What changed.
Tax figures and content updates, by date.

April 2026

Pages added

• Cash Management: Where to Keep Idle Money Where to keep money you are not investing.
• Open a Roth IRA at Fidelity in 10 Minutes Click-by-click Roth IRA setup at Fidelity.
• Fidelity vs Vanguard vs Schwab Compared Fidelity vs Vanguard vs Schwab.
• How to Find a Fee-Only Fiduciary Advisor NAPFA, XYPN, fee-only vs commission.
• The Rule of 55: Penalty-Free 401(k) Access Early-401(k) access at 55.
• 72(t) SEPP: IRA Early Access Without Penalty IRA early access via SEPP.
• Roth 5-Year Rules: Two Separate Clocks Two separate Roth 5-year clocks explained.
• IRMAA: The Medicare Income Surcharge Medicare income surcharge.
• Whole Life vs Term Life vs IUL Compared Term + invest the difference math.
• Annuities: When They Help and When They Hurt When annuities make sense (and when they do not).
• Bitcoin in an IRA: ETF vs SDIRA vs Solo401k Three ways to hold BTC in a tax-advantaged account.
• Sparrow Wallet: Complete Setup Guide Complete Sparrow Wallet setup.
• Silent Payments: BIP 352 Explained BIP 352 explained.
• CoinJoin in 2026 After Samourai Shutdown What replaced Samourai in 2024.
• State Tax Residency and Domicile Changes Changing state tax residency.
• TSP: Federal Employee Retirement Plan The Thrift Savings Plan.
• Teachers: 403(b), 457, and Pension Decisions 403(b), 457(b), and the pension question.
• Site Changelog: What Changed and When This page.

Pages updated

• Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning Explained Added 1031 exchange, Donor-Advised Fund, Qualified Charitable Distribution, and Special Needs Trust sections.
• How to Actually Budget: Start with Fixed Expenses Added "Where the money actually goes" section using verified BLS CEX 2024 data ($78,535 average household spending) and Census 2024 median household income ($83,730).
• Financial Planning by Decade: 20s Through 60s Added net-worth-by-age section with Federal Reserve SCF 2022 medians.
• Social Security: When It Runs Out & What Happens Added "The retirement savings reality" section with the corrected 54% figure (more than half have no retirement account).
• Personal Finance Order of Operations Added "Simple budget frameworks" section comparing 50/30/20, 60/20/20, and the fixed-floor approach.
• Financial Q&A: Common Questions, Direct Answers Added 3 new Q&A entries: average net worth, average household spending, and how much to save.
• Bitcoin Scams: How to Spot Them Added 6 new sections: address poisoning, fake hardware wallets, SIM swap, phishing, exchange failures, and "what never happens."

Tax figures updated to 2026

• 2026 401(k) employee deferral: $24,500 (catch-up at 50+: $8,000).
• 2026 IRA contribution: $7,500 (catch-up at 50+: $1,100).
• 2026 HSA: $4,400 self-only / $8,750 family.
• 2026 Solo 401(k) total: $72,000.
• 2026 standard deduction: $16,100 single / $32,200 MFJ / $24,150 HOH.
• 2026 Social Security wage base: $184,500.
• 2026 Roth IRA phase-outs: Single $153,000-$168,000; MFJ $242,000-$252,000.
• TCJA: One Big Beautiful Bill Act (signed July 4, 2025) made most TCJA individual provisions permanent. The site was rewritten to reflect this throughout.

Yields and rates

• SPAXX/HYSA references updated from "4-5% APY" to "approximately 3-4% APY (as of April 2026)."
• Federal funds rate references updated to 3.5-3.75% as of April 2026.
• Average credit card APR updated to approximately 21% (Federal Reserve G.19 Q1 2026).
• M2 money supply current snapshot added: approximately $22.4 trillion as of January 2026.
• Australia super rate updated to 12.0% (the legislated final step from 1 July 2025).
• SS benefit cut framing updated to CBO Feb 2026 projection (approximately 7% in 2032 deepening to ~28% by 2036) with the SSA Trustees June 2025 alternative also disclosed.

Q1 2026 (earlier)

• Major site expansion: Phase 6 added 16 new pages including CBDCs: Programmable Government Money, Stablecoins: Reserve Risk and De-Pegging, Lightning Network: Bitcoin for Payments, Running a Bitcoin Node: Why and How, Home Bitcoin Mining: Bitaxe Honest Math, Multisig Custody: Casa, Unchained, Nunchuk, The Mempool: Fees, RBF, CPFP, Austrian Economics: The Theory Behind Bitcoin, Gold vs Bitcoin: The Sound Money Debate, Bitcoin Where Inflation Is Not Theoretical, HSA: The Triple-Tax-Advantaged Account, Health Insurance Basics: HDHP, PPO, ACA, Mortgage Math: 15 vs 30 Year and Refi, Index Funds and the Three-Fund Portfolio, Teaching Kids About Money, About Fiat Is Fake | Editorial Philosophy and Funding.
• RSS feed launched at Rss.xml.
• Bitcoin scams page expanded with 6 technical-attack sections.