My Retirement Blog
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Roth IRA Conversion Could Trigger Tax Underpayment Penalty
If you convert a Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA this year, remember that the balance you convert will be considered income and so you may be penalized for underpaying your taxes. There are several safe harbor conditions that would save you from the underpayment penalty (for example, if you did not owe taxes last…
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How To Respond to Market Drops
Walter Updegrave recently received a question from a reader that lost over 10% of their retirement assets in the last few months (since June). The reader was wondering what they were supposed to do as they are 58 years old. Can he “wait it out?” Should he pull out and cut his losses? Walter outlines…
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9% Fall in Gasoline Prices
We’re getting a welcome respite from high fuel prices as the price of gas has fallen nearly 40 cents and has had a streak of lowering prices for the last 34 days straight. It’s a welcome respite from the days of $4 gasoline, though at $3.717 (the national average), it’s hardly “cheap” to drive around…
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Beginners Guide To Saving for Retirement
Developing a productive savings plan is something that anyone can afford, even if you think your budget is already stretched tight enough. Regardless of the amount of money you are currently left with at the end of the month, a savings plan is something that is essential to every household and really needs to be…
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Four Investment Tips from Tom Gayner
Tom Gayner is the Chief Investment Officer of Markel and one of the premier investors in the world. He’s so good that Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, a phenom in his own right, said that Gayner would make the perfect CIO at Berkshire Hathaway. Gayner has four investment tips gleaned from his comments by the Motley…
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Unconvert A Roth IRA Conversion
Here’s a gem of a recommendation from Kiplinger: If you converted a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA this year and lost value on your investments, you can undo the conversion and then reconvert to save on taxes. The process is called “recharacterization.” If you ask the IRA sponsor to recharacterize your conversion and put…
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Three Gotchas In Retirement
Marshall Loeb’s Daily Money Tip near the end of July was a list of three retirement gotchas you need to be aware of so they don’t catch you unawares when you retire. The first gotcha is an obvious one but the other two are less so. Underestimating Your Budget. This refers to underestimating how much…
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Find the Cheapest Effective Funds
Not all 401(k) programs are created equal, that’s a fact I’ve known for quite some time and one cemented after reviewing The Smartest 401(k) Book You?ll Ever Read by Daniel Solin this past weekend. While the idea that 401(k) plan administrators may pay kickbacks to companies turns your stomach, the reality is that it occurs…
Got any book recommendations?