How we make money
Life Compass is free to read. When a recommendation names a company, that link usually earns us a commission if you sign up. This page says exactly how that works, because a disclosure you have to go looking for is not a disclosure.
What we are paid
A commission is paid by the provider, not by you, and the price you pay is the same either way. Some pay a flat amount for an enquiry, some a percentage of what you eventually spend. We do not take payment for coverage, for placement, or for a better write-up.
What it does not change
- What we recommend, and the order we recommend it in.
- What we say about a thing, including when we say most people do not need it.
- What you pay.
The rules we hold ourselves to
- Never more than three. A checklist with eleven items and eleven links is an ad. We show at most three, however many could have qualified.
- The first one is free, or nearly free. Usually something your insurance already covers, or a service that costs nothing to use.
- Some sections sell nothing on purpose. The car seat advice and the postpartum depression advice carry no links, and they are two of the most useful things we publish.
- Commission is disclosed beside the recommendation — not in a footer, and not after you have clicked.
Where we are careful
Some of the decisions we write about are ones where the marketing is a long way ahead of the evidence. Cord blood banking is the clearest example: we state the honest limits first, attribute clinical positions to the bodies that hold them, and give the cost including storage. If that makes a recommendation less persuasive, that is the correct outcome.
We do not give medical, legal or financial advice, and nothing here is a substitute for your provider, your attorney or a licensed adviser.
Questions
If something on the site looks like it was written for the commission rather than for you, we want to know. Tell us and we will change it or explain why we think it is right.
Commission arrangements change. This page describes how we work rather than listing current rates, because a rate list goes stale and a principle does not.