My Retirement Blog
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Roth IRA & IRA Contribution Deadlines Approaching
Just a helpful reminder to everyone thinking about a Roth IRA or a Traditional IRA, the deadline for your contribution is coming up. Not surprisingly, it’s April 15th. When you go to make your contribution, the maximum is $5,000 this year ($6,000 if you are 50+), be sure to mark down that you are making…
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Don’t Cash Out Your 401(k)
When I read the statistics from Vanguard, in their How America Saves 2008 report, I was astounded by the statistic that 60% of Americans who change jobs will cash out their 401(k). That’s right, for every ten people that switch jobs, six will take all the money they’ve diligently saved into their 401(k) accounts and…
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Landmark 401(k) Supreme Court Case: LaRue v. DeWolff Boberg
The LaRue v. DeWolff Boberg case was Supreme Court case in which James LaRue sued his former employer for failing to execute his repeated instructions to move his assets to more conservative investments. Because of this failure to respond to repeated instructions, he lost $150,000 in his 401(k) plan and he wanted to be compensated…
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Should I Sell Everything?
A CNN Money reader recently wrote into Walter Updegrave and asked whether she should sell all her stocks and move into safe investments. After the 4.5%+ drop in the market today after Geitner’s remarks, she probably would’ve done well to follow her instincts and not Updegrave’s advice! While that would’ve been great in the short…
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Warren Buffett’s Metric Says BUY!
Famed investor Warren Buffett has a metric that says the best time to buy stocks is when the total market value of U.S. stocks is 70-80% of the output of the U.S. economy, the gross national product. Stock quotes are the source of this information. Well, that’s where stocks were in late January, when the…
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Top 10 Retirement Spots for Job Seekers
US News & World Report recently took a look at the best cities for job-seeking retirees and came up with a top ten list that’s sure to find some interest. As retirement accounts dwindle, the prospect of going back to work isn’t appealing but sometimes a necessary step. US News took a look at a…
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5 New Retirement Investing Rules
Hmmm… I guess it’s about time that someone wrote about “new” rules to investing, so why not Katy Marquardt of U.S. News & World Report? In citing the classic risks retirees face, Marquardt talked to some experts and came up with five new rules for retirement. Separate investments into different time horizons Rather than treat…
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Transferring Roth IRA Accounts
Thinking about transferring your Roth IRA from one brokerage to another? The easiest way to do this is to make a direct brokerage to brokerage transfer. If you simply withdraw your funds, you have the added burden of having to report the non-taxable distribution on your tax return and then show that you’ve contributed the…
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Retirement Assets After A Layoff
Being fired isn’t something you want to think about but with the economy in the sad state that it’s in, you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It’s important to find out what could happen to your retirement assets in the event you are laid off and fortunately, in most scenarios,…
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