Does anyone use IB for mutual funds? What has your experience been? I see they have NTF funds and funds with a transaction fee are only 14.95 for the fee.
https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/commissions-mutual-funds.php

...And "Margin Call." I liked the cast in that one, too.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_margin%20call

Great film. Loved, loved, loved the boardroom scene!

10 nov, '23.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-11-11/wall-street-week-11-10-23-video

10 nov, 2023.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-11-10/bloomberg-real-yield-11-10-23

...And "Margin Call." I liked the cast in that one, too.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615147/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_margin%20call

@msf yes, you've actually stated it ACCURATELY. Thank you. That's what I meant. :).
She will have control over the money for longer, after I'm gone. She still has to wait until 59 and a half, I suppose, but her own spend-down can take lots longer, if she wants it that way--- compared to the 10-year rule for a non-spouse who inherits a T-IRA. (The format of those Tables is nutso goofy!!!)

+1.
I/we have thought about a Roth conversion, but it feels like much ado about nothing. And my lawyer cousin tells me a Will is just unnecessary if we don't own any Real Estate. We have joint account everything--- and my wife's name is even on the joint account I have with my son--- her stepson. She and I have no children together.

There are more generous INHERITED IRA rules for a spouse 10 years, or even younger, than the deceased.
You may be confusing the RMD rules for a regular (as opposed to inherited) IRA. Here are the rules for spousal inherited IRAs as described by Chuck. The only place "10 years younger" appears is for IRAs inherited by someone who is not a spouse.
https://www.schwab.com/ira/inherited-and-custodial-ira/inherited-ira-withdrawal-rules
If while you and your young spouse are alive you are subject to RMDs, you use Table II to compute your RMDs. This table is based on both your age and that of your spouse and results in smaller RMDs based in part on the longer life expectancy of your spouse.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b#en_US_2022_publink100090077

Is there a real thing, gift to a spouse, when they already own 1/2 of everything you do and visa-versa?
Surely you're not saying that if you have $100K in the bank on Tuesday and you get married on Wednesday, then you immediately "lose" $50K?
In California (a community property state), your get to give away half of the community property via your will, unless it is titled as community property with right of survivorship. That's a fairly new law ("Community property with Right of Survivorship is a relatively new form of owning real property, and was created by the California legislature in 2001.")
In common law property states (i.e. most of them), what's yours is yours and what's your spouse's is your spouse's. Of course you can agree to own property jointly, e.g. as joint tenants or tenants in common.
https://www.wiggin.com/publication/community-property-states-versus-common-law-property-states/
To address the original question - for tax purposes, you don't need to show that you've gifted (separate) property to your spouse, because the IRS doesn't care about that transfer. Now the state might care, because who gets that yacht when you die depends on whether you kept it as your separate property, or you gifted it to your spouse, or you and your spouse own it jointly.

holy cow. Along with Bear Stearns. Lehman. Merrill. Julius Baer? and the beat goes on.
Actor James Cromwell portrays Hank Paulson in this one. Anyone but me seen it? I wonder how true to life it is, the portrait of Paulson, offered in that movie? He and uncle GWB presided over the bubble and crash, eh?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1495980/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_44_act

I saw it but dont' really remember it. Might need to re-acquire it for my financial movies collection.
'Too Big To Fail' was another post-GFC flick that had a pretty good cast, too. And then for something on the semi-satirical side, there's always 'The Big Short.'

holy cow. Along with Bear Stearns. Lehman. Merrill. Julius Baer? and the beat goes on.
Actor James Cromwell portrays Hank Paulson in this one. Anyone but me seen it? I wonder how true to life it is, the portrait of Paulson, offered in that movie? He and uncle GWB presided over the bubble and crash, eh?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1495980/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_44_act

@MikeM. @yogibearbull.
On second thought, Mike is correct. It might make sense to gift my son some money. We have a joint account back in California, but he has his own individual account, too. Might I send it THERE? I understand that there will need to be taxes paid on T-IRA withdrawals. Except for the fact that our taxable income never meets the threshold. We never pay federal income tax. As long as I don't pull out too much each January from that IRA....
Also, unrelated: Month by month, in baby steps, I'm growing the joint taxable brokerage account. And some of the January annual withdrawal ends up in there, too. There are more generous INHERITED IRA rules for a spouse 10 years, or even younger, than the deceased. But what I try to teach her about all of this goes in one ear and out the other. She can get at the taxable account without worrying about ANY IRA rules, and that's what she prefers. And she has one totally crazy schedule that she keeps. I don't complain.
Thank you both.

Is there a real thing, gift to a spouse, when they already own 1/2 of everything you do and visa-versa? It doesn't matter (I don't think) if her name alone or both of your names are on the accounts. All your money is joint.
And I don't believe you can gift IRA $ to anyone without paying taxes on the withdrawal first. You can't move taxed deferred IRA money into someone else's IRA. I'm confused on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no getting around paying taxes on IRA withdrawals.

Since this post has been bumped . . .
Prof. Snowball's thesis in his column:

in every measure of returns, more equity is better. In every measure of risk and of risk-adjusted returns, less equity is better. Several earlier MFO essays on the discreet charm of stock-lite portfolios found the same relationship is true for periods dating back 100 years. Lightening up equity exposure reduces your volatility by a lot more than it reduces your returns, so it always seems like the best move for risk-conscious investors.

And he chose four "Great Owls", which included FAGIX and FPACX as well as OSTIX and RSIVX, as great alternatives to only equities. All four buy more, or less, junk. I chose to run PV against FAGIX because I am not comfortable buying most bond funds whether they're buying junk, or agencies.
If David Giroux wants to buy junk, well, that's why I bought his fund. Let him worry about it. I don't need to pay above average fees to FPA.I can load up on cash myself. YMMV.
In this PV I'm looking at GLFOX versus FAGIX and FPACX. I think of GLOFX as a global version of Electric Company, Waterworks, and the railroads. So, Widows & Orphans take a ride on The Reading . . .
For those that don't follow links, GLOFX has the better standard deviation, Sharpe, and Sortino numbers, a better compound growth rate, lost less money in the worst year of holding, has less correlation to the market, and the lowest beta and highest alpha.

And here is the original W&O versus FPACX. Since July 1993 FPACX is the winnerin returns, while W&O beat FAGIX.
Here are some runs against what MFO Premium calls The Great Normalization (TGN), which they date from January 2022

First: W&O versus FPACX and FAGIX. My take away is that the fund with the best SD, Sharpe, and Sortino numbers also had the worst CAGR, worst yearly loss, and highest market correlation. YMMV
And here is W&O Ride the Rails. And it looks to me like the fund with the worst Sharpe and Sortino numbers has lost the least amount of your money. But I don't always spot things correctly. Let me know if you see something different.
Why did I run these numbers? It's the kind of thing I like to do when people say things like every. I like to dig a little deeper.

Nice piece as usual from Kitces. If nothing else, it goes far in conveying a sense of why one doesn't find calculators for this. A couple of the comments are also worth a mention:
- the first comment suggests including ACA subsidies (tax credits) in the calculations (as I also suggested, above);
- Kitces added a comment about how paying the taxes on a Roth conversion from a taxable account changes things (there's a tax drag on the taxable investments that is reduced by converting).
- That was his response to another comment citing this 2021 (2022 update) paper (haven't read it yet);
When and for Whom are Roth Conversions Most Beneficial? A New Set of Guidelines, Cautions and Caveats
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860359 

Well, now! Great news! With reference to my question above, there might be a million ways to do it; can anyone here on the board offer a simple method? To gift to my wife? She is a US citizen. (Or son, within the $18k limit?)
My own Pension, SS, gains/losses from investments are our only reportable income. She holds a T-IRA that is stinking up the world this year, worth today less than $10k. So that counts, but not for much. But no earned income by her.....So, can't dump it into her IRA.
The idea here is to reduce my own Trad. IRA and grow the (joint) brokerage, taxable side of the portfolio. Taxes are not a consideration. And I would not want to just empty-out my own IRA, because that would be way too much money added to taxable income in a single year. Don't ever want to see THAT sort of tax bill!

Getting back to my prior posts here about playing in the Seconday Issues sandbox in case anyone is interested...
FWIW, I will rolling over some CDs starting in the next two weeks as some rungs mature. There are still a coupla New Issues left in the Fido inventory (after last week's shake out) that meet my respective hurdles for their maturities. But there are also a coupla Secondary Issues that I just might BUY instead. I will be massaging those numbers in detail and will provide a summary of my decisions.
@Jan: There are NO commissions (fees) charged to the BUYer of a Fido or VG New Issue CD. They both charge the same % fee on Secondary Issues BUYs. As noted previously, for example, on the BUY of a $50K Secondary Issue CD, the fee at both is $50. That fee of course needs to be accounted for in determining which BUY is better, New or Secondary Issue. FWIW, I have never and would never pay a fee for a New Issue CD. I have however many times over the past 15 years happily paid the (IMO) nominal fee on Secondary Issues in order to increase my effective yields over those then offered by New Issues.

$18k gift exclusion for individuals. Suppose I want to gift $18k to my wife? The only account she has in her name ALONE is her Trad IRA. But..... there's no reportable earned income. She can't add to it, anyhow.
I just write her a check from our (joint) checking account? But then the IRS sees my name on it, too...
How might I DO this?

Annual gift exclusion for 2024 was increased to $18K (per individual, per beneficiary).
The same is also the annual contribution limit for 529s , although there is a 5-yr pull-forward provision that can allow 5 x 18K = $90K into 529 right away.
Clawbacks may apply to gifts.

I did some research on Boaz Weinstein & Saba. Guy has an interesting background. He is a hedge fund "genius" but question is whether his magic translates into his public/listed funds. This doesn't always work - look at Robert Goldstein and his funds (GSPY, GVLU, etc), Carl Icahn and his investment vehicle (IEP).
In 2021, Saba followed a similar strategy to takeover Voya PPR and turn it into a different hybrid fund BRW. A recent report for BRW shows mix of investments in stocks, bonds, CEFs, cryptos. GIM/SABA will probably do the same on a bigger scale (it’s 4x BRW); for now, the current ER will be maintained but may go up later.
Another unexpected CEF development occurred in 2020 when Franklin Templeton/Franklin/BEN bought Legg Mason whose subsidiary was Western Asset Mgmt. Western had many bond CEFs and this change in control triggered the renewals of all Western CEFs’ advisory contracts. Saba and other CEF activists took advantage of this by buying positions in several Western ETFs that they wanted to target.