Retirement Planning
401(k), IRA, Roth accounts, pension plans, withdrawal strategies, required minimum distributions, and how much you need to retire.
Latest in Retirement Planning
A retiree with side income can still open a SEP or solo 401(k) and cut the tax bill
Retirement rarely draws a clean line under earned income. A part-time consulting arrangement, a small crafts shop, a stream of freelance writing, or a few...
A Roth conversion in the low-income years before required withdrawals can lock in today’s tax rate
The years between leaving work and turning on Social Security or required withdrawals form a quiet tax window that many retirees waste. Income often dips,...
A “still-working” exception lets you delay 401(k) withdrawals past 73 while you’re on the job
Required minimum distributions force most retirement savers to start pulling money from tax-deferred accounts at age 73, whether the cash is needed or not. One...
Drawing from taxable, then tax-deferred, then Roth accounts can make retirement savings last longer
Two retirees can hold the same balances across the same accounts, spend the same amount each year, and still watch their savings run out years...
A brokerage’s cash “sweep” often pays far less than a money-market fund you choose yourself
Every brokerage account has to do something with the cash that lands in it between trades, from a dividend payment, a maturing bond, or a...
Keeping a year or two of spending in cash lets a retiree ride out a market drop without selling low
A retiree who keeps one to two years of living expenses in cash holds something a rising market cannot supply: the freedom to leave investments...
You can move leftover 529 college savings into a Roth IRA for the student, up to a lifetime cap
A change written into the SECURE 2.0 retirement law removed one of the biggest fears attached to college savings: that unspent money would be trapped...
A “net unrealized appreciation” move can cut the tax on company stock held in a 401(k)
Employer stock sitting inside a 401(k) carries a tax break that most rollovers quietly forfeit. Under the net unrealized appreciation rules, the growth on company...
Contributing to a traditional IRA can still cut this year’s tax bill for many workers
A traditional IRA remains one of the few moves that can lower a tax bill after the calendar year has already ended, and for 2026...
You can withdraw an excess or unwanted IRA contribution before the deadline to avoid a penalty
Putting too much into an IRA is a common mistake, and the tax code punishes it in an unusually persistent way: a 6 percent excise...
Naming a charity as your IRA beneficiary passes the account free of income tax
A traditional IRA is unusual among inherited assets in that it arrives with a tax bill attached. The money inside was never taxed on the...
A surviving spouse can claim a partner’s unused federal estate-tax exemption through portability
When one spouse dies, the survivor can inherit not only the couple’s property but also whatever slice of the deceased partner’s federal estate-tax exemption went...
Gifting an appreciated home to children can hand them a big capital-gains tax bill
A parent who signs the family home over to a child during life often believes it is the generous, tax-smart move. It can be the...
A living will and health proxy keep a family out of court if you can’t speak for yourself
A sudden stroke, a bad fall, or the slow arrival of dementia can leave an older person unable to say what care they want. When...
A brokerage account with a transfer-on-death registration skips probate for your investments
Stocks and mutual funds are among the assets most likely to get stuck in probate, and among the easiest to route around it. A brokerage...
Filing a beneficiary form on every account keeps money out of a slow, costly probate
A carefully drafted will can still send a family through months of probate court, but a one-page beneficiary form quietly sidesteps the whole process. Banks...
A Roth’s five-year clock must pass before earnings come out completely tax-free
The great promise of a Roth IRA is tax-free income in retirement, but that promise comes with a timing rule that catches savers off guard,...
Some states let Medicaid pay a family member to provide a senior’s home care
A growing number of state Medicaid programs will pay an adult child, and sometimes a spouse, for the hours they already spend caring for an...
A surviving spouse can face higher tax rates as a single filer, the \”widow’s penalty\”
The loss of a spouse carries a tax consequence that catches many survivors off guard, and it arrives after the grief, not during it. Once...
A surviving spouse can roll a late partner’s IRA into their own and delay withdrawals
Inheriting a retirement account triggers very different rules depending on who does the inheriting, and a surviving spouse holds the most valuable position in that...