Articles
One money question a day, answered with the math.
A new article every morning from James Ustby, CFP®, APMA®. Each one answers a single question a retiree, a saver, or a business owner would ask a planner, shows the arithmetic, and links the primary source for every figure.
How does an installment sale spread capital gains tax?
An installment sale lets a seller report gain as payments arrive. That can keep more gain in lower brackets, but a note over $5 million adds interest.
Asset sale vs stock sale: which costs the seller more in tax?
An asset sale usually costs the seller more. It can turn part of the gain into ordinary income and, for a C corporation, tax the same gain twice.
What is exit planning and when should a business owner start?
Exit planning is the work of turning a business into after-tax wealth on your terms. Many of the moves that matter need three to five years of lead time.
Should I roll my 401(k) into an IRA when I retire?
Rolling a 401(k) into an IRA can widen choices and simplify withdrawals, but keeping the plan can win if you retire at 55 to 59 or hold company stock.
What should you do with the money after you sell your business?
Set aside the tax first, park the rest somewhere safe and boring, and give yourself 90 days to plan. On a $5,000,000 sale the tax can top $1.2 million.
Is it worth paying a financial advisor a 1 percent fee?
A 1 percent fee is worth it only if the planning, tax and behavior help you get is worth more than the dollars. Start by putting the fee in dollars.
What age should you take Social Security if you are married?
For many couples, the higher earner waiting toward 70 matters most, because that check becomes the survivor's. Here is the math for one example couple.
How do I value a closely held business before a sale?
Fair market value is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller with full facts. Three approaches, a table, and the IRS rules that frame the work.
What is a cash balance plan and how much can an owner put in?
A cash balance plan is a pension that can let an older, high-earning owner set aside far more than a 401(k) allows. Here are the 2026 limits and the math.
How much do you lose by claiming Social Security at 62 instead of 67?
Claiming at 62 cuts your check by 30 percent for life if your full retirement age is 67. Here is the math, the break-even age, and who should claim early.
How much monthly income does $1 million generate in retirement?
About $3,300 a month before tax at a 4 percent withdrawal rate, and the real answer depends on taxes, Social Security, and which year you retire. Here is the math.
The municipal ladder rested on 6.82 basis points of margin. North Carolina takes 17.99.
Interest from other states' bonds is added back on the North Carolina return while Treasury interest is deducted on the same return, and that asymmetry...
A high-tax state makes converting worse, not better. The threshold is 5.58 points.
North Carolina's 3.99% rate read off the state's own page, why that rate cancels out entirely unless the parents and the child live in different...
Nine small years and one enormous one. The heir's rate was the smaller half of the argument.
What an inherited traditional IRA actually does to a 48-year-old child across ten years, why a Roth heir is bound by a different rule entirely, and the...
Every conversion this month was sized against $1,200,000. The convertible balance is $1,154,716.98.
The required distribution comes out first and can never be converted. Re-running September 18 through September 24 with that in front of them, and what...
The enrollment window opens October 15. It cannot move one dollar of her premium.
What the October window actually changes, what prices the surcharge instead, and the one form that reaches backward. Every date and figure verified at...
Her required distribution started this year, not in 2028. I had the date wrong.
Required distributions begin at 73, and this household is 73. That is $45,283.02 due December 31, it takes $1,004,058.07 of municipal capacity off the...
Her budget is not $71,600 of muni interest. It is $71,600 of anything.
Yesterday's instruction named the wrong quantity. Every countable dollar the portfolio produces draws on the same $71,600, which leaves $12,416.85 with...
The muni ladder yields 4.51%, not 3.33%. We had the wrong number.
We went looking for the 4.33% that would have saved last Monday's trade and found it on the same page we quoted from. The correction is worth...
One decision this week moved $146,518. Two moved nothing.
Eight letters, one household, every decision ranked by the dollars it actually moved. The largest number belongs to the choice that sounded safest, and...
The same conversion costs $9,247 less in the year he dies.
Joint brackets on one person's income, and one Medicare premium instead of two. The payback goes from 10.91 years to 8.18, and the deadline is December 31.
Yesterday's answer survives a 0.57% return. Nothing else.
We let the IRA grow. At 5% she has to convert $166,465 instead of $73,400, it costs $36,860.17 including a surcharge they trigger on themselves, and...
Friday's conversion took 22.5 years to pay back. This one takes 4.4.
After the muni swap, the first $20,661 costs 20.75%, the next $52,739 costs 12.00%, and a Medicare line $523 away does the rest.
Their tax bill drops 92%. They end up $14,652 poorer.
We swapped the $1,600,000 ladder into municipal bonds and reran the week. The break-even municipal yield is 4.33%. The market is paying 3.33%.
The conversion costs $16,522. It saves her $733 a year.
We spent the week pricing the widow’s penalty. Today we test whether the standard fix pays for it. The payback is 22.5 years.
Her income fell 18%. Her tax bill rose 36%.
When one spouse dies the survivor files single. Every threshold halves and the income does not. The arithmetic on the same household.
One dollar over $274,000 costs $3,472.80.
Medicare reads the return you filed two years ago and the brackets are cliffs. Yesterday's conversion just bought a 46.2% marginal rate on its last...
A Roth conversion is not investment income. It still triggers the 3.8%.
The $250,000 surtax threshold has not moved since 2013. Indexed to CPI it would be $359,487. Here is what that gap costs on a $150,000 conversion.
Gold is 21% off its high. Your rate on it is still 28%.
A gold fund is taxed at your ordinary rate, capped at 28%, not the 15% every other fund gets. On a $160,000 gain that gap is $20,800.
Oil crossed $100. Your bonds paid for it.
The safe half of the portfolio lost more than the risky half. Here is the arithmetic, and what CPI at 8:30 does to it.
Why the 5.25% bond pays less than the 3.25% one
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 · Markets, tax and estate planning for people who earn well
The Medicare surcharge that bills you for a tax return you filed two years ago
Medicare looks at the return you filed two years ago. For 2026, that is your 2024 income, and the line has no ramp.
The Four Cliffs
Four places in the tax code where one dollar of income costs far more than one dollar. The 2026 lines, what crossing each one costs, and a worksheet.
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