Personal finance, plainly — from someone who actually has a day job.
I started KatchingStacks because most personal finance content sits at one of two extremes: day-trading influencers screaming about 10x returns, or dense academic writing that assumes you already know what a “basis point” is. Neither of those is useful for the person I was a few years ago — someone with a full-time job, a real life, and about 20 minutes a week to think about money.
I have a degree in business and I work full-time in tech. Finance has been a personal obsession for years — the kind of thing I read about on weekends instead of watching TV. KatchingStacks is where those two worlds meet: the analytical mindset I use professionally applied to the personal finance topics I actually care about.
I’m not a licensed financial advisor, and I’ll never pretend to be one. Nothing on this site is financial advice. What I am is someone who’s spent a lot of time evaluating these products as an actual user, with the same goal you probably have: building wealth quietly in the background while living the rest of your life.
Because they’re what I actually use. When you have a full-time job, you don’t have time to rebalance portfolios, harvest tax losses, or obsess over asset allocation. Robo-advisors do all of that automatically at a cost most people don’t realize is absurdly low compared to what traditional advisors charge. They’re not perfect — and I’ll tell you exactly where they fall short in every review — but for most working professionals, they’re the highest-leverage financial tool available.
Every review on KatchingStacks is based on publicly available fee schedules, account terms, platform features, and — where possible — hands-on use of the product. I don’t accept payment for positive reviews. If a product has a flaw, I say so, even if I’m an affiliate. You can read the full approach on my Editorial Policy page.
KatchingStacks is reader-supported. When you open an account through some of the links on this site, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Those commissions keep the lights on and let me spend time researching and writing instead of selling courses. My full Affiliate Disclosure explains exactly how it works.
Questions, corrections, or just want to say hi? Email me at hello@katchingstacks.com.
— Mark