Can I mention my budgeting app in a comment if someone asks?
No. The rules ban promotion of web content, products, services, or companies owned by you or anyone affiliated with you, even if it is not monetized.
Subreddit guides
r/personalfinance rules, stats, and what to post
A source-backed Rankhog guide to r/personalfinance: public rules, community context, posting fit, and startup-promotion risk before you publish.
By Anthony Riera, founder and operator of Rankhog.
Subreddit guides combine public Reddit source URLs, captured rules, visible verification dates, and Rankhog's account-safety workflow.
Current public stats
- Members
- 21,863,266
- Verified
- October 4, 2026
- Category
- Personal finance and investing communities
Rules can change, so Rankhog keeps verification dates and the original public Reddit sources visible.
Rule summary
- Submission guidelines: Posts must be a personal finance question or discussion with a descriptive title. We don't allow: * Polls, surveys, or requests for personal data, experiences, or other types of self-reporting * Success stories or thanks (use weekday/weekend thread) * Several [disallowed topics](http://bit.ly/3mxqnSl) * Meta posts * IAmA/AMA requests or posts * News without a discussion, quote, or summary For more information on the subreddit rules, read the [rules wiki](/r/personalfinance/w/rules).
- Self-promotional advertising or soliciting: We don't allow: * Promotion of web content, products, services, companies, or anything else owned by you (or anyone affiliated with you), even if not monetized * Accounts with promotional profiles or usernames * Offering referral, invite, or affiliate links/codes * Soliciting business/investors, market research, media requests, or recruiting * Repeatedly or prominently stating financial credentials * PM/DM requests or offers Requires pre-approval: open source tools, customer service replies
- Unhelpful or disrespectful: We don't allow: * Circlejerking or karmawhoring * Posting just for upvotes or humor * Insincerity or dishonesty * Trolling, brigading, loaded questions/language, or provoking unproductive conversation * Memes or low-effort content * Clickbait titles * Excessive large, bold, or spaced-out text * [Bots](http://bit.ly/3GJH5om) or AI-generated content * In-character novelty accounts * Insubstantive/ephemeral posts * Requesting votes * Excessive profanity * [Poor reddiquette](http://bit.ly/2vKxaO6)
- Asking for handouts or transactions: We don't allow asking for handouts or transactions. That includes: * Asking (even indirectly) for gifts, loans, or donations for yourself or on behalf of any organization or person(s) * Any mention of a fundraising campaign even without a link * Requesting a job * Asking for loan cosigners * Soliciting for anyone to engage in any kind of transaction
- Legal or business discussion: We don't allow legal or business discussions. That includes: - Discussions that are predominantly legal issues - Discussions about starting, funding, or running a business, corporation, partnership, etc. - Content better suited for /r/legaladvice, /r/smallbusiness, /r/entrepreneur, or /r/business
- Politicizing: We don't allow: - Moralizing issues - Petitions or calls-to-action - Political discussions - Political baiting - Soapboxing
- Lawbreaking information: We don't allow: * Suggesting another user perform an activity that is illegal, unlawful, or fraudulent in most jurisdictions * Linking to illegal content or lawbreaking information * Asking for advice on any of the above
- Personal attack or abusive language: We don't allow: * Personal attacks * Raw criticism without any constructive feedback * Name-calling, flaming, shaming, or otherwise harassing another poster (or person being helped) * Telling a user to harm themselves or others * Abusive language * Intentionally rude or very harsh language * [Hate speech](/r/personalfinance/wiki/rules#wiki_definitions) * Suggesting [sex work](/r/personalfinance/wiki/rules#wiki_definitions) (even indirectly) * Retaliating in response to an affront
- Personal advice discussion: We don't allow personal advice discussions. That includes: * Content better suited for /r/relationships * Recommending a poster end their relationship or start a new relationship * Posts about suicide or violence * Posts asking for advice on how to convince someone else to change their behavior * Relationship drama not essential to a question or discussion * Family planning advice, especially unsolicited or flippant * Career, job, and education questions * Medical advice
- Other bad behavior: * Missing－Disappearing after posting a discussion or posting for another with inadequate information or involvement * Hyping－Pushing speculative, volatile, illiquid, or meme investments, especially flippantly, tersely, or implying huge returns * Rabble rousing－We're not your personal army * Doxing－Posting or seeking personal information, dox attempts or threats * Flooding－Posting excessively frequently * Duplicates－Reposting news or information * Plagiarism－Not giving credit properly
Works well
- A text post that asks a genuine personal finance question with a descriptive title, such as how people think about a specific budgeting tradeoff.
- A discussion post about a money decision you are working through yourself, framed as a question rather than a lesson.
- Thoughtful comment answers on other people's questions, with no links, no product mentions, and no credentials.
- A moderator pre-approval request if you have a genuinely open source tool you want to share, sent before you post anything.
Avoid
- Promoting your own product, service, or company, even if it is free, because “Self-promotional advertising or soliciting” bans promotion of anything you own or are affiliated with.
- Posting AI-generated content, since the rules list bots and AI-generated content under “Unhelpful or disrespectful”.
- Dropping referral, invite, or affiliate links or codes, which the rules do not allow.
- Asking people to take a survey, share their experiences, or fill out market research, which “Submission guidelines” and “Self-promotional advertising or soliciting” both cover.
- Posting a success story or a thank you note as its own post, because “Submission guidelines” says those belong in the weekday and weekend threads.
- Asking about starting, funding, or running a business, which “Legal or business discussion” does not allow here even though it is finance adjacent.
What r/personalfinance Is For
This is a community for learning about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. The people here are regular folks trying to get on top of their own money, and the public description points new members to the PF Wiki as a starting place. Posts need to be a personal finance question or discussion with a descriptive title, so the room runs on genuine questions and practical discussions about money. It is not a place for business owners talking about their company finances, career advice, or anything self-promotional.
Rules That Matter Before Posting
The rule that decides almost everything here is “Self-promotional advertising or soliciting”, because it bans promoting any web content, product, service, or company you own or are affiliated with, even when it is free, and it even bans accounts with promotional usernames. “Submission guidelines” matters next, since posts must be a personal finance question or discussion with a descriptive title, and polls, surveys, requests for personal experiences, success stories, and meta posts are all disallowed. “Unhelpful or disrespectful” catches low-effort content, clickbait titles, and AI-generated content, which is a big deal for anyone hoping to automate their posting. “Asking for handouts or transactions” bans anything that smells like fundraising, loans, or soliciting a transaction, even indirectly. “Legal or business discussion” removes posts about starting, funding, or running a business, which trips up a lot of founders who think their business finances count as personal finance. “Personal advice discussion” bans career, job, and education questions, so salary and job-change posts do not belong here. Finally, “Other bad behavior” includes hyping speculative or volatile investments and flooding, both easy to stumble into if you post often.
What To Post
For a founder doing respectful Reddit marketing, the honest answer is that direct promotion is off the table here, so your play is to participate as a knowledgeable member. Answer personal finance questions in the comments with genuinely useful, specific advice, and leave your product out of it entirely. If you want to share an open source tool you built, the rules say that requires pre-approval from the moderators, so message them first and follow whatever they decide. A good text post is a real personal finance discussion with a descriptive title, like a question about a budgeting decision or a tradeoff between paying down debt and saving. Keep your credentials quiet, because repeatedly or prominently stating financial credentials is listed under “Self-promotional advertising or soliciting”. And never ask people to DM you, since PM and DM requests are banned.
What To Avoid
The fastest removal comes from promoting anything you own or are affiliated with, including free tools, blogs, and newsletters, and from having a promotional username or profile. AI-generated content is explicitly banned, so do not paste in anything a bot wrote. Referral, invite, and affiliate links are not allowed, and open source tools need moderator pre-approval before you share them. Surveys, polls, market research, and requests for personal experiences are all disallowed under “Submission guidelines”. Success stories and thank you posts belong in the weekday or weekend thread, not the main feed. Business, legal, career, and education questions get removed, as do fundraising asks and any solicitation of transactions. Hype about speculative or meme investments, posting too frequently, reposting, and clickbait titles all fall under the rules too. If you want to help in comments, keep it substantive and honest, because insincerity and raw criticism without constructive feedback are also banned.
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Common questions about r/personalfinance
What if my tool is open source and free?
Yes, but only with moderator pre-approval, because the rules require it for open source tools.
Can I share an affiliate link to something I recommend?
No. Referral, invite, and affiliate links or codes are not allowed under “Self-promotional advertising or soliciting”.
Can I ask whether I should take a new job for the salary?
No. Career, job, and education questions are listed under “Personal advice discussion” as not allowed here.
Can I ask how to handle finances for my new small business?
No. “Legal or business discussion” excludes content about starting, funding, or running a business, and points that kind of question toward other communities.
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