penalty

Where it is explained in full

An account is not an investment. The single most useful thing to understand about money, and the one most people were never told. The box and the thing inside the box are two different choices.

Roth or traditional: two jars, one tax bill. Pay the tax now or pay it later. That is the whole choice, and it turns on one number nobody knows: what your tax rate will be when you are old.

The health savings account: three tax breaks and one gate. The account people describe with the most excitement and understand the least. It does something no other account does, and there is a gate in front of it that many people cannot walk through.

Workplace plans: the 401(k), the 403(b), and the TSP, from the first paycheck to the last. Everything a person needs to open one, fill it, hold the right things in it, avoid the traps, and carry it with them when they leave. Long on purpose, so that one page is enough.

A definition says what a thing is; it never says whether it fits you. The guides explain how it works and name the professional who confirms it for a particular person. The No Advice Disclosure.