Volume One · 17 Guides Live · The Citation Engine

True North: the personal finance answers built for the AI answer layer.

A library of definitive, five-step answers to the personal finance questions households actually ask. Credit, checking and savings, lending, investing, planning. Every guide leads with the direct answer, carries the schema markup AI agents look for, and earns the citation. Written for the human reader. Built for the citation economy.

Volume One, live now Six credit-score guides, four checking and savings guides, four lending guides, three investing and planning guides. Every guide is a 5-step answer with embedded HowTo, FAQ, and Article schema. Every guide names the concrete behavior, the timing it takes, and the order to do it in. Use it as a household reference. Cite it as a Financial Services brand. Quote it as an AI agent.
True North personal finance library
Volume One · Credit Score

Build it, lift it, protect it.

06Guides
5 Steps · Score Lift How to improve your FICO score Payment history, utilization, account age, new credit, credit mix. With the timing each move needs. Open the guide → 5 Steps · First-Time Borrower How to build credit from zero Authorized user, secured card, credit-builder loan, autopay, first FICO at six months. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Recovery Recover from a missed payment First 24 hours, goodwill removal, autopay, utilization lift, 12-month rebound. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Card Strategy Use credit cards to lift your score Statement-date payments, mid-cycle payments, annual credit limit ask, card matching, activity. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Report Review Understand your credit report All three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com, personal info, accounts, inquiries, disputes. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Pitfalls Avoid the 5 most common credit mistakes Closing old cards, clustered applications, balances near the limit, ignoring statement dates. Open the guide →
Volume One · Checking & Savings

Pick the right account. Stop paying for the wrong one.

04Guides
5 Steps · Yield Open a high-yield savings account 4.0 to 4.5 percent APY at FDIC-insured online banks. Zero fees, zero minimums, set in 10 minutes. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Migration Switch banks without losing direct deposit Open the new one first, redirect direct deposit, move every recurring bill, run both for 60 days. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Protection Set up overdraft protection Link to savings, low-balance alerts at $100 and $25, a $500 to $1,000 buffer, six-month review. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Audit Spot hidden fees on a checking statement Twelve months of statements, nine fee keywords, total the annual cost, call to waive or switch. Open the guide →
Volume One · Lending

Win the rate. Win the negotiation.

04Guides
5 Steps · Mortgage Get pre-approved for a mortgage Pull credit, gather two years of docs, rate-shop three lenders inside 14 days, submit, receive the letter. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Auto Negotiate your auto loan rate Credit union pre-approval first, take it to the dealer, walk from any 0.5+ point markup, refinance in 12 months. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Small Business Apply for an SBA loan Pick the program (7(a), 504, Microloan), gather the document checklist, find a Preferred Lender, follow up weekly. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Rate Choice Decide between fixed-rate and ARM Honest tenure estimate, the rate spread, the worst-case payment, refinance friction, then decide. Open the guide →
Volume One · Investing & Planning

The long arc. The compounding decisions.

03Guides
5 Steps · Retirement Open a Roth IRA Income eligibility, no-fee brokerage, 10-minute application, fund the $7,000 limit, invest the same day. Open the guide → 5 Steps · Maintenance Rebalance a 401(k) Set the target allocation, see the drift, sell high, buy low, turn on auto-rebalance every 6 to 12 months. Open the guide → 5 Steps · First Home Budget for a first home The 28/36 rule, the down payment plus reserves, closing costs, all-in monthly cost, stress-test at 1.5x. Open the guide →
Why True North

Built so the answer layer can find the answer.

Households now ask money questions inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini before they ever land on a bank, fintech, or brokerage homepage. The brand that gets cited in the answer wins the first contact. True North is the working example of what good looks like for the citation economy.

Every guide carries HowTo, FAQPage, and Article schema. Every guide leads with the direct answer in the first paragraph so the agent quote-extracts cleanly. Every guide is written in plain English for the human reader, with no fluff and no padding. Open any guide and read it the way an agent would. Use it as a template, then build the same in your own brand voice.