Individual Retirement Accounts - IRAs
Strategies for maximizing your Individual Retirement Account (IRA’s) Investments, Tax Savings and Timing of Required Minimum Distributions
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Avoiding Costly IRA Blunders
IRAs are among the most valuable assets most people own, and they become more valuable after receiving 401(k) rollovers. But they aren’t the s vehicles they seemed when people were opening them. There are many misunderstandings about IRAs. These misunderstandings frequently result in taxes and penalties that easily could be avoided. IRAs aren’t the simple […]
What’s Wrong with 401(k) Plans
The 401(k) revolution isn’t increasing retirement security for most employees. I don’t know many people who dispute that. But the real question is: Why aren’t 401(k) plans working. Of course, two reasons are employee behavior. They don’t save enough, and they don’t invest. But another problem, according to this post, is that most 401(k) plans […]
Using IRAs to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff
Taxes will increase, especially for investors, in 2013 and beyond. The only question is how high they will increase. The 3.8% tax on investment income that was enacted as part of health care reform will go into effect, as described on page five of this visit. The Bush tax cuts, payroll tax reduction, and other […]
Inside California’s Big Pension Plan
California has the country’s largest pension fund, the California Public Employee Retirement System (CALPERS). It’s had mediocre to poor returns for years and delivered again recently, reporting about a 1% total return for its fiscal year ending June 30. This is well below the fund’s target rate of return, which means its unfunded liability increases […]
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IRA Strategies for 2012-2013
The amount of money in IRAs is climbing. Most of us have at least one IRA, and eventually many people roll over their main retirement as-sets, 401(k) accounts, to IRAs. Unfortunately, a lot of the value in IRAs isn’t being maximized. People don’t focus on the key strategies that can make an IRA more valuable […]
How Bad Are Public Pension Liabilities
A few state and local governments have pension liabilities that are manageable and can be paid down if we enter a period of decent economic growth and normal investment returns. But a number of them have large debt burdens in their pensions. How big is that burden? JPMorgan Chase prepared a confidential report earlier this […]
Saving Taxes on Required Distributions
Taxes take their toll on IRAs. There are strong incentives to pack money into IRAs and other qualified retirement plans during the accumulation years. Yet, there’s a downside. In the distribution years the taxes can be high. Think of the taxes as the mortgage on your IRA. The government lent you money during the accumulation […]
Picking IRA Beneficiaries
Many people make serious mistakes when naming beneficiaries for IRAs and similar accounts. Talk to almost any financial planner or estate planner and you’ll hear wild stories. People often have no beneficiaries named. Or a divorced or deceased spouse is the primary beneficiary. Some of the mistakes are so bad they end up in court. […]
