Sean Mullaney's Blog

There’s a temptation to boil personal finance down to calculators and spreadsheets. Can I retire? Should I do Roth conversions? When should I take Social Security? Many say “find the right retirement calculator” or “put together a spreadsheet” and use that to make the decision. I’ve thought about this issue often during my career as […]

I presented Tax Planning for the Five Phases of Retirement at the October 2025 Bogleheads Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Highlights of the presentation include, but are not limited to, the following: Tailored Taxable Roth Conversions (TTRCs) 7:48 The Hidden Roth IRA 13:20 Might Half Your Income Be Tax Free in Retirement? 19:43 7 Ways […]

Basis in IRAs is a funny thing. It necessitates the Pro-Rata Rule, one of the least understood tax rules affecting financial planning. IRA basis creates all sorts of confusion, making traditional IRAs less user friendly.  Further, the value of basis in a traditional IRA is whittled away by inflation. Basis is generally the undistributed prior […]

Booming stock markets. Job dissatisfaction. The explosion of 401(k)s since the 1980s. The itch to travel. The desire not to worry about Monday morning.  We may be on the threshold of an early retirement boom. Many potential early retirees will find the lion’s share of their financial assets are in a traditional 401(k) or traditional […]

I suspect you’re here because you recently received a bill from your financial institution. It’s called a Form 1099-DIV. Oddly, the financial institution isn’t demanding a penny of payment. Rather, your 1099-DIV prompts the IRS and your state tax agency (in most states) to expect the payment of income tax with respect to your financial […]

People worry about taxation in retirement. In particular, they worry about the taxation of required minimum distributions (RMDs), especially after the death of a spouse. Widows find themselves in the single tax brackets after decades of enjoying the more favorable married filing jointly tax brackets.  Widows and widowers finding themselves as single taxpayers is often […]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The Christmas season (ending January 11th this year) coincides with the beginning of personal finance’s Backdoor Roth IRA season.  Many readers look forward to New Year’s Day not to watch the Rose Bowl but rather to contribute to a traditional IRA, the first step of the Backdoor Roth IRA.  […]

It happens all the time. People contribute to a Roth IRA only to find out at tax time they made too much income to have made the Roth IRA contribution.  There are two primary ways to correct this situation. They are a recharacterization and a corrective distribution. Both are entirely valid remedial paths when it […]

Fear is prevalent. ACA Premium Tax Credits are going away!!! The 400 percent cliff will ruin your early retirement!!! Neither of these is true. But the messages are out there. Yes, the Premium Tax Credit for 2026 is very unsettled. Could it create problems for early retirees in 2026? Yes. But now is the time […]

It’s that time of year again. The air is cool and the New York Jets season is over. That can only mean one thing when it comes to personal finance: time to start thinking about year-end tax planning. I’ll provide some commentary about year-end tax planning to consider, with headings corresponding to the timeframe required […]