In retirement, "you can have your beer and drink it too." Our friends at RothIRA.com have put together a great infograph that details how a little saving today can benefit you in the long run. Believe it or not, if you save $1 a day from the time you are 25 until you are 70, you will have enough money for to pay for a stack of beer twice as high as the world's tallest building (and enough to fill a 2-million-ounce mug). See this infograph below to marvel in the savings majesty.
A friend of mine, who was paying college tuition for twins, once said to me that you should borrow for college expenses because you cannot borrow to pay retirement expenses. While this is true, the reality is that sometimes we may have to look at funding some of our children's higher education expenses from whatever assets we can find, including our retirement accounts.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes some detailed questions (retirement planning is complicated, you know!) on Roth IRA conversion taxes, excess IRA contributions and the process of combining Roth IRA accounts. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Consultant.
Can you believe it? We're now 7 full months into 2012 already. And while there's more fun in the sun to be had before summer comes to an end, August has traditionally signaled the start of the back to school season. With that in mind, we thought we'd spend a little time talking about the educational expense exception to the 10% penalty.
Welcome! Ed Slott and Company believes retirement planning education is worth celebrating, so we are putting on our party hats, lighting the candles and spending the day educating YOU - offering discounted books and a free download and holding live chats so you can have a better perspective on retirement planning from various points of view.
Ed Slott and Company has a special microsite just for those who pledged to Public Television during Ed Slott's recent special, Ed Slott's Retirement Rescue!. Below are two questions contained in the FAQ section of the microsite.
We are in a now all too familiar position. We don't know what the estate tax rules will be in 2013. The exemption amount is scheduled to drop back to $1,000,000 per person, and it will not be portable. We have no idea what Congress may or may not do about the situation. And, because 2012 is an election year, they may not do anything until late in 2013 or perhaps early in 2014. Do you need a trust to protect your estate tax exemption, or don't you? Should you name a trust as the beneficiary of your IRA, or not?
Retirement planning is all about proper decision-making. In this week's Slott Report Mailbag, we answer your questions about important decisions, including who to name as a beneficiary, how to handle Roth IRA distributions and if a certain key tax break applies to a certain situation. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Consultant.
Can you believe it? We're now 7 full months into 2012 already. And while there's more fun in the sun to be had before summer comes to an end, August has traditionally signaled the start of the back to school season. With that in mind, we thought we'd spend a little time talking about the educational expense exception to the 10% penalty.
Over the past several years, as the U.S. economy has been struggling, more employees have turned to their company 401(k) plans for a quick source of cash by taking loans from their plan balance. Many 401(k)s offer a loan feature, in fact some plans make it so easy for employees to get a loan that they offer a 401(k) loan debit card!
