Articles
Explanations, guides and things worth knowing — some next to a calculator, some standing entirely on their own.
FSA contribution limits for 2026, and what actually carries over
The IRS raised the 2026 health FSA contribution limit by $100 and the maximum carryover by $20 — routine, incremental changes. The dependent care FSA limit did something much bigger: its first real increase in about forty years.
Capital gains tax brackets for 2025 and 2026, and how the 3.8% NIIT stacks on top
Long-term capital gains are taxed on a completely different scale from your paycheck, and where you land on it depends on your ordinary income as much as the size of the...
The SAVE plan is winding down — what that means for the borrowers still on it
The SAVE plan spent nearly two years blocked in court, with millions of borrowers parked in an interest-free forbearance that eventually stopped being interest-free. A De...
HSA contribution limits for 2025 and 2026, and the eligibility rules that just changed too
The IRS raises the HSA contribution limit almost every year, and 2026 is no exception. What makes this year different is not the dollar figure — it is a set of eligibilit...
The 2026 gift tax annual exclusion, and how it fits with the lifetime exemption
Almost nobody who gives an ordinary gift ever owes gift tax, and the reason is two separate allowances stacking on top of each other: a per-recipient annual exclusion tha...
Social Security COLA 2026: what the 2.8% raise actually means
The Social Security Administration announced a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment for 2026 on October 24, 2025. It is bigger than last year's raise and smaller than most of t...
How much can I borrow, and what does a lender actually count?
The number a lender will give you is not your salary times four. It is a payment they think you can still afford if rates rise, worked backwards into a loan — which is wh...
What a rate change does to your mortgage payment
Central banks move rates in quarter points, and lenders pass them on in steps that look small on paper. Here is what each step is actually worth on a monthly payment, and...
Fixed or variable: how to choose the way your rate is set
The choice is not a forecast about rates. It is a question about how much a known payment is worth to your household, and how far the variable rate would have to move bef...
The enhanced ACA subsidies expired for 2026 — here is what changed in your premium
The enhanced ACA premium tax credit was always temporary, and it lapsed on schedule at the end of 2025. Here is exactly what reverted for 2026, how much more people are a...
The 2026 IRS standard mileage rate, and the mid-year raise nobody expected
The IRS set the 2026 mileage rates in December as usual — then changed the business and medical rates again in July, something it has done only twice in the last decade....
The 2026 adoption tax credit: the new maximum, and who the phase-out reaches
A 2025 law made part of the adoption tax credit refundable for the first time ever, worth up to $5,120 in 2026 even with no tax owed. Here is the full $17,670 maximum, th...
Every 401(k) contribution limit from 2023 to 2026, side by side
Four straight years of 401(k) limit changes, but not four versions of the same story: some moves were routine inflation math, one was a brand-new SECURE 2.0 tier, and 202...
The 2026 AMT exemption, and why more filers will actually owe it
The 2026 AMT exemption went up, which sounds like good news — but a new law cut the income level where it starts disappearing and doubled the rate it disappears at.
The 2026 Child Tax Credit, and what a 2025 law actually changed about it
A law signed in July 2025 made the larger Child Tax Credit permanent instead of letting it shrink back to $1,000 — and raised it slightly further. Here is the exact 2026...
The 2026 Social Security wage base, and what payroll tax actually costs a high earner
Social Security tax has a ceiling; Medicare tax does not. Here is exactly where the 2026 numbers land, and what the maximum possible payroll tax bill looks like for a hig...
The 2026 FSA limits, and the biggest Dependent Care FSA jump since 1986
The 2026 health FSA limit moved up by its usual small annual step. The Dependent Care FSA limit did something it has not done in almost forty years — and the two accounts...
The 2026 federal estate tax exemption is $15 million, and a new law made the increase permanent
The doubled estate tax exemption was scheduled to be cut roughly in half at the end of 2025. Instead, a law signed in July 2025 raised it further and removed the expirati...
The 2026 RMD rules: what age, how much, and what a missed one costs
Required minimum distributions still start at 73 in 2026, even though a lot of coverage talks about age 75. Here is exactly who that applies to, how the withdrawal is cal...
How much you can put into an HSA in 2026
The IRS raised both HSA contribution limits again for 2026, and the plans that qualify you to use one moved too. Here is every number, and what maxing one out is actually...
2026 tax brackets, and what the One Big Beautiful Bill actually did to them
Every 2026 bracket moved up, but not by the same amount — a 2025 law gave the bottom two brackets a larger inflation bump than the rest. Here is what that is worth on a r...
The 2026 Social Security COLA, and what a 2.8% raise is actually worth
A 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment sounds small until it is run against an actual benefit check — and several other Social Security figures moved by more than that in the s...
How much you can borrow from a 401(k) in 2025, and what it actually costs
A 401(k) loan lets you borrow against your own retirement savings, capped at the lesser of $50,000 or half your vested balance, with the money and interest going back int...
2025 gift tax exclusion and estate tax exemption, in the last year before a scheduled cut
2025 was supposed to be the last year of a doubled estate tax exemption before it was cut roughly in half on schedule — then a law signed in July 2025 raised it further i...
The federal EV tax credit ended September 30, 2025 — what changed and what still counts
A law signed in July 2025 shut down the federal EV tax credit more than seven years ahead of schedule. Here is exactly what the credit offered, the date it stopped, and t...
2025 tax brackets, and the standard deduction a mid-year law raised further
Every 2025 bracket moved up for inflation on schedule in October 2024 — then a law signed in July 2025 raised the standard deduction again, for a tax year already more th...
The 2025 SALT deduction cap, quadrupled by law with a phase-out for high earners
For seven years the deduction for state and local taxes was capped at a flat $10,000 no matter how much a filer paid. A law signed July 4, 2025 quadrupled that cap for 20...
The 2025 FSA limits, and the dependent care number that did not move
The health FSA limit rose again for 2025, but the Dependent Care FSA limit did not — because one is adjusted for inflation every year and the other has been fixed in the...
How the backdoor Roth IRA works in 2025, and the pro-rata rule that can tax most of it
A backdoor Roth IRA is two ordinary transactions — a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution, then a conversion — that together get money into a Roth account despite a...
2025 capital gains tax brackets, and what actually counts as long-term
Long-term and short-term gains are taxed under completely different rate schedules, and the line between them is a single day: hold an asset 366 days instead of 365 and t...
The 2025 IRS mileage rates, and what they are actually worth
The business mileage rate rose again for 2025, but the medical and charitable rates held steady — for two completely different reasons. Here is every 2025 rate and what i...
How much you can put into a 401(k) and IRA in 2025
The 401(k) limit rose again for 2025, the IRA limit held steady, and a genuinely new catch-up tier arrived for a narrow age band. Here is the full table and what it means...
How the euro, dollar and pound moved against each other in 2024
10,000 euros converted to dollars in January 2024 and again in December would have produced two noticeably different amounts. Here is the shape of the year, and why the d...
What the Fed's 2024 rate cuts did to your emergency fund
A high-yield savings account paying 5% in January was paying closer to 4.25% by December, after three Fed rate cuts. Here is what that drop actually cost on a typical eme...
Mortgage rates in 2024: what a year of swings was actually worth on a payment
The average 30-year fixed rate touched a two-year low in late September 2024, then rose again by December. Here is what the difference between the low and the high was ac...
How the federal EV tax credit worked in 2024
For vehicles bought in 2024, the federal clean vehicle credit changed in two real ways: buyers could finally take it as cash at signing instead of waiting to file, and ti...
The 2024 IRS standard mileage rate, and who can actually use it
The business rate rose to 67 cents a mile in 2024, but a 2017 law change means most employees can no longer deduct it on their own return. Here is who still can, and what...
The SAVE plan in 2024: what it was designed to do, and what the courts paused
A single change to how discretionary income is defined turned a $186 monthly student loan payment into $46 under the SAVE plan's design — before litigation paused it for...
The 2024 Social Security wage base, and what it means for your paycheck
Social Security tax has a hard ceiling that Medicare tax does not, and the two get confused constantly because they arrive on the same paycheck line. Here is exactly wher...
The 2024 gift tax exclusion and estate tax exemption, in plain numbers
Two different limits, one connected system: the amount you can give away each year without any paperwork, and the much larger amount that shields an estate from federal t...
What credit cards actually charged in 2024, and what carrying a balance cost
Card rates barely moved with the Fed in 2024 because most of them had already priced in years of increases. Here is what an average balance actually cost to carry, and wh...
Minimum wage in 2024: fifteen years frozen federally, far from frozen by state
The federal minimum has not moved since 2009, but by 2024 most states had long since set their own, much higher floor. Here is what full-time minimum-wage work was actual...
2024 Alternative Minimum Tax exemption, and where it starts to disappear
The Alternative Minimum Tax runs a second, parallel tax calculation next to your regular return and charges you whichever number is higher. Here is exactly what the 2024...
2024 capital gains tax brackets, and where the 0% rate actually stops
Sell an asset you have held over a year and the rate depends on your total taxable income, not a flat percentage tied to the sale. Here are the exact 2024 thresholds, and...
How much you can put into a 401(k) and IRA in 2024
Every major retirement account limit rose for 2024 — some by more than others. Here is the full table, and what the gap between the old and new numbers is worth over time...
2024 tax brackets, and what they actually do to your paycheck
Brackets moved up, the standard deduction moved up, and most people paid a slightly smaller share of their income to inflation adjustments alone. Here is the arithmetic f...
What these articles are for
Some explain a question behind a calculator: which number belongs where, which rule applies to you, what the answer means. Others stand on their own and have nothing to do with a calculator. Either way, the arithmetic itself stays on the calculator pages — an article only ever explains, it never computes.