Money Decoded

Is the 4% Rule Still Safe in 2026? What the Latest Research Actually Says The 4% rule is probably the single most repeated number in retirement planning — take 4% of your portfolio in year one, adjust that dollar amount for inflation every year after, and your money should last 30 years. It's also more misunderstood than almost any other rule of thumb in personal finance, and the research behind it has moved considerably since it was first published. Where the 4% Rule Actually Came From Financial planner William Bengen introduced the concept in 1994, testing every 30-year retirement period in U.S. market history going back to 1926 against a 50/50 stock-and-bond portfolio. His finding: 4.15% was the highest withdrawal rate that would have survived every single historical period without running out of money. That got rounded down to the now-famous "4%." Critically, it's not "withdraw 4% of your current balance every year." It's a fixed dollar amount,...

Do You Still Need a Will If You Have a Trust? (Pour-Over Wills Explained) A common assumption after setting up a living trust: "Great, I don't need a will anymore." That's not quite right — and skipping the will entirely can leave a real gap in your estate plan, no matter how well-funded your trust is. Why a Trust Alone Isn't Enough A living trust only controls the assets that are actually retitled into its name. In practice, almost everyone leaves something out — a bank account opened after the trust was created, a car never retitled, an inheritance received last year, or simply an asset forgotten during the initial funding process (the same funding mistake covered in our trusts guide). Whatever's left outside the trust when you die is treated as if you had no estate plan at all for that asset, and gets distributed according to your state's intestate succession laws — a fixed formula that may have nothing to do with what you actually wanted. Enter ...

How to Use Your HSA as a Secret Retirement Account Most people treat their HSA like a checking account for medical bills — deposit money, spend it on a doctor's visit, repeat. Used that way, you're leaving one of the best tax advantages in the entire tax code sitting on the table. Used differently, an HSA can quietly become one of the most powerful retirement accounts you have. The "Triple Tax Advantage" Nobody Else Offers No other account — not a 401(k), not a Roth IRA — gives you all three of these at once: Contributions are tax-deductible (or pre-tax if made through payroll) Growth is tax-free while invested inside the account Withdrawals are tax-free , as long as they're used for qualified medical expenses A 401(k) gives you the first two. A Roth IRA gives you the second two. An HSA is the only account that gives you all three. 2026 Contribution Limits Coverage Type 2026 Limit Self-only HDHP coverage $4,400 Family HDHP coverage $8,750 Catc...

Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts: Which One Do You Actually Need? Trusts get a reputation as something only wealthy families need, but the most common type — a revocable living trust — is really just a tool for skipping probate, and plenty of middle-class households use one for exactly that reason. The confusion usually starts when people don't realize "trust" actually covers two very different tools that solve two very different problems. Why Avoid Probate in the First Place? Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a will, notifying creditors, and distributing assets. It isn't free or fast: total costs typically run 3–8% of the estate's gross value between attorney fees, executor compensation, and court costs, and most estates take 9 to 18 months to fully close — sometimes considerably longer if there's a dispute or the estate is complex. On a $500,000 estate, that can mean $15,000–$40,000 gone before anything reaches your heirs, plus the a...

Is Social Security Taxable? How the 2026 Rules Actually Work A lot of retirees are caught off guard the first year they file taxes after claiming Social Security: benefits they assumed were tax-free show up as partially taxable income. Whether that happens to you — and how much — comes down to a formula most people have never heard of: provisional income. What Is Provisional Income? The IRS doesn't look at your Social Security benefit in isolation. It calculates a separate number called provisional income (sometimes called "combined income"): Provisional Income = Adjusted Gross Income (excluding Social Security) + Tax-Exempt Interest + 50% of Your Social Security Benefits That total gets compared against fixed thresholds to determine how much of your benefit — if any — becomes taxable. The 2026 Thresholds Filing Status Provisional Income Taxable Portion of Benefits Single / Head of Household Below $25,000 0% $25,000–$34,000 Up to 50% Above $34,000 Up to 85...

What Is the Estate Tax Exemption in 2026, and Who Actually Pays It? Every year around this time, someone reads a scary headline about "the estate tax" and assumes they need to worry about it. For the overwhelming majority of Americans, they don't — but the details matter, especially if you own a home in a high-cost area, have a life insurance policy, or live in one of the roughly dozen states that tax estates at a much lower threshold than the federal government does. The 2026 Numbers Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made the higher exemption permanent instead of letting it expire at the end of 2025, the federal estate and gift tax exemption for 2026 is: Figure 2026 Amount Lifetime estate + gift tax exemption (per person) $15,000,000 Combined exemption for a married couple $30,000,000 Annual gift exclusion (per recipient, no filing needed) $19,000 Annual gift exclusion, married couple gift-splitting $38,000 Gifts to a non-U.S.-citizen spouse (...