Retirement decisions, explained in plain English.

Social Security · 6 min read

Social Security claiming: a framework for getting it right

When to claim, the 62-vs-70 tradeoff, spousal and survivor rules, taxation, and how timing shapes the whole plan.

Read → Tax Planning · 7 min read

The order you draw down accounts is a tax decision

Withdrawal sequence, bracket management, the Social Security tax torpedo, and QCDs — one of the most overlooked levers in a plan.

Read → Medicare · 6 min read

Medicare and IRMAA: what higher-income households need to know

Parts A–D, the 2026 IRMAA income-surcharge brackets, enrollment windows, and how income decisions affect what you pay.

Read → Income Planning · 7 min read

Withdrawal rates: what the research actually says

The 4% rule, the bucket approach, bond ladders, and sequence-of-returns risk — practical frameworks for income that lasts.

Read → Roth Conversions · 6 min read

Roth conversions: when they pay off and how to time them

When conversions make sense, using the pre-RMD window, navigating IRMAA interactions, and planning for legacy. Current 2026 figures.

Read → RMDs · 5 min read

Required minimum distributions: a guide for 2026

The new ages, how RMDs are calculated, the penalty changes, QCDs, and strategies to reduce your future distributions.

Read → Social Security · 5 min read

Claiming at 62 Costs You 30% — Forever. Here's the 2026 Math.

With a full retirement age of 67, claiming at 62 locks in 70% of your full benefit for life — the 2026 formula and maximums, shown plainly.

Read → Social Security · 5 min read

Retiring at 65? The 2.8% COLA Changes Your Social Security Math for 2026

The 2026 COLA is 2.8%. What it does to your check, why claiming at 65 pays 86.7% of your full benefit, and how the earnings test works.

Read → RMDs · 5 min read

The $111,000 Charity Move That Can Satisfy Your RMD Tax-Free in 2026

A qualified charitable distribution of up to $111,000 (2026) can satisfy your RMD without adding a dollar to taxable income.

Read → Tax Planning · 5 min read

Married Filing Jointly? Your 12% Bracket Ends at $100,800 in 2026

The 2026 12% bracket for joint filers runs to $100,800 of taxable income — about $133,000 gross. Bracket-filling mechanics, shown plainly.

Read → RMDs · 5 min read

Missed an RMD? The Penalty Is 25% — or 10% If You Fix It in Time

Missing an RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall — reduced to 10% inside the correction window. The deadlines and Form 5329.

Read → Medicare · 5 min read

One Dollar Over $218,000 Can Raise a Couple's Medicare Premiums About $2,300 a Year

IRMAA is a cliff: crossing $218,000 of joint MAGI by a single dollar triggers roughly $2,300 a year in extra Medicare premiums for a couple.

Read → Social Security · 6 min read

The Social Security Tax Torpedo: How $1 From Your IRA Can Tax $1.85 in 2026

Above $44,000 of provisional income, each extra IRA dollar can pull $0.85 of Social Security into the taxable column — $1.85 taxed per $1 withdrawn.

Read → Tax Planning · 5 min read

$32,200: The 2026 Number That Decides How Much a Retired Couple Pays $0 Tax On

The 2026 standard deduction for joint filers is $32,200 — the first layer of income federal tax never touches, before the 10% and 12% brackets even start.

Read → Medicare · 6 min read

Medicare's 7-Month Window: Miss It and Part B Costs 10% More — Permanently

Medicare's Initial Enrollment Period is seven months around your 65th birthday. Miss it without qualifying coverage and Part B costs 10% more per year of delay — for life.

Read → RMDs · 6 min read

Turning 73 in 2026? Your First RMD Has Two Deadlines — and One Is a Trap

Your first RMD can be taken by December 31, 2026 or delayed to April 1, 2027 — but delaying stacks two taxable distributions into one year.

Read → Roth Conversions · 6 min read

The Two Five-Year Clocks on Roth Money (and Which One Applies to You)

Roth accounts run on two separate five-year rules — one for earnings, one for each conversion — and which one applies depends on your age and history.

Read → Income Planning · 7 min read

Is the 4% Rule Dead? The 2026 Research Says 3.9%–4.7% — Here's Why the Range

Morningstar's 2026 research says 3.9%; Bengen's updated work says 4.7%. Both are answering different questions — why the safe withdrawal rate is a range.

Read → Tax Planning · 5 min read

The $6,000 Senior Deduction: What ‘No Tax on Social Security’ Actually Means

The 2025 law’s $6,000-per-person deduction for 65+ — how it phases out, how it stacks, and why benefit taxation is unchanged.

Read → Social Security · 5 min read

Spousal Social Security: Who Gets 50 Percent — and Who Gets Less

50% of what, exactly — the reductions, deemed filing, the 10-year divorce rule, and the survivor step-up.

Read → Tax Planning · 6 min read

The 0% Capital Gains Bracket Is Real — Here’s Where It Ends in 2026

Up to $98,900 of taxable income, a couple’s long-term gains ride at 0% — the stacking arithmetic, with a mini-calculator.

Read → Income Planning · 5 min read

The Rule of 55: Early 401(k) Withdrawals Without the 10% Penalty

Leave in or after the year you turn 55 and that plan skips the penalty — and one rollover forfeits it.

Read → Tax Planning · 6 min read

The $11,250 Catch-Up: Why Ages 60–63 Get the Biggest Bucket in 2026

$24,500 base, $8,000 catch-up, $11,250 for ages 60–63 — the full 2026 table, with your ceiling in one tap.

Read → RMDs · 6 min read

The 10-Year Clock: The Rules That Come With an Inherited IRA

Who must empty the account in 10 years, who is exempt, and the annual RMDs that began in 2025.

Read → Income Planning · 6 min read

How Much Do You Actually Need? The ×25 Rule, and Where It Bends

Multiply the spending your portfolio must cover by 25 — the research range (×21.3–×25.6), the input everyone gets wrong, with a mini-calculator.

Read → Social Security · 6 min read

Survivor Benefits: The 100% Rule, and the Clock That Starts at 60

100% at survivor FRA, 71½% at 60, the one switch strategy that survived — and the widow’s-penalty tax squeeze.

Read → Social Security · 5 min read

The WEP Is Gone: What the Social Security Fairness Act Restored

The 2025 repeal restored benefits for 3.2 million teachers, firefighters, and public workers — who was paid automatically, and who must still apply.

Read → Tax Planning · 6 min read

The Step-Up: Why Some Taxes Disappear at Death — and Some Don’t

Inherited assets reset their basis at death — but IRAs never step up, gifts carry your old basis, and one deed mistake forfeits it.

Read → Medicare · 5 min read

Medicare Part B Costs $202.90 a Month in 2026 — Here’s the Math Behind It

Up $17.90 — just under 10%. What it nets against the 2.8% COLA at three benefit levels, and who pays $284.10–$689.90 instead.

Read → RMDs · 5 min read

Your Roth 401(k) No Longer Has RMDs — With One Clock Still Ticking

SECURE 2.0 ended lifetime Roth 401(k) RMDs in 2024 — and the five-year-clock trap a rollover can restart.

Read → Retirement Basics · 6 min read

Average Retirement Savings by Age: What the $185,000 Figure Leaves Out

The full Survey of Consumer Finances age table — and the column almost nobody quotes: 43% of households aged 55–64 have no retirement account at all.

Read → The Course · 8 chapters

Retirement 101 — the free course

Eight short chapters that build the whole framework in order — read in an evening, no email required.

Start the course →