Frequently Asked Questions
Direct answers about what Lodestar does, how the numbers are produced, what it costs, how your data is handled, and — just as importantly — what it will not do.
What Lodestar Is
What is Lodestar Wealth?
Lodestar Wealth is a prescriptive personal-finance web app for people in the United States. It reads your complete financial picture — what you own, what you owe, what comes in and goes out — scores your financial health, and returns a prioritized action plan where every move carries the dollar amount it is worth. It also includes a live net-worth simulator for testing decisions before you make them. It is an education and analysis tool, not an investment adviser.
How is it different from a budgeting app?
Budgeting apps are descriptive: they categorize spending that already happened and show you where the money went. Lodestar is prescriptive: it starts from your whole picture and tells you what to do next, ranked, with the dollar impact of each move. Tracking answers 'where did it go'; Lodestar answers 'what should I do'. Many people use both.
Who is Lodestar for?
People in the United States who want a concrete answer to 'what should I do next with my money' rather than another ledger. It is most useful if you have a mix of things going on — some debt, some savings, a retirement account, maybe a mortgage — because the value comes from comparing moves across all of them at once.
Is Lodestar available outside the US?
Not currently. The tax rules, account types, and benchmark data the engine relies on are US-specific, and running the wrong jurisdiction's rules would produce confident, wrong numbers.
How It Works
How does Lodestar analyze my finances?
You upload statements, or connect accounts for automatic sync. The documents are parsed into structured data, a deterministic calculation engine computes your full position, a versioned catalog of diagnostic rules identifies findings and opportunities, and each recommendation is assigned a dollar value computed from your actual numbers. The list you receive is ordered by that value.
Does AI calculate the numbers?
No. Every dollar figure comes from a deterministic calculation engine written as ordinary, test-covered code. The language model does two things only: it parses statements into structured data, and it phrases and orders recommendations that were already computed. It is handed the numbers and cannot alter them. Language models fail silently at arithmetic, so the architecture removes the possibility rather than trying to catch it afterwards.
How accurate are the forecasts?
The math is exact; the assumptions are yours. Projections use standard monthly compounding with end-of-period contributions, and the Monte Carlo band replays the same plan through 500 randomized market sequences to show where the middle 80% of outcomes land. That range is the honest answer — a single projected number would imply a precision that nobody has about 30 years of market returns.
Do I have to connect a bank account?
No. Uploading statements works for the full analysis. Bank sync is a convenience for keeping the picture current, not a requirement, and credentials are never stored either way.
What file types can I upload?
PDF statements from banks, brokerages, credit cards, retirement providers, and mortgage servicers. The parser is built against real statement layouts from major US institutions.
Pricing
How much does Lodestar cost?
A free account includes one complete financial analysis and one portfolio review, with no card required. Lodestar Plus is $14.99/mo, or $149.99/yr paid annually — about $12.50/mo. First-time members get a 7-day free trial on either plan.
What does the free tier actually include?
A full analysis: your financial health score, every finding behind it, the top 3 moves from your action plan with their dollar impact, 3 Personalized Opportunities, and a net-worth forecast with a Monte Carlo range. Plus the five calculators, unlimited, with no account at all. It is a real analysis, not a preview.
Do you charge a percentage of my assets?
No. Lodestar charges a flat subscription whether you have $5,000 or $5 million. Registered investment advisers commonly charge 0.25% to 1% of assets annually, which on a $500,000 portfolio is $1,250 to $5,000 a year.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes, from your profile, with no fee and no phone call. Plus features stay active through the end of the period you have already paid for.
Privacy & Security
Do you store my bank credentials?
Never, at any point. Where you connect an account, a regulated aggregator handles the connection and Lodestar receives read-only data — your login never reaches us.
What happens to statements I upload?
They are processed and discarded rather than retained. The structured data extracted from them is what powers your analysis and your history; the original documents are not kept.
Is my data used to train AI models?
Your personal financial data is not sold, and it is not handed to model providers for training. The privacy policy sets out exactly what is retained, for how long, and who processes it, and the financial privacy notice covers the GLBA and Regulation P disclosures specifically.
Can I delete my account and data?
Yes, at any time from your profile. Deletion removes your account and the financial data associated with it.
Limits & Regulation
Is Lodestar Wealth a financial advisor?
No. Lodestar Wealth is not an investment adviser, is not registered as one, and does not act as a fiduciary. It provides education and tools. It does not recommend specific securities, does not manage money, and never holds or moves your funds.
Will Lodestar tell me which stocks or funds to buy?
No. That is investment advice and it requires registration Lodestar does not hold. Recommendations stay at the level of asset classes, account types, interest rates, and amounts — for example, that a high-rate balance is costing a specific number of dollars a year, or that an employer match is going unclaimed.
Does Lodestar give tax advice?
No. The Tax Center surfaces published IRS figures and flags strategies worth raising, and then directs you to confirm with a CPA. Tax positions depend on facts and licensed judgment that software should not be substituting for.
Does Lodestar cover cryptocurrency?
Not in the current version. The data model is built to extend to it later, but crypto is deliberately out of scope for now rather than handled badly.
Do affiliate relationships affect recommendations?
No. Affiliate payout is never an input to the ranking engine. Recommendations are computed and ordered by dollar impact before any product is matched to them, so a move that earns Lodestar nothing ranks exactly as high as one that does. Referral relationships are disclosed where they exist.