Saturday, Sep 5, 2026
Editor, investing and retirement
Daniel covers retirement accounts and education savings, and keeps the contribution limits current each year.
Daniel edits the investing and family-money desks: 401(k) and IRA limits, catch-up rules, Roth versus traditional, 529 plans and the gift-tax treatment that sits behind them.
Most of what he edits is annual-limit content, which means it is wrong for a predictable stretch of every year unless somebody is watching. He tracks the IRS release schedule so the pages move when the figures do, not weeks later.
Investing & Retirement Fidelity’s HSA is the default if you can open your own account, since it charges no account fee and lets your full balance be invested with no cash minimum held back. Lively is a close alternative wit
Investing & Retirement Every explainer says "it depends on your future tax rate." Almost none of them tell you how to guess at that.
Family & Legal Money If your own state offers a meaningful tax deduction for contributing to its own plan, use that plan first and stop there. If it does not, my529 is a strong default for its highly customizable investme
What care costs a year, what a dependent care FSA takes off it, and what share of the lower earner’s take-home pay is left once it is paid.
Investing & Retirement You can always contribute to a traditional IRA. Whether you can deduct it is a different question entirely.
Family & Legal Money Money goes in after tax, grows without tax, and comes out without tax if it is spent on the right things. The details decide whether that holds.
Family & Legal Money The credit is per child, it phases out above an income threshold, and part of it can come back as a refund even if you owe no tax.
Investing & Retirement What contributions and a match compound into over a working life, and the two places the projection stops telling the truth.
One number for your whole financial position, plus the version that matters in a crisis.
Investing & Retirement Turning 50 raises your 401(k) ceiling. Turning 60 raises it again, and only for four years.
Investing & Retirement Wealthfront if you want it fully automated, including tax-loss harvesting. If you are willing to buy one broad index fund and leave it alone, a plain Fidelity account costs less.
One question in disguise: will your tax rate be higher now, or later?
Annual spending divided by a withdrawal rate, and the assumptions that number hides.
Investing & Retirement Fidelity for almost every beginner: zero-fee index funds, no minimum, and it can hold your IRA too. Wealthfront if you would rather not choose funds at all. Robinhood only if a simple interface is wha
Investing & Retirement $7,500 for 2026, but whether you can deduct it depends on your income.
Investing & Retirement $24,500 in 2026, and more if you are over 50, with a bigger window at 60.
The size of the growth is not the interesting part. When it arrives is.
Pages Daniel Okonkwo checked against the primary source before publication.
