Blog

We ran a $50,000 leftover 529 balance through the SECURE 2.0 rollover math — the $35,000 lifetime cap strands $15,000 permanently, and even the eligible portion takes 5 years to move at the annual Roth contribution limit.

We ran $10,000 needed for tuition through the calculator — the 2026-27 Parent PLUS rate of 9.07% plus its 4.228% origination fee costs about $1,360 more over 10 years than an 8% private loan with no fee.

We ran two versions of the same combined-income household through the qualifying math, changing only one partner's monthly debt by $2,000 — the back-end DTI moves from 41% (qualifies) to 61% (likely doesn't).

Base salary is the number founders budget. Employer payroll tax (8.65%) plus a 30% benefits load push an $80,000 salary to a true $110,920 annual cost — 38.65% above the headline number.

We ran a 10-year marriage with a $120K and a $40K earner through Illinois's actual statutory maintenance formula — the raw guideline comes to $30K/year, capped down to $24K/year, for an estimated 4.4 years.

We ran $200K of premarital business equity through the expected-value math: 50% likely split without a prenup, times a 41% divorce probability, comes to $41,000 of expected risk against a $4,000 attorney bill.

On a $2,800 deceased-spouse benefit, claiming at the earliest allowed age of 60 pays $2,002/month. Waiting to Full Retirement Age pays the full $2,800. The gap is permanent, not a temporary reduction.

20 hours a week at $25/hour, 52 weeks a year, comes to $26,000 — over the 2025 gift-tax exclusion if paid informally, but ordinary taxable compensation under a written personal care agreement.

We ran a $15,000 custodial brokerage account through the kiddie tax calculator for high-bracket parents — $12,300 of it gets taxed at the parent's marginal rate, not the child's, once unearned income clears the $2,700 threshold.

Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, and Apple TV+ running year-round cost $887.40/year. Setting realistic seasonal active-months for each one dropped that to $331.80 — a 62% cut, no cancellations of things we'd actually miss.

We priced 5 days a week of adult day care at $85/day ($21,250/year) against the same coverage in paid home-aide hours ($76,500/year) — the option between quitting a job and a full facility move that most working caregivers overlook.

A 2026 survey pegs the average household's forgotten-subscription waste at $384/year; a separate 2025 survey put it at $204. We ran two typical forgotten charges through the math and got $169.87 — below average, still real money.

We ran a $15,000 home modification budget against a $5,900/month assisted-living alternative — if it buys 3 more years at home, the breakeven arrives in 3.8 months and net savings hit $125,400.

IRMAA isn't a progressive bracket. Cross a MAGI threshold by $1 and your entire Part B and Part D premium jumps to the next tier for the full year, based on income from two years prior.

We ran $200K cash, $25K/month burn, and $5K MRR growing 12%/month through a month-by-month simulator — the revenue ramp reaches breakeven before the static cash-divided-by-burn estimate would suggest the money runs out.