are still yours.
What this site is
Michael West Financials is a small practice that publishes free guides, free in-browser calculators, and offers one-on-one coaching to teens, young adults, and parents introducing them to money. Everything we publish is meant to be readable without supervision and useful whether or not you ever talk to us.
What this site is not
- Not personalized advice. We don't know your full financial picture, your goals, your tax situation, or what's happening in your life right now. Anything you read here is written for a general reader and may not be right for your specific situation.
- Not a licensed financial advisor. Michael West Financials LLC is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, certified financial planner, or other licensed professional. Where regulated advice is appropriate, we will tell you so and point you toward someone qualified to give it.
- Not tax or legal advice. Tax and legal questions depend on facts and jurisdictions we don't see. For anything that matters, talk to a CPA, an enrolled agent, or an attorney licensed in your state.
- Not a fiduciary relationship. A coaching session is education delivered in conversation. It is not investment management, not financial planning, and it does not create a fiduciary duty on our part.
About the calculators
The calculators on this site produce estimates, not promises. Every one of them makes simplifying assumptions — about returns, about taxes, about your income staying steady, about contribution limits and brackets that change every year — and reality will differ from the math. Use them to build intuition and to compare options against each other, not as a forecast of your actual outcome.
Where a calculator shows tax-law numbers (contribution limits, brackets, RMD ages, and so on), they are taken from the relevant IRS or government source and cited in the page or in our code. We update them annually. If you spot one that's stale, please tell us.
Past performance is not a predictor of future returns. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. A historical average return is a description of the past, not a promise about your years.
About the coaching sessions
Sessions are conversations: we look at your situation together, explain how a piece of the system works, and help you choose a next step you understand. They are education, not the sale of any product or strategy. We don't sell insurance, we don't manage assets, we earn no commissions, and we have no affiliate relationships with anything we mention.
If a session reveals a question that needs a licensed professional (a complicated tax situation, an estate question, an active investing decision), we'll tell you and recommend you bring in someone qualified.
Third-party content and links
We sometimes link to outside articles, government publications, or tools we think are useful. We do not control those sites and we are not responsible for their content, accuracy, or future availability. A link is a pointer, not an endorsement of every word on the other side of it.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Michael West Financials LLC is not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the site, the calculators, or anything discussed in a session. Decisions about your money are yours; if a meaningful amount of money is at stake, please verify your reasoning with a qualified, licensed professional before acting.
Governing law
Michael West Financials LLC is organized and operates in the State of Texas, United States. These terms, and any dispute arising from your use of this site, are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.
Changes to this page
If we update this disclaimer, the "Last updated" date at the top changes. We don't backdate revisions, and we don't keep a separate version of this page from what's published here.
How to reach us
Questions about this page, or about anything else on the site, are welcome. Email [email protected].