My Retirement Blog

Tag: IRA

  • Retirement Article Roundup

    Since I have been too lazy to write my own posts for this blog lately I thought I would share with you a few retirement related posts from the past couple Carnival of Personal Finance and elsewhere. “How to select the right IRA beneficiary” from Wealth Pilgrim.  He basically says the youngest beneficiary is the…

  • Obama Automatic IRA Proposal

    As part of Obama’s middle-class plan he includes a proposal for an automatic IRA. This has been proposed before but it has never been implemented. Here are a few details of this plan. Under the plan certain companies that do not currently offer a retirement plan would be required to enroll their employees in an…

  • Income Limits on Roth IRA Conversions Set to End

    Currently if you earn over $100,000 you are not eligible to convert your Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 abolished the income limit and the change will take effect as of Jan. 1,2010. The government has also included a one-time option to spread your tax payment…

  • You Can’t Borrow From An IRA

    The question of whether or not you should rollover an IRA comes up a lot and my general rule of thumb has been that rolling over a 401(k) to an IRA is usually a good thing. There are exceptions to the rule but in general it’s always better to go with a low cost mutual…

  • 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…

  • Don’t Check Your Retirement Account Balance

    This really only applies to people who are decades away from retirement. This week started off rough. Merill Lynch agreed to be purchased by Bank of America, Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, and AIG looked about fifteen minutes away from also filing for bankruptcy protection. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over…

  • Four Reasons Couples Should Stagger Retirement

    An important question you should ask yourself, as a couple nears retirement, is whether they should stagger retirement. It’s a topic that is worth exploring with your loved ones because there are many financial and relationship issues that accompany retirement and those can be, in part, alleviated if you opt to stagger your retirements. An…

  • Don’t Gamble Your Safety Net

    If you’re like me, you recently saw your retirement accounts take a pretty sizable hit. In fact, since October of last year, the markets have been down 20%. 20% puts it into bear market territory and something that probably makes you shudder to think about it (I know I do). You might be tempted to…

  • Roth IRA: No Required Minimum Distribution

    If you have a Traditional IRA or 401(k), you are required by tax rule to start taking required minimum distributions (most of the major brokerages have tools to help you manage this) by April 1st of the year after you turn 70 1/2. One of lesser known benefits of a Roth IRA is that there…