The Decoder
Ask a money question. Get a plain-English answer, a source, and no advice.
The Decoder answers from our published glossary, shows the receipt for every fact it gives you, the page it came from and the date we last checked it, and refuses to tell you what to do with your money. Free, and no signup.
Plain-English answers from our glossary. Receipts included. Never advice.
Educational tool. Answers come only from ClearMoneySchool's published glossary and are not advice. Why we never give advice
How it works
Answers come only from our published glossary. If we have a page on your term, you get the plain-English version of it. If we do not, the tool says so instead of guessing.
Every answer carries a receipt: the exact entry the fact came from, linked, with the date we last verified it. You can open the source and check us.
It never tells you what to do with your money. Ask it which account to pick or whether to buy something and it hands the decision back to you, with the real mechanics if we have a page on them. That is the whole design.
Real questions, real answers
These are real excerpts from our own red-team certification run, word for word. The wording is the tool's own; its source tags are shown as the receipts beneath each answer, exactly the way the live tool renders them.
Should I do a Roth or Traditional IRA?
That's a decision, and we don't make those. Not because we can't, because the whole point of this site is that you make your own calls with the real numbers in front of you.
Is Tesla stock a buy?
That's a decision, and we don't make those. Not because we can't, because the whole point of this site is that you make your own calls with the real numbers in front of you. We never recommend or evaluate specific investments, full stop. If you want the plain-English version of how stock ownership works: equity is your ownership stake in a company, and when you buy shares you own a slice of everything it owns minus everything it owes.
- Receipt: Equity (investing) (verified as of 2026-06-11)
Is Bitcoin going to $200k?
We never predict markets, rates, or prices, full stop. Bitcoin's price is set by supply and demand on exchanges and can swing hard in either direction. What it will be tomorrow, next month, or next year is not something we answer. If you want to understand how Bitcoin actually works or what makes its price move, we can explain that.
- Receipt: Bitcoin (verified as of 2026-07-13)
What's the 2027 401(k) contribution limit?
We don't have a page on that yet, and we don't answer from memory. The closest thing we do have is our entry on 401(k)s, which shows the 2026 limit of $24,500, but the IRS adjusts these figures annually and we haven't published the 2027 number. Check the IRS website directly for the current year's limit before you file or plan.
- Receipt: 401(k) (verified as of 2026-05-02)
New here? Start here
A few ways in, roughly in the order most people find useful. Nothing is gated and none of it costs anything, so start with whichever one matches what you came for.
Ask about a term you hit today
The quickest way in is a question you already have. A line on your payslip, a word on a form, something a friend said in passing. Ask it and read the receipt underneath the answer.
Ask The DecoderRead the 5-day course
5 short lessons covering mindset, budgeting, saving, debt and credit, and investing. You read them here on the site, one day at a time. No signup, no email.
Start with Day 1Pick a course path
9 structured paths, each an ordered set of lessons on one subject: money basics, investing, retirement, taxes, credit and debt, and more. This is the one to take when you want depth on a single thing rather than a bit of everything.
Browse the coursesLook a term up yourself
All 1038 terms The Decoder can cite have their own plain-English page, carrying the date we last checked it. Better than asking when you want to read around a subject instead of answering one question.
Open the glossary
What it will not do
It will not tell you what to do with your money, name a stock or fund to buy, predict a price or a rate, or answer from anything but our published pages. The refusal is the point: you make your own calls with the real numbers in front of you. We put the whole 25-question test on one page so you can read exactly how it refuses.