Guides for real money decisions

Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: 59½ is an exact date — your birthdate plus 59 years and 6 months — and on it the 10% early-withdrawal penalty on IRAs and 401(k)s ends. It is not “the year you turn 59” and not your 60th birthday; a withdrawal one day early is penalized in full. […]

Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: your Medicare Initial Enrollment Period is a 7-month window: the three months before your 65th-birthday month, that month, and the three months after — with one exception almost nobody prints: born on the 1st of a month, you are treated as born the month before, and the entire window […]

Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: your financial life has about ten statutory birthdays — and most people know them only as round numbers, which is how mistakes happen: 59½ is an exact date, the rule of 55 runs on a calendar YEAR, the Medicare window opens three months before 65 (a month earlier if […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: a deceased person’s final income tax return is due the normal April 15 of the year after death (extendable to October 15) — and the return splits the year at the date of death: income received before it goes on the final Form 1040; […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: every state gives creditors a statutory window to claim against an estate — started either by published notice or by the death itself — and an executor who distributes assets before the window closes can become personally liable for valid claims that arrive later. […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer: if someone dies before taking that year’s required minimum distribution, the beneficiary must take it, and there are now two dates on it, not one. The distribution requirement still runs to 31 December of the year of death — that did not change. What […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: IRC §2032 lets an estate value everything as of 6 months after death instead of the date of death — but only if the election reduces BOTH the gross estate value AND the estate tax owed. It exists for one scenario: markets fell after […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the federal estate tax return (Form 706) is due 9 months after the date of death. Form 4768 buys an automatic 6-month filing extension — but it extends the paperwork, not the payment: tax owed is still due at month nine, and the extension […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: a qualified disclaimer must be complete within 9 months of the death (IRC §2518) — in writing, delivered to the executor or account custodian, before accepting any benefit from the asset. There are no extensions, and the second condition kills more disclaimers than the […]

Guides › Settling an Estate Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: after a death, a set of clocks starts running that nobody tells the family about — and several are use-it-or-lose-it. The unforgiving ones: 9 months to disclaim an inheritance (no extensions), 9 months to file the estate tax return, 6 months for the alternate-valuation […]

Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the beneficiary must have earned income at least equal to the rollover amount, in the rollover year — wages, self-employment, the things that would support an IRA contribution. Investment income, allowances and gifts do not count. A $7,500 rollover needs $7,500 of the kid’s own […]

Guides › Roth Conversions Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: a beneficiary change is free, unlimited and instant; the Roth rollover is capped, slow and one-way. Change the beneficiary when anyone in the family might use the money for education; roll to the Roth when the education mission is truly over. The wrong-order mistake is […]