What a taxable index-fund account is actually worth after expense-ratio drag and after Texas takes its share of the gain — which, in most states, is not at the federal preferential rate.
Your gain is untouched by Texas. Only federal tax applies. No Texas tax on capital gains, and as of November 4, 2025 a constitutional prohibition on ever imposing one. Article VIII, Section 24-b provides that the legislature may not impose a tax on the realized OR UNREALIZED capital gains of an individual, family, estate, or trust, including a tax on the sale or transfer of a capital asset payable by the seller or transferor. Subsection (b) preserves ad valorem property tax, sales tax, and use tax, so the prohibition is aimed squarely at a gains levy rather than at transaction taxes generally. THIS IS THE EXACT MIRROR OF WASHINGTON: both states have no general income tax, and where Washington enacted a standalone capital gains excise, Texas constitutionally foreclosed one -- including, unusually, the excise-tax framing Washington used to survive its own constitutional challenge.
What your state actually takes from a 401(k) withdrawal, a pension, and Social Security — in dollars, not a yes/no list.
2026 limits, employer match, the 60-63 super catch-up, and whether the Roth catch-up mandate applies to you.
When your RMDs start under SECURE 2.0, how much this year's is, and what missing it costs.
A required minimum distribution is ordinary income, taxed at your top bracket and often pushing you into the next one. Here is the federal tax on RMDs from $20,000 to $75,000 at different income levels, why the default 10% withholding usually leaves a bill, how to avoid an underpayment penalty, and the three side effects that make the real rate higher than the bracket.
The required minimum distribution on every common balance at every age from 73 to 95, worked from the IRS table, plus what happens to the account over twenty years of withdrawals at 0%, 5% and 7% returns. The short version: the share you must take rises every year, and at good returns the dollar amount keeps rising with it.
What moving actually saves, on your own income mix rather than a headline rate — and how to establish domicile so the state you left cannot follow you.
Which account to draw first, priced. The three cliffs a withdrawal can cross without warning, the conversion window almost nobody uses, and why the order is the last big decision you can still change.