My Retirement Blog
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3 Reasons I Rolled Over My 401(k)
I’ve left two jobs in the last five years and each time I rolled over my 401(k) into a Rollover IRA held at Vanguard. In both cases, I rolled over the IRA within a few months of departing my job and I did so for a small handful of reasons. I know now that I…
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What Is The Roth 401(k)?
You may have heard about the Roth 401(k) and the Roth IRA and wondered, what is the difference and why is this guy Roth putting his name on everything? To be fair, the guy Roth was Former Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (he passed away in late 2007) and he was the man most responsible…
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Sharebuilder IRA Account Review
Sharebuilder, owned by is one of the best online banks, is a popular broker that has offered a handsome new account promotional bonus for as long as I can remember (current bonuses run in the $50 range). This begs the question, would they make a good place to hold your IRA’s? Sharebuilder made a name…
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2008 Highly Compensated Employee Limits
For 2008, the Highly Compensated Employee income level was increased from $100,000 to $105,000. If your income is above $105,000 then you are considered “highly compensated” for the purposes of retirement plans. If you are curious as to the rules regarding HCE’s, please read this page that discusses what a highly compensated employee means.
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Contributing to a Non-Deductible Traditional IRA
If you earn over a certain amount, the Roth IRA option isn’t available to you, you’re left to go after the Traditional IRA. If you participate in a 401(k), you can’t even deduct the contributions to a Traditional IRA. So, why would anyone ever contribute to a non-deductible Traditional IRA? If you did, you’d be…
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The Forever Stamp Retirement Account
So, you may have heard that postage rates will be going up on May 12th. You may also have heard that the post office has a new little Forever Stamp that’s good for one first class letter, or what currently costs 41 cents (it will be going up to 42 cents). What this means is…
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Lifestyle vs. Life-Cycle Funds
A Lifestyle Fund and a Life-Cycle Fund are two totally different types of mutual funds, despite the presence of “life” in both of their names. In fact, they are so radically different that to invest in one when you meant the other could be classified as a very bad move. Life-cycle Funds Life-cycle funds, or…
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Rolling Over Your 401(k) To Vanguard
I’ve rolled over two 401(k)’s into a Rollover IRA at Vanguard and both times the process was absolutely painless. If you’re thinking about taking advantage of Vanguard’s low fee index funds, and other mutual funds, then I think that rolling over a 401(k) is a great way to do it. The process is pretty easy…
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Completely Understand That Annuity!
A couple weeks ago Chris Hansen and Dateline’s Tricks of the Trade did some undercover work looking at annuities, specifically indexed annuities, and how the salespeople were deceiving people about how expensive those things are if you withdraw too quickly. I didn’t watch the show as carefully as some others but I did get a…
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