The financial news that actually matters
Your mother passed away in 2021 at age 74, leaving you a $500,000 traditional IRA. She had been taking required minimum distributions for years. You rolled nothing over, took nothing out, and heard the IRS was waiving penalties while it sorted out the rules. That grace period is over. Starting with the 2025 tax year,…
A family with one paycheck and two adults can shelter $15,000 a year in IRAs for 2026, split evenly between the working spouse and the partner who stays home. That is not a workaround or a loophole. It is a provision written directly into the tax code, and the IRS just made it slightly more…
A software engineer in San Francisco earning $170,000 cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA in 2026. Neither can a dual-income couple in Dallas pulling in $260,000 combined. The IRS has drawn the lines: the Roth IRA income phase-out begins at $153,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $242,000 for married couples…
Americans with high-deductible health plans will be able to stash a little more money in their health savings accounts next year. Beginning January 1, 2026, the annual HSA contribution limit rises to $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage, according to Revenue Procedure 2025-19, published by the IRS in May 2025. That is…
Most Americans never choose what their 401(k) money is invested in. They get auto-enrolled, a target-date fund is selected for them, and their paycheck contributions flow into a mix of stocks and bonds they may never examine. That passive arrangement now sits at the center of a high-stakes federal rulemaking: the Labor Department has proposed…
Turn 65, and your health savings account quietly transforms. Federal law drops the 20 percent penalty that normally applies when you pull HSA money for nonmedical spending. After that birthday, a withdrawal for groceries, a vacation, or a new roof is taxed exactly the same way as a traditional IRA distribution: ordinary income tax, nothing…
Say you borrow $20,000 from your 401(k) to cover a roof replacement. The paperwork takes a day, nobody pulls your credit, and the interest you pay goes right back into your own account. Eighteen months later, you get a better job offer and give notice. The plan administrator sends a letter: repay the remaining $14,000…
A 57-year-old engineer converts $80,000 from a traditional IRA into a Roth in January 2024, planning to let it grow tax-free through retirement. Three years later, at 60, she pulls $30,000 to cover a roof replacement. She is past 59½, so she assumes the withdrawal is penalty-free. Then her tax preparer delivers the bad news:…
A cashier earning $28,000 a year puts $2,000 into an IRA. She files her taxes, qualifies for the Saver’s Credit, and receives nothing. Her federal income tax liability was already wiped out by the standard deduction and the Earned Income Tax Credit, so a nonrefundable credit has no remaining value to deliver. That outcome is…
Picture a 73-year-old retiree who spent a career saving diligently in a traditional IRA, only to learn that a single missed withdrawal triggered a penalty equal to half the amount she should have taken out. For decades, that was the reality: the IRS imposed a 50% excise tax on any required minimum distribution shortfall, one…