Bills & Beans

Straight Talk on Coffee, Money, and Liberty

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The Money Guide

Money · Guide

Which account to fund, which debt to kill first, what your tax bill really is, and how to stay invested — every money piece on the site, grouped by the decision you are making.

Money pieces here follow one rule: name the thing most people believe, then check it against the arithmetic. Nothing on this page tells you what to buy or sell. It tells you how the account, the loan, the bracket or the fund works, shows the math on a real example, and lets you run your own numbers where a calculator exists. Start with the decision you are facing.

Run it on your own numbers

Calculator

Roth vs. Traditional calculator

Which account leaves more after tax, and the retirement rate at which they tie.

Calculator

Credit card payoff calculator

Months to pay off a balance at a fixed payment, and the total interest.

Calculator

Employer match calculator

The dollar cost, by retirement, of not contributing enough to collect the match.

Calculator

Compound interest calculator

What a starting balance and a monthly contribution grow to, and how much of the end is growth.

Calculator

Mortgage payoff calculator

When a mortgage is paid off, the total interest, and what extra each month takes off both.

Reference

The Money Numbers That Change Every January

2026 limits, brackets, HSA, Social Security and the Fed rates, each with source and date.

Choosing a retirement account

Which account to fund, in what order, and what each rule costs you if you get it wrong. The order usually matters more than the account.

  • Money Moves Roth, 401(k) or IRA First? The Order Matters More Than the Account · live
    The cornerstone: a funding order for a real paycheck — match first, then which wrapper, then the rest.
  • Money Moves Roth vs. Traditional IRA: The Break-Even Is a Tax Rate, Not an Age
    The whole decision comes down to when you would rather pay the tax — and one question settles it.
  • Money Moves The 401(k) Match Isn’t a Bonus. It’s Salary You Haven’t Collected. · planned
    What a match is worth over a career, and why leaving it on the table is the most expensive mistake that feels free.
  • How It Works Backdoor Roth IRA: A Two-Step Move, and the Pro-Rata Rule That Trips It · planned
    The mechanism, the income limit it exists because of, and the calculation that catches people with an old traditional balance.
  • How It Works HSA as a Retirement Account: The Triple Tax Break, and the Catch · planned
    Deductible in, tax-free growth, tax-free out for medical costs — and the receipts you have to keep to earn it.

Getting out of debt in the right order

Which balance to attack first, what each loan really costs over its life, and when a new loan helps rather than just lowering the payment.

  • Money Moves Which Debt First? Debt Avalanche vs Snowball, Priced in Dollars and Months · live
    The cornerstone: avalanche and snowball on one real set of balances, in total interest and in months.
  • The Real Cost Paying the Minimum on a Credit Card: What It Costs Over the Life of the Balance · live
    How minimum payments are set, why the payoff curve is so flat, and one balance worked all the way to zero.
  • The Real Cost The 72-Month Car Loan: Why the Payment Falls and the Price Rises · planned
    Term length against total interest on one car, and the negative equity a long loan creates.
  • Myth Check Balance Transfer Cards: The 0% Is Real, the Fee Is the Price · planned
    Transfer fee against interest avoided over the promo window, and what happens on the first day after it ends.
  • How It Works How Credit Scores Are Built: The Five Inputs and Their Weights · planned
    The published category weights, what moves fastest, and the edges most explainers skip.

Investing without picking stocks

What to own, what it costs to own it, and how to stay invested through a bad year. No piece here names a stock, fund or coin as a buy.

  • How It Works Index Funds, Explained: What You’re Buying and What It Costs · live
    The cornerstone: what an index is, what tracking it means, and what fee drag does to one balance over thirty years.
  • How It Works S&P 500 Concentration Risk: What Diversified Really Means Now · live
    What mega-cap concentration means for an ordinary index holder who thought they were spread out.
  • The Real Cost Expense Ratios: How a Fraction of a Percent Becomes a Fraction of Your Retirement · planned
    Fee drag worked on one balance, where to find the number, and the fund-of-funds fee inside the fee.
  • Myth Check Dollar-Cost Averaging vs. Lump Sum: What the Data Says, and Why People Average Anyway · planned
    The research on which wins most of the time, and the regret math that makes averaging rational for a human.
  • How It Works Sequence-of-Returns Risk: Two Retirees, Same Average Return, Different Outcomes · planned
    Why the order of returns matters once withdrawals start, shown with two reversed sequences on the same portfolio.

Understanding your tax bill

What you owe, why the bracket is not the rate, and which numbers change every January.

  • Myth Check Marginal vs. Effective Tax Rate: The Bracket You’re In Isn’t the Rate You Pay · live
    The cornerstone: one salary walked through the brackets, and why “I’m in the 22% bracket” misleads.
  • Money Moves Standard vs. Itemized Deduction: The Threshold That Decides It for Most Households · live
    Which pile is bigger, worked for two couples on 2026 figures — and the cash-gift deduction a non-itemizer can still take.
  • Myth Check A Raise Into the Next Bracket Never Cuts Your Take-Home Pay · planned
    The most persistent tax myth, disproved on one raise — and the real cliffs named so the myth is not replaced with a new one.
  • How It Works Capital Gains: Why Holding One More Day Can Change the Rate · planned
    Short versus long term, the rate structure, and cost basis, on one sale.
  • How It Works How Crypto Is Taxed: Every Sale, Swap and Spend Is a Taxable Event · planned
    Property treatment, swaps as sales, and the broker-reporting rules and their dates.
  • Money Moves Tax Withholding: How to Read a W-4 So You Stop Lending the IRS Money · planned
    Why a big refund is an over-withholding, and one paycheck before and after fixing it.

Building a money system that survives a real month

Where the cash sits, what to automate, and how to stop a raise from disappearing.

  • Money Moves Budgets Don’t Fail on Math. They Fail on Timing. · live
    The cornerstone: the pay-cycle versus bill-cycle mismatch, the buffer that fixes it, and an automation order that needs no willpower.
  • Money Moves Emergency Fund: How Many Months, and Where the Money Should Sit · live
    Sizing by job stability and fixed costs rather than a slogan, and what counts as an emergency.
  • The Real Cost High-Yield Savings vs. Checking: What the Rate Gap Is Worth on a Real Balance · planned
    Interest on one balance over a year at each rate, and the transfer-delay trade-off.
  • Myth Check Savings Rate, Not Income, Sets Your Retirement Date · planned
    The years-to-independence table by savings rate, derived and shown, with every assumption labelled.
  • The Real Cost Rent vs. Buy: The Math Isn’t About the Mortgage Payment · planned
    Opportunity cost of the down payment, maintenance and transaction costs — one city, both paths, ten years.

Start with these

GlossaryTerms used across this guide — AGI, MAGI, amortization, expense ratio, present bias — are defined with a worked number each on the Money Glossary.

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