When we think about saving up for our golden years, we often consider 401k contribution limits, Roth IRA tax benefits, and withdrawal rates. However, one major component of planning for one’s future is usually missing; most people fail to consider both marriage and retirement when thinking ahead.

Marriage And Retirement Planning: The Need For Communication

Just like in other areas of household finances, little communication exists between a husband and wife when it comes to retirement planning. Considering the fact that many Americans have neglected proper planning and analysis when it comes to the future (or even the present, if you judge that based on our greed), it should come as no surprise that many people have not discussed the details of retirement with their spouse. Take a look at these alarming numbers from a recent Market Watch article:

Almost two-thirds of couples don’t agree on the age at which they’ll retire, and one-third of couples disagree or don’t know where they’ll live once they retire, according to a survey of 648 married couples (a total of 1,296 people), conducted for Fidelity Investments by Richard Day Research Inc.

Those numbers are pretty scary. It’s hard to imagine a couple never discussing something as basic and foundational such as when and where they would like to retire. The fact that they don’t agree on these issues is cause for great concern. For instance, how can they know how much money they will ultimately need, if they do not know how much longer they will be working or how much it will cost for them to live?

Unfortunately, the disagreement and confusion doesn’t stop there:

Forty-seven percent of couples don’t agree on whether they’ll work in retirement, according to the survey of people aged 46 to 75 with household income of at least $75,000 or investable assets of $100,000 or more. Of the couples surveyed, 196 already were retired. The survey respondents were not told that Fidelity sponsored the survey.

I would have to say that this is the most surprising result of this survey. Almost half of those married couples who are less than 20 years away from retirement and have a decent amount of wealth, can’t agree on whether or not they will work in their retirement. This isn’t just a financial issue, but it also affects many other aspects of their lives!

The idea of working during retirement can greatly change the way in which you currently save. If you plan to sit around and do nothing in your golden years, then you will probably use every available penny to invest in your future. On the other hand, if you plan to work during that time, then you may not even be compelled to invest up to the IRA contribution limits early on (although, that may still prove to be a huge mistake).

Of course, given all of this confusion when it comes to retirement and marriage, there is no way that we can expect couples to have solid plans for the future. In fact, the results were worse in this category than the others:

Seventy-three percent of the couples surveyed disagreed on whether they have completed a retirement-income plan, and more than half of the couples surveyed disagreed on what their top source of retirement income would be.

This should serve as a wake up call to all couples out there! Apparently, marriage and retirement talks don’t go hand in hand. People are planning on spending the rest of their lives together, but for some reason, they fail to discuss major financial topics that will impact their future.

Marriage, Retirement & Women

Even though more and more women are working and are involved in the family finances, there are still a large number of wives who don’t feel as knowledgeable about their financial situation as their husbands. Consider these numbers:

Only 35% of the wives said they could take on full responsibility for the couple’s retirement finances if needed, versus 72% of the husbands.

While 20% of the husbands described themselves as “investors,” just 5% of the wives did. Instead, they tended to say they were savers or spenders.

I’m sure that out of the 65% of women who do not feel as though they can take over the retirement finances, many of them aren’t married to men who are purposefully keeping this information from them. Even still, this level of comfort and confidence can only be gained through repetition and constant communication. Last year, when I gave my thoughts about marriage on our anniversary, I identified things that I wanted to bring to our marriage and I’m sure that I wasn’t able to do everything. But, I have a responsibility to keep pushing until I get it right!

It will not be easy to break out of the mindset of focusing only on the short-term, and simply assuming that things will “work themselves out” in the long run. However, here are a few things which you can do to solidify both your marriage and retirement.

What You Can Do

Plan A Huge “Retirement” Talk – Take a look at all of these items and anything else that is important to you, then list your goals regarding each topic. Talk these things out until you are on the same page. Of course, this may take more than one session, but since you can’t make any moves until you have concrete goals, you have to keep at it!

Meet With A Financial Advisor – If you need help in developing a plan that will allow you to meet your goal, then enlist the help of an adviser. Be open and honest in establishing your goals, and the motivation for those goals when you meet. Be sure to meet with him together!

Schedule Regular Financial Meetings – Once you have your goals in place, set up regular meetings to check on your progress. My suggestion would be to hold quarterly meetings and make sure that all of your questions are answered.

Review Statements & Documents Together – Whenever you receive a new statement or other important document regarding a retirement account, take time to go over it with your spouse. You can incorporate this into your regular meetings.

As you can see, the answer to this problem is to communicate and work together. There is no magic formula – it will take hard work, diligence, and patience; but then again, so does marriage!

photo by Ambro

One of the most popular pieces of financial advice that we hear today is that we need to start saving for retirement. The IRS even gives us the benefit of tax-deferred retirement savings accounts, in order to provide us with an extra incentive to save for retirement.

However, according to a recent article by Market Watch, most Americans are far behind on their retirement savings:

The gap between what Americans need for retirement and the amount they have saved is a staggering $6.6 trillion, Retirement USA, a coalition of workers’ groups, said in a study published Wednesday.

“The retirement income deficit is the gap between the pensions and retirement savings that American households have today and what they should have today to be on track to maintain their living standard in retirement,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president and policy director of the Pension Rights Center, in a conference call with reporters.

This means that as a nation, we are so far behind when it comes to saving for our golden years, that it almost seems hopeless. These abysmal numbers are due to a number of common mistakes, and the most common one is starting too late.

When to Start Saving For Retirement?

The answer to this question is quite simple…today! With all of the other financial priorities in our lives, why should we put them aside and begin saving for retirement today?

The Power of Compound Interest:

Albert Einstein is known for saying this regarding compound interest:

Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.

Allow me to quote another “genius” (me ) to further explain what compound interest actually is:

Simply stated, compounding interest describes what happens when interest is calculated on a principal amount of money, and then that interest is added to the principal and now interest will be calculated on this new higher amount.

For instance, if you save $10,000 and it earns 10% interest over the course of a year, you have earned $1,000, meaning you now have $11,000 in your account. If we are dealing with compound interest, the next year will begin with a new principal amount of $11,000 and your 10% interest will now earn $1,100 in the second year!

So every year both the principal amount that you invested as well as your earnings from those investments will continue to grow (unless your account loses money). That means that every year you decide to put off saving for retirement, you lose all of the potential growth on your investment as well as the earnings on that growth for the next 20 to 40 years!!

Let’s say that you wish to retire at age 65, but you decide to wait until you are 40 before you begin saving for retirement. Save the current IRA contribution limit of $5,000 each year for the next 25 years and you’ll end up with $365,529.70!!! That is assuming an annual rate of return of 8% (of course your actual return will fluctuate each year, but assuming a steady rate makes it much easier to present an example), and that you deposit the $5,000 as a lump sum at the end of the year.

Now, let’s see what your result would be if you started saving at age 25 – and all other inputs remained the same. If 25 years got us about $365k, then it would be safe to assume that adding another 20 years would get us around $292k. However, starting at age 25 would leave us with $1,295,282.59!!! That’s why it is the 8th wonder of the world!

Take a look at one more example in order to see how important it is to start saving for retirement today:

If you choose to invest $5,000 into your IRA for 10 consecutive years, you would have $72,432.81 (assuming the conditions above). If you choose to not invest another penny, and just allow that amount to grow over the next 30 years, you will end up with $728,867 in your retirement account! That is almost double what you would have if you only give yourself 25 years to invest. Because, in this example, you started early and took advantage of compound interest, you only had to contribute to the account for a total of 10 years to see this result!

If you look at the 401k contribution limits, you’ll see that you can save up to $16,500 for your retirement. Do that for 25 years and you’ll be up to $1.2 million. However if you start early and give yourself 40 years, you will bring your account up to almost $4.3 million!!!

Giving Away Free Money

Most companies that offer 401 (k) plans will also offer a 401k employer match. What this means is that your employer will match the amount that you put into your plan up to a certain percentage of your salary.

The current limit for an employer match is 6% of the employee’s pre-tax salary. That means that if you make $100,000 per year, then by not saving for retirement through your 401k, you are missing out on $6,000 of free money each year!

Of course you also have to consider what your real loss would be once you factor in compound interest. Just that $6,000 each year would bring you over $1.55 million in 40 years!

So not only are you passing up free money, but you are also forfeiting the affect of compounding on that free money!

Even if you do not have another 40 years left until your desired retirement age, it’s not too late to get back on track with your retirement planning!  Maybe consider using the 2011 payroll tax holiday as a chance to save for retirement!

photo by Hygiene Matters

Reader Questions:

1. Do you think you are currently on track with your retirement savings?
2. If you are currently not saving for retirement, what is stopping you?
3. Have you seen the power of compound interest work in your behalf?

If you have not already started planning for your retirement you should start today.

While everyone looks forward to their golden years a lot of people are afraid of retirement or have no idea what kind of retirement savings it will take to make for an enjoyable retirement.

One of the great tools available to help with your retirement planning is a retirement calculator.

As you might expect, a retirement calculator is more useful if you use it early in your working life. If you wait until you are just a few short years away from retirement age the calculator will only be able to tell you how much your income will be after you start working.

However, if you use the retirement calculator when you have thirty or forty years of work ahead of you it can give you a much better picture of what your golden years can look like and how to avoid retirement risks as well as plan to make your dreams come true.

What A Retirement Calculator Can Tell You

Income Target

The retirement calculator can figure out how much money you will need to make in order to have enough to live the life that you want after you stop working.

It not only takes into account the basics like food and housing but also the other things on which you spend money. It can then tell you how much you need just to get by and how much you will need in order to maintain your current lifestyle.

Interest Rates

One of the ways to earn money for your retirement is through wise investments. The calculator helps you figure out just how much interest you need to earn on your investments in order to meet your income goals.

Retirement Timeline 

Your calculator can look at options for retirement dates. It can help you decide to retire early or delay retirement to spend a year or two extra working.

Principal Amounts 

The principal amount of money you hold in your accounts will dictate how much interest you are able to earn. If you withdraw too much money you will stop earning interest, which is a big part of your retirement income.

A good calculator will help you figure out how much you need for retirement.  It will show how much you should put in to that account and how much you can withdraw and still maintain a balance that you are comfortable with and that maintains your interest earnings.

Here’s a great Retirement Calcuator at CNN Money that can walk you through your retirement planning.

Reviewing Your Progress with the Retirement Caluclator

As you go through life, your goals and earnings are likely to change. If you go back to the retirement calculator on a regular basis it will help determine if you are still on the right course or if you need to make changes to meet your goals.

Even if you have already retired the retirement calculator can still help you. By taking the time to plug in your financial numbers from time to time you can evaluate your spending to make certain you do not use up your nest egg too quickly.

Everyone looks forward to the time when they can stop working for good. We all dream of spending more time doing the things we really enjoy without the stress of working day in and day out.

The best way to make sure your retirement exceeds your expectations is to start planning early so that you have the funding you need to relax and enjoy your golden years.

Start as early as possible and use tools like a good retirement calculator and your retirement dreams will be easier and faster to reach then you imagined.

This article was written by William Eve. William writes about saving money, investment loans and real estate for Home Loan Finder. If your a first home buyer or looking to refinance, visit the Home Loan Finder website for great advice and to compare home loans today.

Retirement is a fascinating topic don’t you think? 

Millions of people long for it, plan for it and obsess over it.

On a daily basis, people ask themselves questions like these:  when can I retire?; how much money do I need to retire?; and which retirement account should I be saving into as I get ready for that big day?.

The last question is what we want to tackle today – which retirement account is right for you?

We certainly won’t cover every single type of retirement account out there today, but I do want to tackle the big four – 401ks, Traditional IRAs, Non-Deductible IRAs & Roth IRAs to see which one(s) make sense for you.

Let’s take a look:

401k Retirement Account

401k legislation was written in 1978 and finally passed in 1980.  401k’s allow employees to choose to receive deferred compensation rather than direct compensation.  That compensation gets put into a 401k account that is invested.

401ks are tax-deferred retirement savings accounts.  Basically they allow you to reduce your taxable income, which gives you a tax-break now.

They also grow tax-deferred – meaning you are not taxed on the growth of the investments each year.

When you pull the money out in retirement, however, you must pay the Piper!  Uncle Sam will ask for all that deferral to be taxed.

Every dollar you pull out will be included in your taxable income for the year – it’s as if you earned that money. 

401ks – The Right Retirement Account for You?

401k retirement accounts are right for folks who like having an easy way to save for retirement (deductions are taken from your payroll), who want to reduce their taxes now and who are getting an employer match on their 401k contributions.

Traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

A Traditional IRA works much the same way as a 401k except for the payroll deduction.  The limits are much lower in terms of what you can contribute as well.

If you are covered by a retirement plan at work and making between $56,000 and $66,000 for singles and $89,000 and $109,000 for joint-filers then the deductibility of your contributions are phased out.

That means you cannot deduct the entire amount of your contributions from your income. 

If you are making under that amount or you are not covered by an employer retirement plan at all, then you are able to fully deduct your IRA contributions.

Traditional IRAs – The Right Retirement Account for You?

A Traditional IRA is a great retirement account for those who may not have a 401k or other employer plan, or who perhaps do have one, but are making less than the phase-out limits and want to get tax advantages now.

Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

Roth IRAs are Individual Retirement Accounts that do not give you a tax break up front.  Rather, they allow you to put in after-tax money, which then grows tax-deferred.

When you reach 59 1/2, you can take out your contributions and your earnings completely tax-free!

Like the Traditional IRA, the IRS has phase out rules for Roth IRAs.  For single filers, your Roth IRA contributions are phased out when your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is between $105,000 and $120,000.  Above $120,000 you are ineligible for a Roth IRA contribution.

For married filers, the phase-out limits are between $167,000 and $176,000 and above that you are ineligible for contributions.

Roth IRAs – The Right Retirement Account for You?

Who should open a Roth IRA?  Basically anyone who falls under the phase-out limits, wants to diversify themselves from a tax-standpoint and has ran the numbers and feels that income or tax rates will be higher in the future and their potential for tax savings is greater down the road than it is now.

Non-Deductible Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

A Non-Deductible IRA is simply an IRA that you contribute to when you are phased out of your deductiblility.  Remember how we said that if you are covered by an employer plan and make too much money you can’t deduct your contributions? 

A Non-Deductible IRA is the result.

Last year I would never have given the non-deductible IRA a second thought.  It made very little sense to contribute to them. 

This year, however, it may make a lot of sense for folks.  Here’s why:

The income limits for Roth IRA conversions have been lifted, meaning anyone can convert money to a Roth IRA!

I won’t get into the details of this strategy here, since I talked about covnerting non-deductible IRA contributions at length in this post - but quickly, here is the strategy:

Make Non-Deductible IRA contributions (no tax write off); convert those contributions to a Roth IRA (no taxes owed); let your money grow tax-free in the Roth IRA (no taxes owed) and then pull out the money in retirement (no taxes due!)

Non-Deductible IRAs – The Right Retirement Account for You?

This strategy is right for those who make too much money to simply contribute to Roth IRAs, but still want to take advantage of tax diversification by getting money into a Roth.

Which Retirement Account is Right For You?

Readers, let’s hear from you – which is your favorite retirement account and why?

Perhaps you’re sitting there scratching your head, wondering what happened to your plans! 

Whatever grand allusions you had for retirement – whether it was spending more time with family, more time volunteering or simply more time seeing the wonders of the world  - maybe you find yourself thinking “I may never be able to retire.”

Here are five reasons why you’re off track for your retirement goal and what to do about it.

Market Tank

The 2008-09 recession wiped out many a 401k  and along with that many retirement dreams were dashed!  We’ve had a great recovery so far and many people have gotten back some of their losses.

However, not everyone has the luxury of waiting around for the market to recover fully.

What to do:

Consider postponing retirement and/or reducing your lifestyle.  You may need to cut back the dreams of traveling every three months or getting that second home in Florida. 

Also, re-evaluate your risk tolerance and time frame and consider making some changes to your portfolios.  If you find you have a longer time frame, you may be able to afford a bit more risk to make up some losses.

You Lack Specific Retirement Goals

Is retirement just a grand dream that has no plan of action around it?  You know the old cheesy saying:

Aim for nothing and you’ll hit it every time

There’s some truth to that.  Those who have a plan, review it regularly – making changes as needed – are more likely to reach their goals!

What to do

Take some time and write down what it is you’d like to accomplish.  If you’re married, I highly suggest getting on the same page with your spouse. 

Write down things like:

• When you’d like to retire
• What you’d like to do in retirement (i.e. – travel, volunteer, golf, short-term missions)
• How much money you’ll need for retirement
• How much you currently have saved

Compare where you’re at with where you’d like to be at retirement and consider a course of action to help get you there.

You Make Emotional Decisions

“Markets are down – SELL!”,  “Markets are up – BUY!”, “I want a new 50″ TV – BUY IT”

Are you like a yo-yo when it comes to financial decisions.  This is a sure way to get off track for your retirement goals!  Emotional investing and decision making doesn’t work and will lead to some pretty bad choices.

What to do

If you change direction like the wind consider developing a plan you are comfortable with in good times and in bad.  Consider your risks, your goals and your temperment and get a plan and stick to it only making tweaks as needed.

You Don’t Know When to Sell

This can relate to emotions, but on a broader scale it’s fairly easy to know when to buy an investment.  Most people can identify a deal.  Last March when stocks were half off, there were a lot of deals to be had.

The tougher part is knowing when to sell.   Since March, markets are up some 60% – knowing when to sell is hard.  Why? Because we all want to think a rising investment will continue and we don’t want to sell early and have the stock take off

We’d rather hang on too long than give up some growth even though we might be up some 30%!  Perhaps it speaks to our greed.

What to do

Rebalance your accounts regularly.  Rebalancing simply means getting back to your original asset allocation model by selling investments that are high and buying investments that are low. 

In other words if you start with a 50% stock; 50% bond portfolio and through market growth you are at 60% stock; 40% bonds – sell 10% of your stocks and reinvest into bonds.

There’s a lot of debate at how often you should do this, but I suggest at least annually and if you’re able to perhaps check the percentages quarterly to see how far from your originals you are.

You Don’t Know How Much You Need for Retirement

This was referenced above, but deserves it’s own point.  It seems like many people have no idea how much they need for retirement!  Many people assume they need a million dollars or some other really high amount and therefore they think “I’ll never be able to get there”.

What to do

Retirement is up to you!  Not the government, not your company – it’s up to you.  Therefore it’s vitally important to sit down and figure out what you want to do, how much it will cost and figure out how much you’ll need for retirement. 

Don’t just take these broad “You need 70% of your pre-retirement” figures you find in some financial magazine as truth! 

Everyone is different – therefore your goals are different than mine.  Make a personalized plan to figure out what you need.

How about you?

What else would you add to the list – what else have you found helpful in your retirement planning?

Success! Wikipedia defines it as:

The achievement of an objective or a goal.

When it comes to saving for retirement many of us naturally want to achieve our goals.  The fact is, for most of us retirement is a marathon race and not a sprint so it’s important to have some ideas in mind to keep you on the right track.   Here’s a look at seven tips to successfully achieve your retirement goal:

Start Now!

“But I didn’t get an early jump on retirement saving when I was younger, so what’s the point”.  It doesn’t matter.  If you haven’t saved anything yet – you need to start saving retirement ASAP!

If you have started saving already – reevaluate the amount you’re putting away and determine if you can begin putting an extra $50 or $100 (or whatever amount you can).

Define Your Goals

Of course you have to know what target you’re aiming for if you’re going to hit it.  If you don’t have some defined goals you’ll really have no idea how to evaluate your progress.

This is Planning 101.  What do you want to achieve?  When do you want to achieve it?  Maybe it’s a certain dollar figure in your 401k or a goal to retire at a certain age.  Or, maybe it’s to have enough money to do short-term missions trips or serve at homeless shelters.

Sit down and jot some ideas on a piece of paper with your loved one so you can get a taste of what you’d like to do.

Determine Your Time Frame

Now that you’ve got some idea of what you want to accomplish and perhaps the age at when you’d like to retire determine how many years you have to make that happen.

If you want to retire in five years, but you’re not really saving much right now and you’re strapped with debt – maybe you need to reconsider.

Realistically determine your time frame and keep this number in the back of your head as you make other decisions regarding retirement.  If you need to start putting more away, sit down and take a look at expenses you can cut out or cut down on and make a huge effort to save more.

Determine Your Risk Tolerance

Now that you have your time frame set and your goals in mind – you can determine how much risk you should be taking.

Generally speaking, the shorter your time frame – the less risk you should be taking.  If you’re in your 30′s and you’ve got 30 years til retirement you have some time to make up any losses.

However, if you’re in your mid 50′s and you’ve got less than 10 years you may want to pull the reigns in a little and shift to a less aggressive portfolio mix.

Comfort level with your risk plays a big role in determining your tolerance as well as knowing how much you need to retire. If you don’t need that much more to achieve your goal – you can scale back the risk.  If you need more – you may need to dial it up a bit to get some gains.

Diversify Yourself

Diversification comes in three areas:

1. Investment – Diversify your portfolio and your asset classes.  You don’t want all your eggs in one basket as the old cliche goes. The reason is because you don’t know what’s going up or down from one year to the next.
2. Time – Diversification from a time standpoint essentially means that you have some shorter term investments as well as longer term investments.  It also means you plan for the unexpected (think short life span) as well as longevity.
3. Tax – This means you spread your savings among taxable; tax-deferred and tax-free accounts to take advantage of the unique tax benefits of each.

Become Debt Free

To me, this is huge.  If you can become debt free before you retire you free up opportunities to give more during retirement, you releive the stress of needing to have a bigger nest egg or larger monthly income stream.

Debt can be bondage.  Ideally, you’ll be in a much better position if you can pay off all your debts including your mortgage.

Now I know some will argue that there will be lost tax benefits.  Sure, that might be, but some of that can be made up from charitable deductions (goal: give away the amount you’d pay in mortgage interest!).

Freedom from debt is liberating – and you’ll be glad you wiped them out before you retired.

Review Your Goals Often

In order to save retirement and stay on track you need to have set reviews.  These can be done annually or semi-annually.  The point is to schedule time to sit down and revisit your goals, check your progress and determine if any changes need to be made.

You won’t know how far off course you are if you don’t review.

Hopefully these tips will give you a start in achieving your retirement success.

How about you?  What other tips would you add to the list?

No doubt most people have heard of a Roth IRA, after all, they’ve been around since 1998.  Although they’ve been available for over 11 years, I’m constantly amazed by how many people are just simply unsure of exactly what they are or what they do. 

The Basics: What is an IRA?

An IRA is simply an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that provides investors an opportunity to save for retirement in a tax-advantaged way.  Generally, you must wait until 59 1/2 to withdraw the money without IRS penalty. 

A Roth IRA is an Individual Retirement Account named after its legislative sponsor, late senator Bill Roth, that was established in 1998 to provide an alternative method of saving for retirement that offers different tax advantages than the Traditional IRA. 

Features

The main difference between the Traditional and the Roth IRA is how it is taxed.  With a Traditional  IRA, you typically contribute before-tax (with some exceptions) money to the account.  Depending on your eligibility, you can deduct your contributions from your income on your current year taxes.  You receive the tax break now.  The money grows tax-deferred so when you pull your savings out in retirement you have to pay taxes on every single dollar you withdraw at whatever your current tax rate is at the time.

The Roth IRA is just the opposite.  You contribute after-tax dollars to the account and the money still grows tax-deferred.  You cannot deduct your contributions; however, in retirement you can withdraw your money (provided you meet certain qualifications) completely tax free. Not only that, but as long as your Roth IRA has been in existence for five years, your beneficiaries on the account can pull out money income-tax free, so the Roth IRA becomes a nifty estate planning tool as well.

Advantages

1. Obviously the biggest advantage to the Roth IRA is the tax-free withdrawals in retirement.  This can be a huge potential tax savings for you especially if you think tax rates will be going up.

2. The Roth offers more flexibility on withdrawals prior to retirement.  You can withdraw your principal (your contributions)  tax and penalty free at any time during the life of the Roth IRA.  To an undisciplined person might have trouble with this, but someone who runs into a bind an is cash strapped can have a little comfort knowing they have some additional money available.  This is a huge plus compared to the Traditional IRA, where you would pay a 10% penalty on any pre-59 1/2 withdrawals as well as taxes.  

3. Another advantage is that you can contribute to the Roth even if you are covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan (401k etc).  With the Traditional IRA you are subject to income testing to determine if you could contribute when covered already by a plan  at work. Even if you could contribute, you don’t get to take advantage of the deduction on your taxes.  So the Roth becomes the perfect additional savings plan when you already have a 401k or other employer plan.

 4. For older folks, the fact that you do not have to take withdrawals is a major advantage as well.  With a Traditional IRA, the government forces you to take money out at age 70 1/2 or face a 50% penalty for not withdrawing your savings.  The main reason is of course to generate tax revenue.  Since Roth IRA distributions are tax free, you don’t have to worry about this rule. 

Key Tradeoffs

1. Your contributions are limited.  Currently in 2009, you may only contribute $5,000 and if you are over 50 you can contribute an additional $1,000 for a “catch-up” provision.  Depending on your income, you might be phased out of your contributions.  For example, a couple making between $166,000 and $176,000 will have their contributions limited.  Income over $176,000 disqualifies you for Roth contributions altogether.  Try this online calculator to determine how much you can contribute to a Roth.

2. You still might have to pay taxes on non-qualified distributions.  In order to meet the specifications for a qualified distribution, you must have had the Roth opened for at least five years and meet one of the following:

• Reached age 59 1/2 by the time of the withdrawal
• Withdrawal is due to qualifying disability
• Withdrawal is made for first-time homebuyer expenses (up to $10,000) 

Again, you are still able to withdraw your contributions at any time without penalty or taxes.

3. Tax treatment differs depending on the state.  The tax laws mentioned above correspond to federal law.  Your state may have differing laws for Roth IRAs You should check with your tax advisor to ensure you won’t have to pay state taxes. 

How Do I Get One?

You can open a Roth IRA through any financial institution, bank, life insurance or mutual fund company or even right online through a brokerage website.  Where you establish one primarily depends on your own needs and preferences.  There are many investment options available as well, so consider the types of investments that will suit your needs (i.e. stocks, funds, CDs, ETFs etc).

Contributions must be made by the time you file your tax return. So in essence you have until April 15 of the following year to get your Roth contributions in for the previous tax year. 

The Roth IRA can be a great investment and retirement savings vehicle for many people.  Be sure to do your homework, develop a plan, assess your needs and be comfortable with your decision.

The financial health of two of the biggest government programs has worsened due to the affects of this recessionary market. The Social Security Administration announced today that Medicare is now paying out more in benefits than it is receiving, and that by 2016 Social Security will be paying out more in benefits than it receives.

Insolvency for Social Security has been revised to 2037, four years sooner than was predicted last year. Medicare is in worse shape with predictions of insolvency by 2017. With unemployment reaching 25 year highs at 8.9%, America has fewer workers paying into Social Security exacerbating the problem.

Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary and head of the trustees group said, “the longer we wait to address the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security, the sooner those challenges will be upon us and the harder the options will be.”

That is a pretty obvious statement. It is also obvious that we shouldn’t depend on the government for our retirement plans. Let this be a reminder that retirement planning is our responsibility.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09D_atltHT0]