> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://the-wealth-habit.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Your September 15 Payment, and the $150,000 Line - URL: https://the-wealth-habit.ghost.io/your-september-15-payment-and-the-150-000-line/ - Published: 2026-09-14T12:24:46.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-14T12:29:17.000Z - Author: Robert Kessler ## In This Issue > What changed — nothing that touches your money. Why, in detail. > Today's habit — clear the September 15 payment > The Number — $150,000, the MAGI line at 65 > On the calendar — September CPI, October 14, 2026 --- ## Nothing Changed Three things made noise last week. None of them changed a number you can act on. The Bureau of Labor Statistics published the August Consumer Price Index on September 11\. That's the second of the three months the SSA averages for the 2027 COLA, and the September reading lands on October 14. Then the estimates. Advocacy groups had 2027 COLA projections out within hours. A projection isn't a figure, and nobody at the SSA has published one yet. And the 2027 Medicare premiums now circulating work the same way, because CMS publishes plan-level premiums with the landscape files in mid-to-late September, so anything quoted before then is somebody's model. Nothing changed this week that touches your money. That is the whole report. **The point:** Your 2027 deposit gets settled on October 14, 2026, and not one day earlier. Nothing here requires action. --- ## Today's Habit Clear your third-quarter estimated tax payment today. The federal income tax is a pay-as-you-go tax, and most of what you live on now arrives with nothing withheld. Nobody takes a slice out of your IRA distribution, your brokerage interest, or the CD that matured in July, unless you tell them to. The September 15 installment covers what you received from June 1 through August 31. Nobody reminds you. Skip it and the IRS charges 7% a year, compounded daily, on the shortfall. The agency set that rate on August 21, 2026, for the quarter beginning October 1, and it runs from the day you missed until the day the money lands. You can't deduct it either. Carry a $6,000 gap from tomorrow to April 15, 2027 and it costs you roughly $250. Ten minutes, four steps. 1. Find two figures on your 2025 return: total tax, and adjusted gross income. 2. If that AGI came in above $150,000, your 2026 safe-harbour target is 110% of that total tax. At or below it, 100%. 3. Add up everything credited to 2026 so far — withholding from pensions, from Social Security, from IRA distributions, plus your April and June payments. 4. If you're under three-quarters of the target, pay the gap at IRS Direct Pay (it wants a bank routing number, not a card). Choose "Estimated Tax" and tax year 2026. You're done when you have a confirmation number and the target figure written where you'll find it again. January 15, 2027 is the same arithmetic, one quarter later. --- ## The Number **$150,000** That's the modified adjusted gross income line for the enhanced deduction available to you at 65, if you file jointly. Filing single, it's $75,000. The deduction runs up to $6,000, or $12,000 for a couple where both of you qualify. Qualifying means being born before January 2, 1962, holding a valid Social Security number, and filing jointly if you're married. Above the MAGI line it starts shrinking. Which turns your December decisions into arithmetic instead of instinct. A Roth conversion. A gain you choose to realise. A lumpy withdrawal you could have split across two calendar years. Each one lifts MAGI, and MAGI is what the phase-out reads. And yes, $150,000 is also the line that decides whether your estimated-tax safe harbour is 100% or 110%. Different test, different year's income, same figure. The IRS does that. Both figures are in Publication 505 for 2026. --- ## On the Calendar > **September 15, 2026.** Third-quarter federal estimated tax payment due. > **October 14, 2026**. The BLS publishes the September CPI, the last input to the 2027 COLA. > **October 15, 2026.** Medicare open enrollment opens and runs through December 7. --- ### Sources used: [Publication 505 (2026), Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax | Internal Revenue Service![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/icon/favicon-8bfa4234-7bd7-4f61-b36b-54f72dfa9706.ico)Home![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/thumbnail/irs_logo-231a2683-9a14-4126-acc6-5311fe1536e3.jpg)](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p505?ref=the-wealth-habit.ghost.io) [Interest rates remain the same for the fourth quarter of 2026 | Internal Revenue ServiceIR-2026-98, Aug. 21, 2026 — The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates will remain the same for the calendar quarter beginning Oct. 1, 2026.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/icon/favicon-c1bfae86-d4a1-4ffa-891b-1119546e44d6.ico)Home![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/thumbnail/irs_logo-1beec50f-612c-4232-81bb-3c487d4ed5d7.jpg)](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/interest-rates-remain-the-same-for-the-fourth-quarter-of-2026?ref=the-wealth-habit.ghost.io) [Schedule of Releases for the Consumer Price Index![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)Bureau of Labor Statistics![](https://www.bls.gov/images/bls_emblem_2016.png)](https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news%5Frelease/cpi.htm?ref=the-wealth-habit.ghost.io) [Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount InformationMedicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount InformationOn July 28, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released preliminary technical Medicare Part D bid information for contract year (CY) 2027 to help Part D plan sponsors finalize their Part D and Medicare Advantage (MA) offerings and prepare for Medicare Open Enrollment.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/icon/favicon-11e299ea-2843-47cb-920c-6b67c022c95f.ico)Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ServicesCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/c9/afc9fbf3-ce89-4a39-ad84-16a4dd3fc9b1/content/images/thumbnail/logo-8aaeca0c-deab-48cc-bf8d-17ea87fee1e2.png)](https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/medicare-part-d-2027-national-average-monthly-bid-amount-information?ref=the-wealth-habit.ghost.io)