Ignis Learn

Long-term capital gains use their own bracket system — 0%, 15%, or 20% — but they stack on top of ordinary income. Here's how the stacking works, the 2026 thresholds, the special rates for collectibles (28%) and depreciation recapture (25%), and when the 0% bracket can be a planning goldmine.

Your marginal rate is the tax on your next dollar of income; your effective rate is the average rate you actually pay. They're often 5-10 percentage points apart, and using the wrong one for a decision can cost thousands. Here's when each applies.

With 2026 standard deductions at $32,200 MFJ and $16,100 single — plus the new $40,400 SALT cap under OBBBA — most filers take the standard deduction. Here's when itemizing still wins, the bunching strategy that makes itemizing work, and how to maximize whichever choice fits.

What claiming Social Security at each age actually delivers in monthly income, lifetime dollars, and present value — with worked examples at multiple benefit levels and the breakeven ages that change the decision.

Up to 85% of Social Security benefits are taxable based on combined income — and the thresholds haven't been indexed since 1983. How the calculation works, the tax torpedo effect, and strategies to coordinate Social Security with Roth conversions and RMDs.

How spousal benefits (up to 50% of the worker's PIA) and survivor benefits (up to 100%) work — plus divorce rules, remarriage effects, and how the higher earner's claim age shapes the ultimate survivor benefit.

How the return of the 400% FPL cliff in 2026 changes Roth conversion planning for pre-Medicare retirees — plus the math on what crossing the cliff actually costs.

How the Medicare IRMAA surcharge interacts with Roth conversions, the two-year lookback that catches people off guard, and the 2026 tier thresholds that determine how much room you actually have.

How to use a multi-year Roth conversion strategy to bridge early retirement to age 59½ without paying the 10% penalty. Full math, real 2026 numbers, and the pitfalls most guides skip.

The SECURE Act's 10-year rule, the IRS's 2024 final regulations requiring annual RMDs for most non-spouse beneficiaries, and the eligible designated beneficiary categories that still allow lifetime stretches.

Qualified Charitable Distributions let retirees age 70½+ send up to $111,000 directly from an IRA to charity in 2026 — satisfying RMDs without adding to taxable income. The mechanics, the 2026 charitable deduction changes that made QCDs more valuable, and the edge cases.

The formulas, IRS life expectancy tables, and worked examples for calculating RMDs at every age — plus the edge cases that trip up most retirees in their first RMD year.

Bonds generate ordinary-rate interest that's poorly suited to taxable accounts for most investors. Here's the case for bonds-in-traditional-IRA, the nuances that complicate it, and when municipal bonds in taxable actually beat the default rule.

Market movements cause portfolios to drift from target allocation. Rebalancing restores the target — but rebalancing in taxable accounts creates capital gains tax that can erase years of asset location savings. Here's how to rebalance smartly.

Roth IRAs offer tax-free growth forever, no RMDs, and tax-free inheritance for beneficiaries. That makes them the ideal home for your highest-expected-return assets — but the conventional wisdom needs nuance around risk, age, and bequest goals.

The pre-RMD window from retirement through age 73 is usually the lowest-tax-bracket window you'll ever have. Here's how to use intentional traditional IRA withdrawals to permanently reduce lifetime taxes, with worked examples at different asset levels.

A bad market in your first 5-10 years of retirement can deplete savings permanently even if long-term averages hold. Here's how sequence risk works, why it's different from market risk, and the withdrawal and bucket strategies that defend against it.

When one spouse dies, the survivor's tax brackets compress dramatically. A withdrawal sequence optimized for MFJ filing can create severe tax consequences for the surviving spouse. Here's how to plan coordinated withdrawals that protect both spouses.

Premium variation across states, Medicaid expansion status, and state-funded subsidies — how geography shapes what you actually pay for pre-Medicare healthcare in 2026.

The ACA subsidy cliff is back in 2026 — one dollar over 400% of the federal poverty level eliminates premium tax credits entirely. Real dollar costs at every income level, age, and premium market.

A decision framework for pre-Medicare health coverage: when COBRA beats the marketplace, when HSA strategy pays off, and how to combine options for the 10-to-20-year gap before 65.

Beneficiary designations override your will. They control directly who receives retirement accounts, life insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts. Done wrong, they trigger accelerated taxation, probate, or transfers to unintended heirs. Here's how to get them right.

Twelve states plus DC levy their own estate taxes, often at exemption thresholds far below the federal $15 million. Oregon starts at $1 million; Washington's top rate is temporarily 35%; New York has a cliff provision that can tax your entire estate if you exceed the exemption by just 5%. Where you live — and where you own property — can cost your heirs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When you inherit an appreciated asset, its cost basis resets to fair market value at the date of death — erasing all accumulated capital gains. For most families, step-up in basis is worth more than any federal estate tax planning, and it remains fully intact under OBBBA.

The Trinity Study is solid empirical work — for portfolios that fund retirement by selling shares. For portfolios designed to live on income without touching principal, the 4% rule asks the wrong question. Here's where the two approaches diverge and how to decide which one fits your strategy.

Dividends have been cut, suspended, and gutted repeatedly over the past 17 years — sometimes by companies that looked bulletproof months before. Understanding when and why those cuts happened is the foundation of building a portfolio that doesn't rely on hoping it won't happen to you.

Four funds, four philosophies. Each makes a specific bet about what makes a dividend worth owning, and those bets produce dramatically different income trajectories over a 20-year retirement. Plus: where covered-call ETFs like JEPI fit (and don't).

The math is simpler than most people think — but the inputs are where it gets interesting. Starting yield, dividend growth rate, and time horizon drive the answer more than portfolio size. Here's how to compute a real income target and the three inputs that actually matter.

Both methods have blind spots. Historical simulation is grounded in real catastrophes (1929, 1966) but constrained by ~120 non-overlapping 30-year sequences. Monte Carlo generates unlimited synthetic histories but only as good as its inputs. Here's what each tells you and when to reach for which.