What is The Third Pocket?
The Third Pocket is a free weekly email, a blog and a set of free calculators about how money really works. Each piece takes one question, such as what a 1% fund fee does over 30 years or how much a dozen eggs has gone up since 2019, and answers it in plain English with the numbers shown.
The tagline is "The pocket they never told you about." It is a way of saying that fees, inflation and smaller packages quietly take money out of the pockets you can see.
Who it is for
Mainly people in the United States. The data, prices, tax references and examples are US ones, in US dollars. If you live elsewhere, the ideas carry over but the numbers will not.
What we publish
- A short weekly email. One money rule per issue. Read it or subscribe here. It is free.
- A blog. Plain answers to money and inflation questions with a worked example and dated sources on each page.
- Free calculators. They run in your browser and store nothing you type.
Where the numbers come from
We use primary sources where we can and name them on every page, with the date we retrieved them:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Consumer Price Index, average prices and earnings.
- Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), which republishes BLS, Federal Reserve and Freddie Mac series.
- Freddie Mac for 30-year mortgage rates, and the Federal Reserve for interest rates.
- The Social Security Administration for cost-of-living adjustments and benefit figures.
How we work
Each post starts with a direct answer, then shows a worked example with the assumptions written out, the source and retrieval date, and a way to run the same sum with your own numbers. Charts and tables are computed from the downloaded series, not typed in by hand.
Inflation figures use the CPI-U unless a page says otherwise. Percent changes are measured between the two dates stated. We say when two figures cover different time windows.
When we cannot check a claim against a primary source, we keep it only if it is commonly reported, mark it with an asterisk, and say in the page notes that it was not independently verified. When a figure is wrong we fix it and say what changed on the page.
What this site is not
The Third Pocket is educational. It is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice, and it does not manage money. If we are recommending or selling anything, we will spell it out for you. Examples use made-up round numbers. Historical data describes the past and is not a promise or forecast of future results. For decisions about your own money, check your own numbers and consider a qualified professional.
Privacy and cost
Everything here is free unless we state otherwise. The calculators store nothing you type. There are no popups and no email gate on the pages. The newsletter is a separate service with its own signup.
Follow along
You can find The Third Pocket on YouTube, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Pinterest and the newsletter.
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