Tax Myths, RMD Rules, And Smarter Retirement Moves for 2026

Tax season doesn’t have to feel like a gut punch. We pull back the curtain on the biggest myths—why a refund is not a win, why the “IRA deduction saves taxes” line is misleading, and how required minimum distributions can hijack your retirement income. From contribution limits to smart rollovers, we map the moves that help you keep more of every dollar you earn.

We start by reframing the goal: lifetime, after‑tax income. You’ll hear how 401k, 403b, TSP, and 457 contributions affect future taxes, when an in‑service rollover at 59½ can expand your choices, and why an IRA is an arrangement with rules, not a blank‑check account. For business owners, we compare SEP and SIMPLE IRAs—bigger buckets but trickier obligations—and explain how they fit into a broader plan that blends pre‑tax relief now with tax‑free flexibility later.

Then we dig into Roth IRAs and conversions. Learn how Roth dollars can shield you from future bracket hikes, IRMAA surcharges on Medicare, and the taxation of Social Security. We break down Roth income phase‑outs, practical conversion timing, and the massive real‑world gap between a $1M traditional IRA and a $1M Roth. Finally, we highlight two advanced levers: QLACs to delay RMDs on a slice of your savings to as late as 85, and QCDs that let generous retirees send IRA dollars directly to charities after 70½ without raising taxable income.

If you’re ready to stop overpaying and start planning, this conversation will give you a clear path: target break‑even instead of refunds, use workplace matches wisely, blend Roth strategies, and deploy QLACs and QCDs where they fit. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs tax clarity, and leave a review with the one question you want us to tackle next.

To learn more about Brad Pistole and the Ozark Retirement Group, please visit www.ozarksretirement.com 

Transcript

Welcome And Why Taxes Hurt

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to State Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Brad is a retirement income and tax planning certified professional, primarily serving clients in the Midwest, but he's sought after nationally for his expertise in helping people secure their retirement. Mr. Pistol is a licensed life insurance professional in approximately 20 different states, and he specializes in working with people who are near retirement and those who have already retired with wealth management, income planning, and asset protection strategies using life, health, long-term care, and annuity insurance products. And now, here to talk with you about securing your retirement, it's your host, Brad Pistol.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Well, hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us again today for Safe Money Radio, the longest-running financial planning show in the Ozarks, one of the longest-running radio programs on financial planning in the nation. This is year number 17. We've had over 800 episodes, and we just love bringing information to you every single week. Now, if you've listened for a long period of time, you know that we have a lot of guests on the show. We talk about all different kinds of topics, and some of them are more fun than others. Some of them are sexier than others, if you will. Today's topic is one of those where you're like, oh, I really don't want to talk about this, but I know I have to. And as a matter of fact, right now, during this time of the year in which I'm hearing this, I know I absolutely have to right now. Because you see, we just got through Snow Mageddon here in the Ozarks. It was freezing cold for two weeks, below zero, wind chills minus 10, 8 to 10 inches of snow, depending on where you were, ice for some people, and

The IRA “Deduction Saves Taxes” Myth

SPEAKER_02 2:03

it was just miserable. And that time of year means guess what's coming? It's a three-letter word that no one likes. The word starts with T and ends with axe, tax, we would love to take that axe and chop down that tax tree, but here we go. Here's what I know. Every single year, no matter what, my least favorite time of year is March and April. And why is that? Well, because every single March and April, whenever you're a tax planning expert, and you know I was one of the very first TPCP graduates from the American College Tax Planning Certified Professionals. I graduated in April of 2025, and now there are several hundred across the country. It's one of the fastest growing designations in the United States. But we tax planning professionals know what's coming every single March and April. Here it goes. Something like this. Our phone rings and they'll say, Hey, can I talk to Brad? And we'll put them through to me and I'll answer the phone and I can tell you already what's going to happen. The conversation's going to go through something like this. Hey Brad, I know you don't know me, but I just talked to my CPA and he says I need a tax deduction. So can I open an IRA at your office? It happens again and again and again, year after year after year, because they've taken all their paperwork in and their 1099s and all of their different W-2s, and they've handed it to the CPA, and the CPA does a little bit of work and comes back to them and says, hey, uh, we need to lower your income. And so you're going to have to go find a financial professional or go talk to someone at your bank, and you need to open an IRA and create a tax deduction. Most people don't understand how all this works, why it works the way it does. They just know they get told to open an IRA or make a contribution to an IRA to save them taxes. And that's when I start laughing. Because the phrase to save them taxes is a myth. It's not true. It's not saving you any tax. It's just deferring it. You're kicking the proverbial can on down the road. You're going to have to pay those taxes at some point in the future. Just because you make an IRA contribution in 2026 for 2025, what's already happened in the past, doesn't mean you saved that money. You just deferred having to pay that tax to some point on in the future. And so on today's show, I'm probably going to make your head spin a little bit, but that's okay. If you're a podcast listener, if you're someone that's in one of the states all across the U.S. that listens to us, we welcome you. We know that the snow and the craziness that hit us hit all over the Midwest. It went down into Florida and Georgia and all the way up into New York and Maine, and it was a crazy storm. But that means you're at the same time of year as we are, you're thinking about taxes, you probably are having the same feelings that everyone else does, that nausea in your stomach where you're like, oh, I don't want to have to write this check. Or maybe you're someone that falls into the other side of things. Maybe you're one of these people who every single year has this philosophy. Oh, I hope I get a big tax return this year. I hope I go to my CPA and I get the good news that the government's gonna have to

Refunds Are Interest-Free Loans

SPEAKER_02 5:15

pay me five grand. And you don't realize that someone's pulled the wool over your eyes for years and years and years and they've fooled you into thinking incorrectly because when you get a check back from the federal government, that's not good news, that's bad news. When you get a check back, a return, when you file your taxes and the government owes you money, it means this. Listen very carefully. I will say it for you slowly. It means you overpaid your taxes throughout the year, and you gave the government tax-free loans on your money. You had the money withheld from a paycheck, or you paid in quarterly, or however you do it, your estimates, and you overestimated how much you were going to have to pay in taxes, and Uncle Sam's like, Oh, yeah, I'll take it. I'll take that money and use it all year long, all the way until April 15th of next year. And if you file an extension even longer than that, and I'll use it tax-free and then hand it back to you. So when you get a check back, you have made a financial mistake. I know you don't like hearing that, and you may think I'm crazy, and you may say, I heard this guy on the radio, and he's been on for 17 years, over 800 episodes, and he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's a moron. He said that getting a check back during tax time is bad news. Well, you might go ask a couple of people who know better. Because I'm telling you, it's bad news. You've made a financial mistake when you get a return after filing your taxes. You don't want to ever give Uncle Sam a tax-free loan on your money. You might want to owe just a little bit, even though that's not fun. That means, hey, you used your own money and made interest on it during that time, and then you paid him when you had to. Because here's the bottom line, friends. I don't love taxes. I think there's a lot of things that are going on in this country through the tax system that we all know is highly illegal. Our tax dollars are being used for lots of things for people who are not taxpayers and who are not U.S. citizens, but that's a whole other show and a whole other story. But here's the bottom line. I want to pay exactly what I need to legally pay and nothing more. Not one penny more. And I don't want anyone pulling the wool over my eyes or my clients' eyes or any of my listeners' eyes telling them any differently. So today, we're gonna be talking about the following things. So get ready for your head to spin. We're gonna talk about contributions to 401ks and 403Bs and TSPs and 457 plans. We're gonna talk about IRAs and Roth IRAs. More specifically, IRAs, we're gonna talk about traditional IRAs, simple IRAs, SCP IRAs. We're gonna talk about things called QCDs, we're gonna talk about Q lakes, we're gonna talk about everything under the sun when it comes to tax time. When you go drop off your box of stubs to the CPA and say, okay, tell me how much I owe or tell me how much I'm getting back. We're gonna be talking about these contribution limits for 2025

Arrangement Not Account: IRA Rules

SPEAKER_02 8:25

because that's what most of you are focused on right now. Remember, when you pay your taxes, you're looking in the rearview mirror. And we're also gonna talk about 2026 and what you can be doing, be doing right now to leave Uncle Sam on the bench. So if this is your first time listening to the show, we're glad you're joining us. Just know that you can go watch our podcast or listen to our podcast, subscribe anytime. Just go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on contact us. You can find our YouTube page, just go to YouTube, type in Brad Pistol, and you can subscribe. Every single week we release new videos, sometimes on Saturday, sometimes on Monday. We talk about every topic under the sun regarding financial planning. But today we're going to be talking about those dreaded taxes and how to leave Uncle Sam on the bench, how to make sure you're doing exactly what you need to do, but nothing more. We don't want to give him any more because his greedy little hands will take it and he will use it in ways that we don't approve of. So our number is 866-780-7233. That's 866-780 SAFE. Or you can always just go to Ozarksretirement.com and again click on the contact us button if you'd like a free financial consultation. I'll give you a copy of my best-selling book, Bulletproof, The Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. So stay with us today. We'll be right back and we're going to jump in to tax time 2026. Friends, thank you so much for joining us today. Like I said in the previous segment, we're going to be talking about the time of year that I hate. I dread it every single year, March and April, and I'll tell you why. It's not a real lucrative time for me, even though our call count goes way through the roof. It's a very tedious, time-consuming part of the year when people call in and they want to open small accounts, and it's lots and lots of people, and they're not calling because they've got 100 grand or 500 grand or 2 million or 5 million. They're calling because they want to put five or six thousand dollars, maybe $7,000 or $8,000 into an IRA to take a tax deduction to quote quote save them on their tax bill for the year. But we're going to be talking about whether or not that's a good idea. We're going to talk about all the ins and outs of how this works. And let me just begin by saying I've been working with the Ed Slot Master Lead IRA Advisor Group for the past 16 years. Ed's a good friend of mine. He wrote the forward to my book, Bulletproof. He's been on the show many times. I've hosted events with him in Springfield. He's been to our office. We've done podcasts live together, lots of podcasts. You can go to YouTube anytime, type in Brad Pistol, Ed Slot, and you can watch all the videos we've done together. And why is it important that we work with Ed Slott? Well, he's America's IRA expert. Only one person in the world has that title. He is a CPA from New York, arguably the hardest tax state there is to live in, other than maybe California. But he's a CPA in New York, and he will always say CPAs are history teachers. They want to talk to you about what happened in the past last year. And they're not normally very forward-thinking. They're not doing things to proactively help change your tax and financial future. They normally just want to make sure you're not mad at them because they didn't make you pay in too much for the previous year. And so sometimes you find a good one and they're very proactive thinking. I have one of the best ones on the planet, Gary Woods. Shout out to you, brother. Thank you for taking care of me all these years. You've done so much proactive planning for me and for my family, and we're grateful. He's a good one. Sometimes you don't find a good one. And it can start with this. You could always walk into a CPA or to a financial advisor and say, Hey, I have a question for you. Just one question before I decide whether or not to talk to you further. What is an IRA? Tell me what that stands for. And a lot of times they're going to say, Well, that's easy. That stands for what? IRA. What's it stand for? You know, you've been told, right? What does IRA stand for if you're listening right now? It stands for individual retirement account. Correct? Ah, you see, that would be incorrect. And if your CPA or your advisor says that right off the bat, you might want to look at them and say, Are you sure? And they'll say, Well, look, I've got the letters behind my name. Of course I'm sure. It's an individual retirement account. And you can just go over to their computer and type in www.irs.gov and go to IRA and it will tell you what an IRA is. It stands for individual retirement arrangement. You see, it's one thing if you had an account, an individual retirement account, and it was actually yours. That means when it's yours, you can do whatever you want to, whenever you want to, and that's not the case if you have an IRA. It's not an individual retirement account. It's an individual retirement arrangement.

Contribution Limits For 401k/403b/TSP

SPEAKER_02 13:15

When you sign up on the dotted line for a 401k or a 403B or a TSP or a 4057 plan or an IRA or a SEP IRA or a simple IRA, all these alphabet soups of all these different accounts, you have signed up for an arrangement with Uncle Sam saying, I sign on the dotted line and I'll play by all the rules. See, when you have an IRA, let's just start with a traditional IRA, you don't have an account that belongs to you. You have an arrangement between you and Uncle Sam, and the arrangement says, if I, for instance, for 2025, the year that just passed, if I put in the contribution limit of $7,000 if I'm under the age of 50, or 8,000 if I'm above the age of 50, I have taken a tax deduction for putting that money into that individual retirement arrangement. And the arrangement is I agree to your terms, which says I cannot touch that before I'm 59 and a half without a 10% federal penalty. If I do take it out, it's penalties and it's taxable. And also there's all these other rules that I have to play by. When I turn age 73 under current law, I have to start taking required minimum distributions, known as RMDs, from that IRA, from that individual retirement arrangement. Or if I was born after January 1st, 1960, I get to defer out to age 75 a couple more years, but I'll have to start taking required minimum distributions from that IRA at that time. And why do I have to do this? Why do I have to ask Uncle Sam first? Because you signed up for the arrangement, the individual retirement arrangement with Uncle Sam. So before you just call up the financial professional or your local bank expert and say, hey, my CPA says I need an IRA, you better think through it. You better listen to the rest of today's show and go, I want to know exactly what I'm getting myself into before I open one of these individual retirement arrangements. And I want to know what the arrangement is. Because you see, I always use this example when I'm speaking publicly and I speak all across the country. I always shake out my stick out my hand like I'm about to shake someone's hand, and I'm Uncle Sam, and I say, Did you know this happens when Uncle Sam extends his hand to you and says, Here, would you like to open an IRA? And when they stick their hand out and shake, I slap fake handcuffs on them. Now, I've actually done real ones before, but we live in a weird world now, and so slapping real handcuffs on someone's not a great idea, even if you have the key there and you're ready to open it. You might hurt someone's feelings or scare them, and we don't want that. So I I clip on imaginary handcuffs, and when they try to pull their hand back, I don't let go. And even when they get uncomfortable, and everyone in the crowd will watch them get uncomfortable, I won't let their hand go. And I go, oh, well, wait a second. You told me you were signing up for the IRA. You took the deduction. And they say, Well, yes. I go, well, that means I am a 50-50 owner with you. You're gonna have to do what I tell you to do. And I'm not letting go of your hand. You're in this until you get out of it. And so that either means age 59 and a half, when you liquidate the account and can take distributions, or it means maybe after you pass away, if your family chooses to liquidate it, because if they don't, they have to continue playing by Uncle Sam's rules for the individual retirement arrangement. And if you don't believe me, just talk to anyone who's ever inherited an IRA. If they aren't a spouse, if they're a non-spousal beneficiary, and they have an inherited IRA, they have inherited an individual retirement arrangement that they didn't even make. Their parents or someone else made that arrangement with Uncle Sam, and now they are handcuffed to him and have to play by his rules. So that's a lot of introduction for today's show, but I will just tell you this is very, very serious stuff, and it's not always the best idea to make a contribution to an IRA during this time of year, the tax time of year in March and April, because you need a write-off or a tax deduction, or because you think you're saving the taxes, because you may find out, in fact, you don't save taxes. It may make you pay much, much more in taxes on down the road, and you will continue to be in an arrangement with Uncle Sam that you may not like. So, friends, I am a retirement income certified professional through the American College. I am a tax planning certified professional through the American College, and I have been a member of Ed Slot, America's IRA expert. I've been a member of Ed Slot's Elite Master Elite IRA advisor group since all the way back in 2010. I attended my first meeting in 2009 and I knew this was life-changing information. No one else I know in this business talks about this. Your standard stock broker doesn't talk about it. They don't want to talk about it. They'll tell you, go talk to your CPA.

In-Service Rollovers And Control

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I wanted to be a financial professional who kept money out of Uncle Sam's hands from my clients, and that's exactly what I do. So if you want to find out why people work with us, why we have five-star reviews on Google, just look us up. Go to the Ozarks Retirement Group, Google us, look up the reviews, look at what people are saying, or go to Ozarksretirement.com, look at our website, look at look at who my colleagues are, the people that I've connected with, and I think you will understand why we have clients in more than 20 states and why we've done so well in this business. We put you first. As a certified financial fiduciary, I want to make sure I'm always doing what's in your best interest. And what's in your best interest, keeping your hard-earned money in your pocket and out of Uncle Sam's. So you can call us anytime at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. Or you can just go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on the contact us button. I will personally reach out to you and set up a time for us to talk. Friends, as we continue the show today, let's jump in to some figures for 2025 and for 2026. Because you see, as I record this in February of 2026, most people are in this mode right now of thinking, oh, I've got to deal with 2025. I know it's behind me, but it's not when it comes to taxes, because I have till April the 15th to file. And so let's talk about some of the different options you have to contribute to savings plans, if you will, whether it's at work or individually, the different types of accounts you can put your money into to build up your retirement nest egg. And the majority of people who have taught people how to retire in the future think about things in a tax-deferred manner. They're always telling you to put money into your 401k or your 403B or your TSP, Thrift Savings Plan, if you're a federal worker. Or you know if you work for a nonprofit, a 403B, maybe that's a hospital or a ministry, a church somewhere. Or it could be that you're self-employed, so it's a simple IRA or an SCP, a self-employed pension IRA. There's all different types of accounts that you can save your money in, but remember, these are all tax deferred, meaning you're joining hands with Uncle Sam, he's slapping the handcuffs on, he's saying, you have to play by my rules when you contribute. And there's all these hosts of rules that go with it for when you can take out distributions and avoid penalties, and when you can and can't do rollovers, and when you can and can't defer it any longer, things like RMDs, required minimum distributions, and even rules for after you pass away for your spouse and your non-spousal beneficiaries. The list of rules with an Uncle Sam account is endless. So let's jump in and talk about them. So here we go. If you're planning on doing your taxes soon, or maybe your paperwork's with your CPA right now and you just turned in everything, here's the thing: you could contribute to things like a 401k or a 403B. If you have a work plan and what's called an ERISA plan, maybe you have a 401k. And so for 2025, the regular contribution limit was $23,500. Unless you're above the age of $50. If you're above the age of $50, there was a $7,500 catch up contribution that's possible. So you could actually max out that contribution limit with a total of $31,000 if you're above the age of $50 in 2025. Now, how about 2026? They raised the contribution limit. It is now $24,500 for 2026. And if you're above the age of 50, the catch up contribution is $8,000, giving you a total possible. Catch up contribution with a regular contribution of $32,500.

Traditional IRA Limits And Deductibility

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Now that's a lot of money, allowing you to put a lot of money back into an account, saving for the future, that would allow you to take that back out and use it. It would, depending on who your advisor is, your financial professional, you may leave it inside that account and take distributions from it. I don't encourage people to do that. Most of the time, it's best for them to roll those things over once they've left work or actually once you're above the age of 59 and a half. If you're able to, in my opinion, in a lot of circumstances, it's best to use what's called an in-service withdrawal. I've written an entire chapter about this in my best-selling book, Bulletproof, The Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. But why would you do an in-service withdrawal? That means I'm still in service, but I want to withdraw some or all of my money from the plan and roll it over into my own IRA so that I have more control. I have more options of how I want to invest the money and do different things with it. And so not all employer plans will allow that, but a lot of them will. She works for one of the main hospitals in the Springfield area, and she can't wait for her 59 and a half birthday. We're going to roll over, you know, more than half a million dollars that she's been saving for 30 years in this plan. And why? Because she's tired of the risk and the limited options inside the plan, and maybe the person that helps them once a year not really giving them a lot of great advice or even hardly ever giving them advice. So she wants to work with someone who knows what they're doing. So if you have a 401k or a 403B or a TSP, you've got these different contribution limits for 25 and 26. And if you're above the age of 59 and a half, one of the ways to get rid of part of the handcuffs with Uncle Sam is to say, hey, now I've reached the magic birthday when I can take control and do a rollover and I want some different options and work with someone who knows Uncle Sam inside and out, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. So if you're in the middle of tax time, you're trying to put some numbers together, you're trying to decide should I contribute up to the max of the 401k? Or if you can't afford to do that, maybe you're putting in what a lot of people suggest, you know, put in up to the match of the employer match. And maybe that means you're only getting five or six or seven thousand a year. But put back as much as you can, just keep in mind that is a tax-deferred account. And when that money comes back out on the back end, when you need it most in retirement, you're going to pay taxes on that money as earned income. So just know what you're getting yourself into. And if you've heard enough of the show today and you go, why doesn't anyone talk to me about this? That's just because you haven't talked to the right person yet. You need to talk to a financial professional who is focused on tax planning. It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep after paying taxes that counts. So, friends, as we continue the show today, call us anytime. Our number's 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233, or simply go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button. You can email me directly. I will personally call you back and we can get together for a free financial consultation. Ozarksretirement.com, click on contact us. Now as we continue the show, let's move from 401ks and 403Bs and TSPs and things of this nature, 457 plans. Let's move to more of the personalized individual account. Because more often than not, when you go talk to your CPA during the spring of every year, he's going to say, Hey, you're you're going to owe about 7 or 8,000 in taxes if you don't make a contribution to an IRA. And you're like, what do you mean? And I realize for a lot of you it may be kind of confusing. You feel like, well, wait, I was about to pay $7,000 or $8,000 to Uncle Sam, and now you're telling me to take the same money that I would have paid to him and go open an account. Well, either way, I'm having to give up the money, right? Well, the thinking is, yes, but one's to Uncle Sam, and he's going to put it in the general fund and flush it down the toilet and give it to all kinds of people, including people who aren't taxpayers and not people who are citizens of this great country. But when you write a check to your own individual retirement arrangement, your IRA, it's actually yours for the time being in a tax-deferred state. You keep it at your account. So when a CPA tells someone you need to go open an IRA, this is when our phone rings off the hook and they call and say, Hey, do you open IRAs? Yes, we do. Well, I

SEP Vs SIMPLE: Bigger Buckets, More Rules

SPEAKER_02 27:10

need to come by. My CPA, and normally it's the MAX, but sometimes people can't afford the MAX. They don't have that much saved, so they put in as much as they can. So let's talk about these numbers for 2025. Since most of you listening right now are focused on filing your tax return for 2025 for last year, let's talk about the limit for an IRA. Even though you're told it's an individual retirement account, we've already covered on the show that's not what it is. It's an individual retirement arrangement. And the arrangement is if you're under the age of 50 for 2025, you could put in up to $7,000 into an IRA. If you're above the age of $50, they'd let you add on another $1,000. So for 2025, you could put in up to $8,000 if you're above the age of $50. It's $7,000 if you're below the age of $50, and that's the max. Now, for 2026, there's been an increase in the limit. If you're under the age of 50, you can put in up to $7,500. Or if you're above the age of $50, you can put in an additional $1,100 for a catch-up contribution, giving you a total of $8,600 for 2026. So if you're one of these people who's a planner and maybe you don't want to wait all the way till the spring of the following tax year to have to cough up a big lump sum of money, you might want to budget it in your system and start making contributions monthly into an account in IRA so that you make sure that you hit your max. Now here's one of the questions I love. We talked about 401ks and 403Bs in the previous segment. Now we're talking about traditional IRAs, not Simples, not SEPs, not Roth, a traditional tax-deferred IRA. People will say, hey, can I contribute to my 401k and my IRA? The answer is it depends. If you mean taking a tax deduction for both, most of the time the answer is going to be yes, because people don't max out their 401k contribution. And that means there's still room there that yes, they can contribute to a traditional IRA also. But if they've maxed out the 401k, they can't take a tax deduction for the IRA also. So you can make a non-deductible contribution to an IRA, but most people are wanting the deductible contribution to the IRA to lower their income and quote quote save their taxes. They're not saving, they're deferring for the future. But that's the contribution limit. Now, here's the thing, and we're going to run out of time on this, but just quickly I want to tell you, if you're a business owner, such as myself, you may not want to open a traditional IRA. There's a much higher contribution limit if you're to open a SEP IRA or a simple IRA. So just very briefly, let me show you the difference. In 2025 and 2026, we just went over the numbers. For an IRA, contribution limits are either 8,000 if you're above the age of 50 or 7,000 if you're under. For 2026, it's $7,500 or $8,600 if you're above the age of $50. But when it comes to an SCP, it's totally different. The SCP limit for 2025 is $25% of up to $350,000 of compensation, limited to a maximum annual contribution of $70,000. For 2026, the SCP limit is $25% of up to $360,000 of compensation, limited to a maximum annual contribution of $72,000. You can stuff a lot more money into an SEP IRA. So if you're a business owner, that's something you might want to talk to your tax planning professional about. Now let's talk about the last category in the IRA bucket, non-roth anyway. Let's talk about simples, and I will say this a simple IRA is the most complicated of all the IRAs, in my opinion. Simple is not simple. So how ironic that Congress would name it a simple IRA. For 2025, the regular contribution limit was 16,500. The ketchup contribution, if you're above the age of 50, is 3,500, giving you a total possible contribution of $20,000. For 2026, the limit has been increased to $17,000. The ketchup contribution if you're above the age of $50 is $4,000, giving you a total possible contribution of $21,000. Now, there are a lot of rules that go with a simple IRA, and you need to be aware of those rules. You need to make sure you're talking to a qualified financial professional to make sure whether or not an IRA, an SCP IRA, or a simple IRA is best for you. But I know that's a lot of information, a lot of numbers, but remember, when you contribute, if your whole goal is I want to stuff as much money as I can into these accounts to build for my future, for my retirement as income, just remember, these traditional accounts are tax deferred, meaning that's not all your money. A huge portion of that money will belong to Uncle Sam. And my friends, just go to usdettclock.org and look at the ticking time bomb. We are $39 trillion in debt. Uncle Sam's going to come calling for that money. Now, thankfully the Trump tax cuts were extended, and so we know we've got a few more years, but $39 trillion will be way above that number three or four years from now. And Uncle Sam's going to raise taxes. Just trust me on this. Play this show three years from now, four years from now. Uncle Sam's going to come calling for his money. And if you have your money saved in a tax-deferred account, he's going to be looking you square in the eye saying, what was 10% or 12% or 22% or 35% is now going to jump on up. And just look at the history of tax rates in this country. You better be prepared for it. Just remember, if you're saving it in the tax-deferred account, it's not all yours. It's not how much you make or how

Roth IRAs: Tax-Free Beats Taxable

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much you see in that account. It's how much you'll get to keep after taking the withdrawal and paying your taxes. That's what really matters. Spendable income that belongs to you. And so in our next segment, we're going to be talking about Roth accounts and why they're important. But remember, you can call us anytime, 866-780-7233. Or the easiest way, if you're on a browser, if you're on a computer, just go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on the contact us button. You can also always go to YouTube and type in Brad Pistol, look up the show and subscribe so that you don't ever miss any of this key tax planning and retirement planning information. 866-780-7233. There's always someone standing by to take your call. Friends on the show today, we've been talking about all the tax jargon. It's tax time in 2026. We're looking back at 2025. We've talked about 401k contribution limits, 403Bs, 457 plans, TSPs. We've talked about individual retirement arrangements, IRAs, and the arrangement that that involves with Uncle Sam, the contribution limits for 2025 and 26. We talked a little bit about simple IRAs and SEP IRAs if you're a business owner. Now let's talk about one of my favorite topics, Roth IRAs. What is the difference in a Roth individual retirement arrangement and a traditional individual retirement arrangement? Well, you're not ever going to go to your CPA in the spring and hear this from him. He's not going to say, hey, you need to go contribute to a Roth this year. He's not going to do it because that won't help his cause. He's trying to save you, which means defer taxes that you owe. He doesn't ever want to get fired because he did a poor job of planning and you end up owing at the end of the year. Most people, even CPAs, want you to get a return so you'll be happy. But when you get a return, you shouldn't be happy. You gave an interest-free loan to Uncle Sam all year long. So we'd rather have you break even. Try to get it as close as you can to not owing anything and to not getting anything back. Well, where does the Roth IRA come into play when you're trying to decide should I contribute to a traditional or to a Roth? Well, there is no tax deduction for contributing to a Roth IRA. You are putting after tax money into this account, but here's the beauty to it. I use this example a lot. If you have a million-dollar traditional IRA and a million-dollar Roth IRA, who has more money? And if you say, well, Brad, they have the same amount, both have a million dollars in there. Ah, you are uninformed. You need some more education. Keep listening to the show. If you say, well, it's probably pretty close, it's not. Trust me. If you want to find out just how big of a difference it is, cash both accounts out at the same time. You can cash out your traditional IRA, and I can cash out my Roth IRA, and guess what? I'll keep all $1 million in my hands. I've already paid the tax on the deposit and the growth, the earnings, the seed, all of it. But when you have a traditional IRA and you cash that million dollar IRA out, it's going to depend on what the tax bracket is at that time. And well, there is no guessing. You're going to fall into the highest tax bracket. So for this year, it would be 37% that you would cough back up to Uncle Sam. And then don't forget your state and local taxes and other taxes that could be involved. Trust me, if you're on Medicare when you did that, if you're taking Social Security when you did that, if you're married filing jointly when you did that, you'll give up more than 50% of the million dollars. It will be over half a million dollars. How do I know? Because you're going to pay federal tax, you're going to pay state tax, you're going to fall into what's called IRMA, income-related monthly adjustment amount, surcharges on your Medicare premiums, and two years down the road, those premiums are going to go up. You're also going to pay taxes on your Social Security distributions up to 85% because of that withdrawal. So you're going to have a giant tax mess when you own an IRA into the future. The Roth IRA owner doesn't have to deal with any of that. They paid all the taxes up front. All contributions and earnings into the Roth are forever tax-free for them and their spouse and their children. So, some of the benefits and the numbers for the Roths. Let's go back to 2025. If you're considering you're filing your taxes, you're thinking about making a contribution, I would say the Roth is better for the long term. You won't save taxes now, but you also aren't deferring any. You're keeping all of that money in your own pocket. So for 2025 and 2026, the Roth limits are the same as the IRA. In 2025, it's $7,000 if you're under $50. There's a $1,000 catch up contribution if you're above the age of $50, so $8,000 that you could put in to a Roth IRA forever tax-free for 2025. For 2026, they've increased it. Back way back in 2010, they lifted the income limitation at that time. They also lifted, uh they lifted several things in 2010, and they would allow anyone to convert. Before that, only certain people could convert to a Roth. And you have people like Ed Slot who said, I took the deal in 2010. I converted all my IRAs to Roths. And he took the two-year deal where he had all the way to the end of 2012 to pay the taxes. I took the deal. I did conversions. I started in 2008 before that ever started, converting traditional accounts to Roth IRAs. And I'm so grateful to have learned all this way back when. That's the year I started my business. I became a student of the tax code. And I said, hey, I want Uncle Sam off my back right now. And I've been building Roth accounts from 2008 until now, 2026. Tax-free beats taxable every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Roth Income Phase-Outs And Conversions

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So friends, just know this. There is a phase out limit. You actually can make too much money and earn income. And Uncle Sam will say, hey, you cannot contribute to a traditional Roth IRA. For 2025, that phase-out limit, if you're an individual, is $150,000 to $165,000. If you're married filing jointly, it's $236,000 to $246,000. So in other words, in 2025, if you as a couple made $400,000 or $350,000, you can't contribute to a Roth. There is an earnings limitation. For 2026, it has increased. For an individual, it went from $150 up to $153. So between $153 and $168, that's the phase out limit for being able to contribute to a Roth. If you're married filing jointly, it's $242,000 all the way up to $252,000. So I know there's a lot of numbers. That's a lot of information. We've talked about TSPs, 403Bs, IRAs, Simples, SEPS, Roths. What should I contribute to? Well, come back, join us for one quick last segment. We're going to be trying to make sense of all this tax alphabet suit. Our number is 866-780-7233. Or you can also go to our website anytime, Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button. Remember, I was the first tax planning certified professional in the United States, a graduate from the American College's new program in 2025. And it is very important to me to make sure that you keep every single dollar in your own pocket and out of Uncle Sam's. If you want our help, go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on contact us, and I will get back in touch with you personally. Friends, as we wrap up the show today, I look at my timer and I'm like, oh, we're out of time, and I didn't scratch the surface. I had two more segments I really wanted to cover with you. I would love to talk to you about something called CULACs. What's a QLAC? Well, it's a special type of an account that you can contribute to, and guess what? You don't have to pay RMDs on that portion of money until you get to age 85. Did you even know that was a thing? For 2026, retirement account owners can purchase a QLAC, QLAC, with up to $210,000 of their retirement funds. CULAC dollars are removed from the retired required minimum distribution RMD calculation until age 85. So in other words, the current RMD age is 73. But if you pull out part of your money from your tax-deferred account and buy a CULAC, it's a special type of annuity, then you don't have to take RMDs from that portion of money until you turn age 85. Now, I know what you're thinking. A lot of us are like, hey, I may not even be alive at age 85. That's right. You kick that can on down the road by purchasing a QLAC, but we don't even have time to get into all those details today. Here's another one QCDs, qualified charitable distributions. It's a way to beat Uncle Sam in his own game. What's a QCD? Well, that's when you have a tax-deferred account. You've reached age 70 and a half. You do have to be 70 and a half or older, but you're charitably inclined. You give to your church, to the Red Cross, to any qualified charity, and you don't want to have to take RMDs, required minimums, on that, on those dollars at age 73 or 75, depending on how old you are. And so once you turn 70 and a half, if you're already charitably inclined, you can give the money straight to the charity. You can't touch it. You don't take it out and deposit it and write a check to the charity. You send it straight from your custodian, your tax-deferred account custodian, straight to the charity. When you do that, Uncle Sam says you don't owe tax on that. So guess what? You took a tax deduction up front when you put the money into that IRA, and then you sent it straight to the charity and gave it away tax-free, the charity benefits, and you left Uncle Sam on the bench forever and you took a tax deduction up front by doing it. That's a win-win, friends. So there is one way around the required minimum distribution, other than converting to a Roth. You can take the tax deduction up front, put the money into an IRA, then after age 70 and a half, you can

QLACs To Delay RMDs

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take the money back out and send it as a qualified charitable distribution, a QCD, straight to your charity of choice, and you don't ever pay Uncle Sam a penny. That is a beautiful thing. It should make some of you who aren't charitably inclined do what you should have been doing anyway. If you don't know what that is, ask me sometime. I will tell you what the wealthiest people. In this world, do. I am blessed to be one of those people, and I'll tell you about the 70-30 rule and why I always give away more than 10%, closer to 20% of my earnings every year. It's the right thing to do, and it benefits you in lots of different ways, anyway. So, friends, I'll say this. We're out of time on this show. I could easily, if you can tell, I'm very, very passionate about this topic. It's not what you make, it's what you keep that counts. And in my hands next to me are more than 12 charts. These are what I call the Ed slot charts. This is the retirement account RMD aggregation chart, the 2026 tax planning chart, retirement planning contribution limits chart, the 2026 Health Savings Account Chart, the Medicare income planning chart. I have also Secure Act 2.0 charts, the history of U.S. tax rates, what happens when an IRA beneficiary inherits money from the IRA owner. It's called the IRA beneficiary family tree. I have the Roth IR IRA, five-year clocks and distribution ordering rules charts. I say all that to say this. When it comes to your tax planning and it comes to your financial planning, who are you trusting to give you this advice? Is it someone who even is qualified to do this? Are they a tax planning certified professional? Are they a retirement income certified professional? Friends, there's a reason why I joined forces with Ed Slott, America's IRA expert, all the way back in 2009 when I attended the first meeting. This man knows more about tax planning than anyone on the planet. So I've served on his team of more than 400 advisors for more than 16 years now, and I made it my purpose to make sure not only teach people about safety, guaranteed lifetime income, annuities, life insurance, all the Roth IRAs, all this great stuff, but I want to make sure that the people who've been told to save their money in these 401ks and IRAs and 403Bs, that they understand what's really involved in this game. That all that money's not theirs. If they put it into a tax-deferred account, Uncle Sam's gonna come back with his hand out and he's gonna require more than you ever want to give him when it comes to the time of life you're looking forward to, which for most people is their retirement years, the golden years. And friends, if you leave all your money in tax-deferred accounts and then start taking distributions and learn the hard way because no one ever told you about this stuff, and you find out, oh, you mean every time I pull money out of my account, I'm giving 20, 30, 40, 50% back away to taxes, that's not going to be a happy reality for you. I show people how to avoid it. And remember, fail failing to plan is planning to fail. You have to have the

QCDs To Nix Taxes On Giving

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right plan in place right now to avoid those kind of situations on down the road. So thank you so much for listening today. Go to YouTube, type in Brad Pistol, subscribe to the show so that you don't ever miss any of this key tax planning and retirement income planning information. You can always go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on contact us, or simply call us anytime at 866-780-7233. Remember, taxes are the number one thing that will separate you from the retirement of your dreams. It's not how much you make, it's how much you keep that counts. And we want you to keep your money in your own pocket. Well, I'm about out of time, and I would like to thank you for listening to Safe Money Radio. If you're serious about your financial future, give me a call, and together, we'll get your retirement savings on the fast track to accumulation while reducing exposure to market losses. Thanks for listening, and until next time at the same time, I'm Brad Pistol, reminding you to stay safe so you can step into a secure future.

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You've been listening to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Find out how to contractually guarantee that your hard-earned money is safe while avoiding market loss so you can have the retirement that you deserve. Call Brad Pistol now for your complimentary Safe Money book and safe money information kit at 866-780-STAPE. That's 866-780-7233.

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