Category: Retirement
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What Is A Self-Directed IRA?
A self-directed IRA is a type of Traditional or Roth IRA in which you’re allowed to invest in things other than stocks, bonds, or mutual funds – such as investing directly in a hot new biotechnology or traditional technology startup. In fact, it’s the only way you’d be able to invest your IRA dollars into…
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Benefits of Retirement Community Living
Coming from a Chinese family, the thought of having my parents live in a retirement home was never appealing to me. In Chinese culture, unlike American culture, there’s a sense that family, rather than government (Social Security, pensions?), takes care of the elderly members of the family. That’s not to say all Americans send their…
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Guaranteed 4.625% Ain’t Bad
I’ve considered investing more of my retirement money into Treasury Notes but could never get over the seemingly weak rates of return. However, one article I found recently talked about someone who uses treasury notes exclusively for retirement savings, averaging around 4.625%, and then living off the interest of those (state and local tax free!).…
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Five Great Senior Citizen Discounts
Some people lament growing older, some people celebrate it. Well, now both groups have five great reasons to celebrate (even more!). The latest TheStreet.com article on retirement identifies five great opportunities for seniors to pull the age card and get themselves discounts. Baseball Tickets More and more teams are offering Senior Days, with discounted tickets,…
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Last Minute Tax Retirement Moves
It’s April 14th, tomorrow is tax filing day, have you made all your contributions for 2007? Now’s your last chance! IRA Contributions You have until April 15th of the following year to make contributions for that tax year, so you have until April 15th, 2008 to make your contributions to a 2007 IRA. If you…
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2008 Federal Income Tax Brackets
New year means new brackets and limits and all that great jazz! This year the total amount you can contribute to your 401(k) or 403(b) will not increase (remains $15,500) but IRA contributors will be able to put $5,000 towards their retirement (more if you’re in the catch-up category). There are a few other 2008…
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The Magical Age of 26
If you are able to max out your 401(k) at $15,500 and your Roth IRA at $5,000 for only a single year anytime before you are the age of 26 and can earn 10% annually, the historical average rate of return, then you will end up with over $1 million by the time you are…
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Recovering from a Nest Egg Raid
When you retire, a nest egg is that pot of money that you rely on to generate income year after year. You might have it in some large cap dividend stocks or a batch of CDs or some other income producing asset, that’s a good idea. However, there may come a time when you need…
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How Recessions Affect Retirement Plans
Recessions, or two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, have been on many people’s minds lately and this latest article, What job woes mean to you by Chris Isidore, probably doesn’t help. Economic cycles happen and with each economic burst will come a correction of sort, a regression to the mean if you will. However,…