All articles
Every article we've published — the specific questions behind the pillar guides, answered in depth. Filter by topic, or start with the guides if you're new to a subject.
Inheriting an Inherited IRA
Successor beneficiaries get no new stretch — which 10-year clock you inherit depends on what the first beneficiary had, and annual RMDs may keep running.
Read the article →Pre-Tax or Roth: How to Actually Decide
Marginal rate now vs effective rate later, the equal-rates math, a bracket-by-bracket decision table — and the 2026 rule forcing high earners' catch-ups into Roth.
Read the article →A Roth IRA for Your Adult Child
You can't open it for them — but you can fund it. The earned-income rule, the $19,000 gift exclusion, and why nine years of $7,500 beats thirty years started late.
Read the article →Do Roth IRA Withdrawals Count as Income?
Qualified withdrawals sit outside every MAGI that matters — ACA credits, IRMAA, Social Security, NIIT. Conversions don't. One table, five thresholds.
Read the article →529-to-Roth IRA Rollovers
The 15-year clock, the five-year seasoning rule, the $35,000 lifetime cap, and the three places IRS guidance is still missing.
Read the article →Roth IRA Basis: Track It or Lose It
Your custodian doesn't track it and the IRS assumes zero if you can't prove it. Form 8606 Part III, the ledger to keep, and how to rebuild years of records.
Read the article →Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA)
Pay capital-gains rates on employer stock instead of ordinary income — the four requirements, a $500,000 worked example, and the break-even basis where NUA stops paying.
Read the article →Solo 401(k) vs Self-Directed IRA
For leveraged real estate the solo 401(k) usually wins: the UDFI exemption, participant loans, no custodian — and the 2026 limits side by side.
Read the article →Are Annuities Subject to RMDs?
Qualified yes, non-qualified no, QLAC deferred to 85 — plus the SECURE 2.0 aggregation rule that's still only in proposed regs.
Read the article →The 401(k) Early Withdrawal Penalty
The 10% penalty and every exception that waives it — all 20+ in one table, with the 401(k)-vs-IRA columns that most explanations get wrong.
Read the article →Using an IRA to Buy a House
The $10,000 first-home exception (IRA only — not your 401(k)), the Roth contribution path, and why "borrowing" from an IRA isn't a thing.
Read the article →Your 401(k) in a Divorce
QDRO mechanics, the alternate-payee cash-out that skips the 10% penalty, and what courts do when a spouse empties the account mid-divorce.
Read the article →What Happens to Your 401(k) When You Die
The beneficiary form beats the will, your spouse has rights no one mentions, and the no-beneficiary path leads through probate to the worst tax outcome.
Read the article →Can You Put a 401(k) or IRA in a Trust?
Not during your lifetime — but a trust can be the beneficiary. Conduit vs accumulation, the see-through rules, and the trust tax bracket trap.
Read the article →Trusteed IRA
The IRA that acts like a trust after you're gone — post-death control for second marriages and spendthrift heirs, honestly weighed against the alternatives.
Read the article →The Roth Conversion 5-Year Rule
Each conversion gets its own January 1 clock. The two different five-year rules, the ordering that protects you, and why 59½ changes the whole answer.
Read the article →Recharacterize Roth to Traditional
Contributions can still be undone until October 15 — conversions can't, since 2018. The deadline, the NIA math, and the recharacterize-then-backdoor play.
Read the article →Roth Conversion 1099-R Codes
Code 2 or 7 for an IRA conversion, G for in-plan, N and R for recharacterizations — the full Box 7 table, and how the form flows onto Form 8606.
Read the article →The 60-Day Rollover Rules
When the clock starts, the once-per-12-months trap that covers ALL your IRAs, the 20% withholding surprise, and the self-certification fix for late rollovers.
Read the article →The IRA Rollover Chart
What can roll where, on one grid — plus the SIMPLE IRA two-year rule, the Roth one-way doors, and the moves the IRS chart says are never allowed.
Read the article →RMD Taxes: How Distributions Are Taxed
Ordinary income, never capital gains — how an RMD stacks on your bracket, hits IRMAA and Social Security, and the withholding trick that fixes a year of underpayment.
Read the article →What Happens to Your 401(k) When You Leave a Job
The four options compared honestly — including the cases where rolling to an IRA is the wrong move: the rule of 55, NUA, and backdoor Roth users.
Read the article →401(k) Hardship Withdrawal
The qualifying reasons, the self-certification rules, why hardship doesn't waive the 10% penalty — and the $1,000 emergency option that may beat it.
Read the article →Oil & Gas Investment Tax Deductions
The full map on one page: IDCs, tangible costs, percentage depletion, G&G amortization, and the working-interest rule that unlocks them all.
Read the article →The Rule of 55
Penalty-free 401(k) access after leaving a job at 55 — which plan qualifies, the practical plan-rule traps, and the IRA rollover that destroys it.
Read the article →In-Plan Roth Conversion
Converting inside your 401(k): the tax it creates, the five-year recapture rule, and when converting in place beats rolling out first.
Read the article →In-Service Withdrawal
Moving 401(k) money while still employed — what each money type can move, at what age, and the five protections you give up by rolling out.
Read the article →The Roth Conversion Ladder
Early retirement's tax play: convert a slice each year, wait out each rung's five-year clock, and reach your money penalty-free before 59½.
Read the article →Self-Directed Roth IRA
The rules, the custodian landscape, and why the Roth wrapper changes the math on real estate and other alternatives.
Read the article →Inherited IRA RMDs & the 10-Year Rule
How to calculate the RMD for an inherited IRA: which beneficiary regime you're in, the Single Life factor, the subtract-one method, and the year-ten deadline.
Read the article →Can You Have Multiple Roth IRAs?
Yes — but the annual contribution limit is one aggregate cap across every account. When a second Roth helps, and when it just adds cost.
Read the article →How to Avoid Taxes on Your RMD
The RMD itself can't be skipped — but seven legal moves cut the tax on it, from QCDs to gap-year conversions to bracket timing.
Read the article →Roth IRA Early Withdrawal Penalty
The order money leaves a Roth — contributions, conversions, earnings — the two separate 5-year rules, and every penalty exception.
Read the article →How to Avoid IRMAA
What counts as MAGI, why the brackets are cliffs rather than slopes, and how a Roth conversion bites two years later.
Read the article →IRMAA Appeal: Form SSA-44
The eight life-changing events, the proof SSA actually accepts, and why a Roth conversion is not one of them.
Read the article →Intangible Drilling Costs (IDC)
What IRC §263(c) lets you expense, why the working interest matters, and the risks a deduction never fixes.
Read the article →QCD From an Inherited IRA
Yes, you can — if you're 70½. How QCDs defuse the 10-year rule's tax squeeze on inherited accounts, with a worked example.
Read the article →QCD Rules for 2026: The $111,000 Limit
Why a QCD beats deducting the same gift under the new 2026 rules — and no, IRA charitable giving was not eliminated.
Read the article →Does a Roth Conversion Count as an RMD?
No — the RMD must come out first. The first-dollars-out rule, the age-73 trap, and how to fix the mistake.
Read the article →New to a topic? The pillar guides are the place to start.