The idea about leaving a Roth IRA to your heirs seems to make sense on paper. Leaving money to your children or other heirs through a Roth IRA will essentially let your money grow tax-free over not only your lifetime but theirs as well. Due to new IRA rules being proposed however, it’s now a […]
Open a Roth IRA For Your Children
While many teens had no luck finding a summer job last summer, the fact is that if you would have opened a Roth IRA account for them and contributed as much as possible, and then did the same from the time they were 16 until they turn 21, that small investment would turn into a […]
When and How to Start IRA Withdrawals
Hopefully, when you went to open an IRA, you did so with the intention of using it for long term retirement needs. The IRA concept is ideally suited for retirement savings and any withdrawals prior to retirement will diminish your long term plans. However, even if you do use an IRA for retirement, emergencies do […]
Using a Roth IRA as Your Emergency Fund
Opening a Roth IRA account is recommended for just about anyone who fits within the rules and who can afford to make a contribution. You can put in up to $5,000 per year ($6,000 if over age 50) of after tax dollars, and when you retire, start withdrawing all of the money in the account […]
How to Open a Roth IRA
Opening a Roth IRA account is really pretty simple. The problem is that there are so many choices of where to put your account that it can be confusing. You should go through a 5 step process in opening any Roth IRA account: Determine that you are eligible to open a Roth IRA Decide whether […]
What is a Self Directed Roth IRA?
What is a Self Directed Roth IRA? The average worker can pretty confused when considering IRA’s. Advertising houses can come up with cute names to describe their client’s product in trying to pull in new business. If you start researching IRA’s, you will encounter a number of options: Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Educational IRA, Spousal […]
Prohibited Transactions in an IRA
Some people can get pretty creative when it comes to taking tax deductions for all types luxury purchases or in making investments. A person might buy a boat and then try to deduct the purchase price from his taxes on the basis that he held a lot of business meetings on the boat — therefore, […]
What Types of Investments Can You Use in an IRA?
The US Tax Code is not very clear in stating the types of investments that are permitted in IRA accounts. The Code specifically states a couple of investments that you cannot have in your IRA account. The Code was drafted to give investors a wide range of alternatives when deciding how to invest their IRA […]
Roth IRA Withdrawal Rules
The Roth IRA is one of the best ways I know of to save for your retirement. You really can’t beat the tax free status of withdrawals at a time when your salary has stopped. Contributions to Roth IRA’s should be left in there at all possible costs so that you have the maximum available […]
Roth IRA Eligibility
It would be great to tell you that eligibility rules for a Roth IRA are easy, and you simply can or can’t open an IRA. But the IRS is involved here since it is tax law that governs Roths. And that always means the rules are complicated and have a lot of exceptions. One rule […]