We keep it simple: we only collect what we need, we never sell your data, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
Finally Makes Cents ("we," "us," or "our") is a personal finance blog at finallymakescents.com. We publish educational content about investing, budgeting, travel rewards, credit cards, and building a life you actually want to live. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect information when you visit our site or subscribe to our newsletter.
If you have questions, reach us anytime at our contact page.
When you sign up for the Finally Makes Cents newsletter, we collect your email address and, if you choose to provide it, your first name. This information is submitted through a sign-up form powered by Beehiiv, our newsletter platform. We use it solely to send you the newsletter and related updates from Finally Makes Cents.
If you reach out through our contact page, we receive the information you submit (such as your name, email address, and message). We use this only to respond to your inquiry.
Finally Makes Cents offers interactive quiz-style tools, including the Side Hustle Fit Finder and the Am I Ready for a Dog? scorer. These tools ask you questions about your skills, schedule, finances, lifestyle, and other preferences in order to generate a personalized score or recommendations.
Your quiz answers are processed entirely within your browser and are never transmitted to our servers or any third party. We do not collect, store, or have access to your individual responses. The results are calculated locally and displayed to you on the same page — when you leave or close the page, the data is gone. No account, email address, or sign-up is required to use any of our tools.
Google Analytics is active on these pages (as it is across the full site) and may register that you visited the tool page, but it does not capture your individual quiz responses or the results you received.
Finally Makes Cents offers free downloadable resources, such as the Dog Budget Tracker spreadsheet. When you click a download link, your browser initiates a standard file download directly from our server. We do not collect any personal information in connection with downloads — no name, email address, or account is required. Google Analytics may register that the download link was clicked, but only as an anonymized page interaction.
Our website uses cookies — small text files stored by your browser — to help the site function properly and to understand how visitors use it. We use Google Analytics 4 and Cloudflare Web Analytics to collect anonymized information about how people interact with finallymakescents.com. This helps us understand which content is most useful and how to improve the site.
Google Analytics collects information such as: pages visited, time spent on pages, general geographic location (country/city level, derived from your IP address), browser type and version, device type, and how you arrived at the site (e.g. a search engine or a link). Google Analytics does not collect your name, email address, or any information that directly identifies you. IP addresses are anonymized by default in GA4.
Cloudflare Web Analytics is a privacy-focused analytics tool provided by Cloudflare, Inc. Unlike Google Analytics, Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use cookies and does not track individual users across sessions or sites. It collects aggregated, anonymized data — such as page views, referral sources, and general geographic location — without setting any tracking cookies on your device or fingerprinting your browser. No personal data is collected or stored by Cloudflare Web Analytics.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies on your device:
Cloudflare Web Analytics does not set any cookies.
Most browsers allow you to control or disable cookies in their settings. You can also opt out of Google Analytics tracking entirely using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. Disabling cookies may affect some site functionality.
We do not collect payment information, government IDs, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive personal data through this site. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.
We use the information we collect for the following purposes only:
Quiz answers entered into interactive tools (like the Side Hustle Fit Finder or Dog Readiness Scorer) are processed locally in your browser to generate your results. We do not receive or use this data — it never reaches us.
We do not use your email address for paid advertising, sponsored promotions on your behalf, or any purpose outside of directly communicating with you about Finally Makes Cents content.
Our newsletter is delivered through Beehiiv (beehiiv.com), a newsletter platform that acts as a data processor on our behalf. When you subscribe, your email address and any other information you provide are stored and processed by Beehiiv in accordance with their privacy practices.
Beehiiv may collect additional technical data when you open or interact with our emails — such as whether you opened an email, what device you used, and which links you clicked. This data helps us understand how our newsletter is performing. We review it in aggregate to improve content; we don't use it to target you with ads.
You can review Beehiiv's privacy policy at beehiiv.com/privacy.
We use Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. Google acts as a data processor on our behalf, collecting anonymized usage data to help us understand how visitors interact with the site.
Google Analytics may transfer and process data in the United States. Google's data processing is governed by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and Google's own privacy commitments. You can review Google's privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
To opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. You can also manage or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings.
We review Google Analytics data in aggregate to understand content performance. We do not use it to identify individual users or target you with advertising.
We also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics service provided by Cloudflare, Inc. Unlike traditional analytics tools, Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use cookies, does not fingerprint individual users, and does not track you across sessions or other websites.
Cloudflare Web Analytics collects aggregated data — such as page views, visit counts, and general geographic region — to help us understand overall site traffic. This data is processed by Cloudflare and is not used to identify or profile individual visitors. You can review Cloudflare's privacy policy at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.
Because Cloudflare Web Analytics sets no cookies and collects no personal data, it is not gated behind cookie consent and requires no opt-out action on your part. It runs independently of your consent choice.
Some links on this site are affiliate or referral links. When you click one and complete a purchase or sign-up, we may earn a commission. We never share your personal information with affiliate partners — the link simply tells them we referred you.
All posts containing affiliate or referral links include a disclosure notice at the top of the article so you always know upfront.
We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise transfer your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. Ever. The only third parties that receive data about your visit are Beehiiv (your email address, solely to deliver the newsletter), Google (anonymized analytics data via Google Analytics), and Cloudflare (aggregated, cookieless traffic data via Cloudflare Web Analytics). None of these relationships involve the sale of your personal information.
Finally Makes Cents complies with the CAN-SPAM Act, the U.S. law governing commercial email. Every newsletter we send will:
To unsubscribe from the Finally Makes Cents newsletter, click the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email we send. You can also reach us through our contact page to request removal.
Note: CAN-SPAM requires a physical mailing address in commercial emails. We are in the process of establishing a P.O. box and will include it in all newsletter mailings once it is set up.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights regarding your personal information. We respect these rights regardless of your location.
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its amendment (CPRA) give you additional rights, including the right to know what categories of personal information we collect, the right to request deletion, and the right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell your personal information. We share anonymized analytics data with Google Analytics solely for the purpose of understanding site usage — not for advertising or cross-context behavioral tracking. To exercise your rights, contact us through our contact page.
If you are visiting from the European Union or United Kingdom, you may have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability. Our lawful basis for processing your email address for the newsletter is your explicit consent (you opted in). Our lawful basis for Google Analytics is legitimate interests — understanding site usage in order to improve content. You can opt out of analytics tracking at any time using the Google Analytics opt-out add-on or by managing cookies in your browser. To exercise any other GDPR rights, contact us through our contact page.
We take reasonable steps to protect the information we collect. Our newsletter data is stored by Beehiiv, which maintains its own security standards. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Finally Makes Cents is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
Our site contains links to third-party websites (including affiliate partners, financial institutions, and resources we reference in articles). This Privacy Policy applies only to Finally Makes Cents. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party sites, and we encourage you to review their policies before sharing any personal information with them.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time — for example, when we add analytics, change our newsletter platform, or when laws change. When we do, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If changes are significant, we may also notify newsletter subscribers directly.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your privacy rights, or just want to know more about how we handle your data, please reach out through our contact page. We take privacy seriously and we're happy to talk.