Small tools that answer one question each.
No login and no email required. Each takes a few inputs and shows what the rules say about them, the same answer for anyone who enters the same thing.
64 tools on 8 shelves
Saving while you work
How much can I put away, and where?
The conversion, the basis, and every other IRA balance
Backdoor Roth pro-rata calculator
How much of a Roth conversion is taxable when other pre-tax IRAs exist, the way Form 8606 computes it: the basis share of the whole pool, the taxable part, the tax at your rate, and the basis left behind for next year.
Open the toolThe first year funded, your age, and the account's layers
Roth five-year rule calculator
Both five-year clocks, one for the account and one per conversion, and what a withdrawal would cost today layer by layer: contributions, conversions in order, then earnings, with the tax and penalty on each.
Open the toolLast year's tax, this year's, and what is paid in
Estimated tax safe harbor
The smallest amount that has to be paid in during the year to owe no underpayment penalty, how far short the year is, and the year-end withholding from an IRA or pension distribution that closes the gap, since withholding counts as paid all year.
Open the toolYour age, your plan, your health coverage
How much can I save this year?
Every 2026 limit that applies at your age, added up: the workplace plan and its catch-up (larger at 60 through 63), the IRA and its catch-up, the HSA and its catch-up from 55, for you and a spouse. Each account on its own line.
Open the toolThe contribution, your two tax rates, the years, and a return
Roth or traditional 401(k)?
Roth against traditional at the same cost to your paycheck: the contribution grown at one return and taxed at today's rate on the way in or the retirement rate on the way out, with the break-even rate and the full-contribution framing beside it. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe income, the years, the debts, and what is already in place
How much life insurance do you need?
The need built from its parts: the present value of the income to replace as a growing annuity, plus debts, final expenses, and an education fund, less existing coverage and savings, beside the ten-times-income rule of thumb. Hypothetical, every input yours.
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Your house and your mortgage
What does the house cost me, and what would selling or borrowing change?
Cost, value at death, sale price, and months since
Home sale exclusion for a surviving spouse
The two-year window in which a surviving spouse keeps the joint exclusion, stacked on the stepped-up basis: the gain, what is excluded, what is taxable, and what the same sale would owe past the window. With the partial exclusion for an early move.
Open the toolCounty, assessed value, age, and income
Illinois senior property tax exemptions
Which homestead exemptions apply and what each saves at your rate: the general exemption, the senior exemption from 65, and the assessment freeze for seniors with household income under the 75,000 limit, by county class.
Open the toolThe sale, the cost, the depreciation, and the years rented
Home sale exclusion after renting it out
How much of the gain is still excluded when the home was a rental before you moved in: the rental years' share taxed, the depreciation taxed at 25 percent, and the rest excluded, with the tax against a home never rented.
Open the toolThe house, its costs, rent, and a return
Sell or keep the house?
Staying against selling and renting, year by year at your assumptions: the equity and carrying costs on one side, the invested proceeds and rent on the other, with the position after the years you choose. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe loan, the extra each month, and a return
Pay off the mortgage or invest?
The same extra dollars sent to the mortgage or invested, month by month over the remaining term: the payoff date, the interest saved, the freed payment invested afterward, and the position each way at the original end date, with the optional interest deduction. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolNet worth, income, the years left, and the auto and home limits
How much umbrella coverage do you need?
An umbrella policy sized from what a judgment could reach: net worth outside protected retirement accounts plus the garnishable share of future pay, less the liability limits already on the auto and home policies, rounded up to the million-dollar steps umbrellas come in. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe rebuild cost, the dwelling coverage, and a loss to test
Is your home underinsured? The 80 percent rule
The coinsurance rule on a homeowners policy: the coverage the policy requires as a share of the cost to rebuild, and what a claim pays when the coverage falls short, in proportion, less the deductible, up to the limit. Rebuild cost from square feet or entered directly. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe two deductibles, the premium at each, and how often you claim
Raise the deductible? The break-even
The premium saved each year against the extra paid on each claim, the break-even as one claim every so many years, the position over the years with no claims, one, and two, and whether the higher deductible could be paid from savings tomorrow. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolBoth loans, the closing costs, and how long you will keep the home
Refinance break-even: when the new loan pays for itself
The month a refinance has paid for its closing costs, counted two ways: the rule of thumb, costs over the monthly saving, beside the month-by-month count of interest charged on each loan, with the lifetime interest each way, the reset-the-clock effect on a longer term, and the verdict at the year you expect to leave. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe loan, the two rates, and a return on the difference
15-year or 30-year mortgage?
A 15-year and a 30-year mortgage run side by side with the same cash spent on both: the 15-year payment invested once the loan is gone against the difference invested for thirty years, the positions at year 15 and year 30, the interest each way, and the return that makes the two equal. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolThe loan, the lender's terms for the points, and how long you will keep it
Should you buy points? The break-even on a rate buydown
The month discount points have paid for themselves, counted two ways: the rule of thumb, cost over the monthly saving, beside the month-by-month count of interest on each loan, with the position at the year you expect to leave, the yearly return the points earn against the mortgage rate, a table by points count, and a seller credit toward points set against the same dollars off the price. Hypothetical, every input yours.
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Taxes in retirement
What will taxes look like once I stop working?
One input: your birth month
Your retirement timeline
Every age-based rule on the retirement calendar, each with its date. Catch-up limits, the rule of 55, the Social Security ages, the Medicare window, required distributions.
Open the toolNo inputs: the year's table
The retirement numbers
Every figure that changed for 2026, each with the release that set it: plan and IRA limits, HSA, the Social Security wage base and earnings test, Medicare premiums and tiers, the standard and senior deductions, gift and estate exclusions.
Open the toolOne input: 2024 income
IRMAA calculator
Which Medicare income tier a 2024 income lands in for 2026, what the step costs for the year, and how close the next threshold is. From the CMS tables.
Open the toolThree inputs: last December's balance, your birth year, and an assumed return
RMD calculator
This year's required minimum distribution from the Uniform Lifetime Table, the year the first one lands under SECURE 2.0, and the next ten years as a chart.
Open the toolThree inputs: this year's income, your filing status, and how much to convert
Roth conversion room
How much ordinary income fits before the next federal bracket and before the next Medicare tier under 2026 law, and what a conversion of any size costs. The brackets drawn as a bar, the Medicare cliffs marked.
Open the toolA balance, a spending level, and the assumptions on sliders
Will my money last?
A year-by-year projection: the age the money runs short, or the balance left at your planning age, and the spending that would last exactly. Hypothetical, with the method on the page.
Open the toolThe monthly pension, the lump sum offered instead, and the assumptions on sliders
Pension or lump sum?
Invest the lump sum and pay yourself the pension: the age it runs out, and the break-even return at which the two tie. Hypothetical, with the method on the page.
Open the toolTwo benefits and the household's other income
Widow's penalty calculator
The federal tax as a couple against the tax as a survivor, on the same income and on the income that continues, from the 2026 brackets, deductions, Social Security thresholds, and Medicare tiers. The year the joint return runs out, in one number.
Open the toolRetirement income and other income
Illinois retirement income tax
What Illinois taxes in retirement and what it leaves alone, with the statute for each line: Social Security, pensions, and IRA withdrawals are subtracted; wages, interest, dividends, and gains are taxed at the flat rate. The bill, and what the subtraction is worth.
Open the toolIncome, filing status, and a gain on a slider
Capital gains harvesting room
How much long-term gain fits in this year's 0 percent band, and what a larger gain costs as it climbs into 15 and 20 percent, the 3.8 percent surtax, and the next Medicare tier. From the 2026 tables.
Open the toolThe gift, the household's income, and its Social Security
QCD or cash gift?
Whether a gift from an IRA beats a check, and by how much: the tax and Medicare premiums each way, through the taxable share of Social Security, the senior deduction, and the brackets. 2026 figures, the limit included.
Open the toolSocial Security, other income, and a step
Real marginal rate calculator
What the next dollar of IRA withdrawal really costs once it pulls more Social Security into income, shrinks the senior deduction, and nudges a Medicare tier: the rate on the step, what drove it, and the whole curve. 2026 figures.
Open the toolThe event and two years' income
IRMAA appeal checker
Whether a life-changing event lets you ask Social Security to set the Medicare surcharge from this year's income instead of the lookback year, which events count and which do not, and what the appeal is worth per year.
Open the toolThe balance, your age, and a rate
72(t) payments calculator
The yearly withdrawal you can take from a retirement account before 59½ without the penalty, by the amortization and required-minimum-distribution methods on the Single Life Table, with the 5 percent rate floor the rules always allow, and the years the series must continue.
Open the toolThe balance, other income, and a bracket to fill
Roth conversion ladder planner
A conversion in yearly slices, each sized to the top of a bracket, run forward until the balance is gone: the slice, the tax, and the Medicare tier for each year, the total, and what is left. 2026 tables held constant.
Open the toolThe balance, your birth year, and the household's income
First RMD timing
The first required withdrawal in its own year, or delayed to April 1 with two the next year: the federal tax over the two years each way, the Medicare tiers, and the difference.
Open the toolIncome, taxes paid, mortgage interest, and yearly gifts
Charitable bunching calculator
Giving evenly against giving several years at once and itemizing that year, under the 2026 rules: the state and local tax cap, the charitable floor, the non-itemizer deduction, and the standard deduction to beat. The tax each way and the saving.
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Medicare, insurance, and long-term care
What will care cost, and who pays?
Two inputs: what was given away, and the facility's rate
Illinois Medicaid long-term care figures
The 2026 Illinois figures an elder-law practice needs every January, each with its notice or manual: what the spouse at home may keep, the monthly allowance, the home equity and resource limits, the look-back, and a penalty-period calculator that uses the state's own method.
Open the toolOne input: your birth month
Medicare enrollment window
The seven-month window dated to a birth month, when coverage starts depending on when you sign up, the general enrollment fallback, and the lifetime Part B and Part D penalties for any delay, on the 2026 premiums.
Open the toolCountable assets, the monthly rate, and income
Illinois private-pay runway
How many months of nursing-home costs a household can pay before Illinois Medicaid could begin, under the 2026 figures for what the person and a spouse at home may keep.
Open the toolToday's monthly rate, inflation, and the years
Long-term care cost projection
What a stretch of care could cost by the time it begins: today's rate grown at care inflation to the start year, summed over the years of care, and the set-aside today that would cover it. Hypothetical, every input yours.
Open the toolBoth spouses' monthly incomes
Illinois spousal income allowance
How a couple's income divides once one spouse is on Illinois Medicaid in a nursing home: the spouse at home's allowance, the income shifted to reach it, the personal needs allowance, and the patient's share, on the 2026 figures.
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Divorce
How do the accounts, the house, and the benefits divide?
The accounts, the split, and each spouse's rates
Dividing retirement accounts in divorce
What each spouse's share of the pre-tax, Roth, and brokerage accounts is worth after tax, at each spouse's own rate: the gap an equal split hides, and the court-order rule that lets a 401(k) share be tapped without the early penalty.
Open the toolThe house, its mortgage and cost, the IRA, and your rates
The house or the IRA in a divorce
The house after the mortgage, selling costs, and the tax on its gain above the single filer's exclusion, against the IRA after income tax: what each is worth, and the IRA that would match the house.
Open the toolTwo incomes and the years of marriage
Illinois maintenance guideline calculator
What the Illinois guideline formula sets: a third of the paying spouse's net income less a quarter of the receiving spouse's, held to the 40 percent ceiling, and how long it lasts by the length of the marriage. Net income approximated from the year's tax figures; the court's table governs.
Open the toolThe years before, during, and after the marriage, and the monthly pension
Marital share of a pension in an Illinois divorce
The Hunt formula Illinois courts use: years in the plan during the marriage over all the years at retirement, the former spouse's share of each check, and the smaller figure if the benefit were frozen at the divorce. QILDRO for public pensions, QDRO for private plans.
Open the toolThe monthly amount, the months left, a rate, and the lump sum on the table
Maintenance buyout: lump sum or monthly payments?
What the monthly payments are worth today at your discount rate, the same after an allowance for payments stopping early, the monthly payment a proposed lump sum would replace, and the rate at which the two are equal. Hypothetical, every input yours.
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Estate and inheritance
What passes, what is taxed, and what does a trust cost?
One input: a taxable estate
Illinois estate tax calculator
What Illinois and the federal government would each claim under 2026 law, computed the way the state itself computes it and checked against the state's own examples. Key numbers, worked examples, methodology, and sources on the same page; free to cite or embed.
Open the toolOne input: what a trust keeps this year
Trust income tax brackets
The 2026 federal brackets for estates and trusts, and what the same dollars would cost in a beneficiary's hands. A trust reaches the top rate at a fraction of an individual's income; this shows exactly where.
Open the toolThe beneficiary, the account, and two years
Inherited IRA rules
Which post-death rule applies under the 2024 final regulations: the ten-year rule, the five-year rule, life expectancy, or a spouse's choice; by what year the account must be empty; and whether anything is due each year in between.
Open the toolCost, value at death, and how it was titled
Step-up in basis calculator
The new basis after a spouse dies and the gain that disappears, by form of ownership: sole, joint, community property, tenancy in common. Illinois is a common-law state, so a couple's joint asset steps up by half; the table says why.
Open the toolThe trust's income and the beneficiary's
Distribute or retain? Trust income
The same income taxed inside the trust at the compressed 2026 brackets and the surtax, or carried out to a beneficiary and taxed on top of their own income. The tax each way, the surtax each way, and the saving; the brackets side by side.
Open the toolThe shares' value, their cost, and your rates
Net unrealized appreciation calculator
Employer stock in a 401(k), two ways out: the special election that taxes only the cost now and the growth as capital gain at sale, against a rollover that taxes everything as ordinary income. The tax each way and the saving.
Open the toolThe gift, who gets it, and what kind
Gift tax return checker
Whether a gift needs a return and how much of it counts against the lifetime exclusion: the 2026 annual exclusion, gift-splitting, direct tuition and medical payments, the 529 five-year election, and gifts to a spouse. No tax until the lifetime amount is used up.
Open the toolWhat the first spouse left to others, and the survivor's estate
Portability election calculator
What filing an estate tax return at the first death, to carry the unused federal exclusion to the survivor, is worth: the unused amount, the survivor's exclusion each way, the federal tax each way, and the Illinois tax that does not change.
Open the toolThe inheritance, its yield, and the heir's income
Inheritance in trust or outright
The yearly tax on an inheritance's income kept in a trust against the same income in the heir's hands, at the 2026 tables, compounded over the years you choose: the drag the trust's protection costs.
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Selling a business
What do I keep after the sale?
The gain, the basis, when the stock was issued, and how long it was held
QSBS exclusion calculator
How much gain on qualified small business stock is excluded under § 1202 as amended in 2025, which cap binds, and what the rest costs at the 28 percent rate plus the surtax. The tiered holding period for new stock, in one table.
Open the toolThe price, basis, down payment, and note terms
Installment sale of a business
The tax each year when a business is sold for a down payment and a note: the share of every payment that is gain, the depreciation recapture taxed in the year of sale, the interest, and the tax deferred against an all-cash sale.
Open the toolThe price, the corporation's basis, and your stock basis
Asset sale or stock sale? The double tax on a C corporation
What you keep from selling a C corporation's assets against selling its stock: the corporate tax, the tax on the liquidation, the double-tax cost, and the asset price that would make the two equal.
Open the toolThe allocation to each class and your rates
Purchase price allocation: what the seller keeps
The price of a business allocated among its assets the way Form 8594 does it, with the seller's tax on each class, what the seller keeps, the ordinary and capital shares, and what moving dollars from a covenant to goodwill is worth.
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What these are. Educational tools built from the public rules and published formulas, with the assumptions written out on each page. Dates and estimates only. They are not advice: what a date or a figure should mean for your own money depends on your own situation.
Attorneys, CPAs, agents, writers, educators. Link to these, cite them, embed them, download the charts. No form to fill in. The tools by the kind of firm you are.