A Solo 401k can let a self-employed person with $85,000 in net income shelter significantly more from taxes than a SEP-IRA or a regular IRA — sometimes $20,000 to $30,000 more per year. Here’s exactly how the math works, why most freelancers and independent contractors are leaving money on the table, and what to know before you open one.
The 72(t) rule — technically called Substantially Equal Periodic Payments, or SEPP — lets you pull money from your IRA or 401k before age 59½ without the 10% early withdrawal penalty. But the rules are strict, the commitment is long, and one mistake can trigger penalties retroactively on every payment you’ve already taken.
At $78,000 salary in the 22% federal tax bracket, the internet says "always do Roth." The math says it depends on what your income looks like in retirement — and for most people in the 22% bracket, the answer is less obvious than any blog post will admit.
Plan G and Plan N are the two most popular Medicare supplement plans — and the difference between them isn’t complicated. It’s a math problem. Here’s how to run the numbers for a healthy retiree on a fixed income.
The 4% rule was designed for 30-year retirements. Retiring at 62 gives you a 33-to-38-year time horizon — and that changes the math in ways most retirement calculators skip over. Here’s what $580,000 actually generates, where the 4% rule breaks down for early retirees, and the specific decisions that determine whether it works for you.
If you have a high-deductible health plan, your HSA is the only account in the US tax code that gives you a triple tax advantage: contributions go in pre-tax, the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses come out tax-free too. For most people who can afford to pay current medical bills out of pocket, maxing the HSA before the Roth IRA is the right call. Here is how to think through it.
Roth conversions before Medicare eligibility can be a powerful tax strategy — but most financial plans miss a hidden consequence. A large conversion in the year before you turn 65 can show up in your Medicare premiums two years later as an IRMAA surcharge. Here’s how the two-year lookback trap works, who gets caught, and how to avoid paying thousands more than you expected.
Most people believe you cannot touch your 401k before age 59½ without paying a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of regular income taxes. That is mostly true — but the IRS built in one exception that most financial media barely covers: the Rule of 55. If you leave your job in the year you turn 55 or later, you can take penalty-free distributions from that specific employer's 401k immediately. No waiting until 59½. The IRS just does not publicize it well, and there are three critical traps that can disqualify you from using it even if you qualify on paper.
A $2,800/month pension and a $380,000 lump sum sound like they might be equivalent — and at a simple level, they sort of are. $380,000 ÷ $33,600 per year = 11.3 years to break even, putting the crossover point at age 73. But the simple break-even misses three things that change the analysis significantly: what a $380,000 investment actually generates at a safe withdrawal rate (not $33,600 — closer to $15,000), how long most 62-year-olds actually live, and what inflation does to a pension with no cost-of-living adjustment over 25 years. The pension wins for most people. But 'most people' has specific exceptions that matter.
Required Minimum Distributions on a $450,000 traditional IRA starting at age 73 force out approximately $17,000 per year — whether you need the money or not. The direct tax on that $17,000 is one problem. The second, less-discussed problem: that $17,000 withdrawal can cause up to $14,000 more of your Social Security income to become taxable in the same year, creating a tax bill significantly larger than the RMD alone would suggest. This is the "tax torpedo" that catches many retirees off guard, and the window to defuse it with Roth conversions closes the year you turn 73.
