Articles — page 2
- Retirement
Roth 401(k) Five-Year Rule: What Rolling to a Roth IRA Does to the Clock
A Roth 401(k) and a Roth IRA keep separate five-year clocks, and the plan’s does not travel with the money. Whether that costs you years turns on one question, and the fix costs $100 if you make it early enough.
Aug 27, 2026 - Personal Finance
Do You Need an LLC for a Side Hustle?
A single-member LLC is disregarded for tax, so it changes nothing about what you owe. What it does change, what it costs to keep, and the profit level at which an S corporation election starts to pay for itself.
Aug 25, 2026 - Personal Finance
Quarterly Estimated Taxes: When Side Income Has to Be Paid Early
Paying in full by April is not enough, because the system cares when you paid. The four dates, the prior-year safe harbour that fixes the amount in advance, and the withholding trick that repairs a year you have already got wrong.
Aug 19, 2026 - Personal Finance
How Much Income Do I Need to Support Another Child?
The salary a second child needs, what it costs each month, why it is cheaper than the first, and the childcare years that decide the answer. With a calculator that prices those years rather than the average.
Aug 12, 2026 - Personal Finance
Side Hustle Taxes: What You Keep From Freelance Income
Self-employment tax is 15.3%, it starts at $400 of profit, and nobody withholds it. Work out what stays in your account after both taxes, including the salary effect that cuts the rate to 2.9%.
Aug 4, 2026 - Investing
Recession Indicators: Which Ones Still Work, and Which Ones Broke
The yield curve is still described as having predicted every recession, and the Sahm Rule as never having failed. Neither is true any more. What each indicator measures, which ones still earn attention, and why eleven recessions is too small a sample.
Jul 30, 2026 - Retirement
Solo 401(k) or SEP IRA: Which Shelters More Side Income?
Both cap at $72,000 for 2026 and they fill up completely differently. On modest side income the Solo 401(k) shelters several times more, unless your day job has already used your deferral, which reverses the answer.
Jul 22, 2026 - Personal Finance
How Much Salary Do I Need to Afford a $700k House?
What a $700,000 house costs every month once upkeep is counted, the income a lender wants at 20%, 10% and 5% down, and the reserve test no affordability calculator runs.
Jul 15, 2026 - Retirement
What Happens to Your 401(k) If Your Company Goes Bankrupt or Is Acquired?
Your balance sits in a trust creditors cannot reach. What is genuinely at risk is unvested employer match, and a layoff round may have made it 100% yours already.
Jul 9, 2026 - Investing
Bear Market or Bull Market: How to Tell Which One You Are In
The 20% threshold is a convention nobody wrote down, and it is confirmed at the moment it stops being useful. What the labels do and do not tell you, how often each happens, and why bull markets running longer is the fact that matters.
Jul 7, 2026
