My Retirement Blog

Category: IRA

  • Retire Credit Card Debt First

    If you’re struggling to decide whether to contribute funds to your retirement or pay down your credit card debt, I have some advice. Think of your retirement like you would a house and the credit card debt as a hole that’s in the middle of your property, before you can build your house you should…

  • Traditional IRA Deductibility Ranges

    If you thought that anyone could contribute to a Traditional IRA and then deduct that contribution on their taxes, you’d be wrong. If your employer has a retirement plan, like a 401(k), then your contribution is not fully deductible unless you fall underneath the income phase out ranges. In fact, here are the tables: Year…

  • Retirement Saving After 401k and IRA

    So, what are you supposed to do if you want to save an extra $20,000 a year towards your retirement and you’ve already maximized the contributions to your 401(k) and Roth? (Should you even contribute more if you’ve maxed out your 401k and IRA?) Well, if you read Walter Updegrave’s retirement columns recently, you would’ve…

  • Diversify Your Tax Profile

    Taxes change, just like investments do, and in order to be prepared for whatever comes through the chambers of Congress, you have to diversify your tax profile. Simplistically, this just means that you need to have good mix of investments that are both tax-deferred and tax-free. For example, a Roth IRA is a tax-free investment…

  • Take Advantage of Catch-Up Contributions

    If you’re over 50 by the end of the calendar year, you’re eligible to make catch-up contributions to accounts like your 401k and IRAs. For 401ks in 2007, that means each year you can contribute up to $20,500, $5k more than under 50 folks. For IRAs in 2007, that means each year you can contribute…

  • Roth 401k vs. Regular 401k

    The Roth 401k was made permanent with the passing of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 last year, though it has been around since 2001, and it does for 401k plans what the Roth IRA did for Traditional IRA plans – it created a vehicle for folks to save after-tax dollars and allow it to…

  • Roth IRA or Traditional IRA?

    Remember back when you were a child and your parents said you couldn’t do something and it made you really really want to do it? Well, that’s how many people approach the Roth IRA because after you start making more than $95,000 the amount you can contribute to a Roth decreases. Once you earn more…

  • Close To Roth IRA Contribution Phaseout

    This year will mark the first time I’ve ever been remotely close to the Roth IRA income phaseout (which happens to be $95k – $110k) and in the past I have always tried to contribute to my Roth in a lump sum at the beginning of the year in order to get my money in…

  • 10 Retirement Resolutions: Use Your IRA!

    US News and World Report had a little piece where they discussed some good New Year’s resolutions related to retirement and I thought that I’d put each of them through their paces. The first retirement resolution was to start and contribute to an IRA. Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are currently the largest repository of retirement…