Traditional Ira Vs Roth Ira
Like traditional 401 distributions, withdrawals from a traditional IRA are subject to your normal income tax rate in the year when you take the distribution.
Withdrawals from Roth IRAs, on the other hand, are completely tax free if they are taken after you reach age 59½ and see out a five-year holding period. However, if you decide to roll over the assets in a traditional 401 to a Roth IRA, you will owe income tax on the full amount of the rolloverwith Roth IRAs, you pay taxes up front.
Traditional IRAs are subject to the same RMD regulations as 401s and other employer-sponsored retirement plans. However, there is no RMD requirement for a Roth IRA, which can be a significant advantage during retirement.
Check And Update Your Plan Regularly
Over time, your needs, goals and investments are likely to change. Check and update your plan at least once a year to make sure it still makes sense for you. You should also check it after any major life event, like marriage, divorce, a job change or loss of a loved one.
Regularly rebalancing all the accounts in your portfolio can also help keep your retirement plan on track by keeping your risk level stable, regardless of market ups and down.
A Moneysense Reader Writes:
My 79-year-old mother received a gift of $70,000. She currently collects OAS and GIS but not CPP.
Id like her to do something with the $70,000 to generate interest or incomeor even to have a plan to draw it down. And whatever option is chosen needs to be risk-free, as she is very risk-averse.
The interest on a GIC is negligible. Is an annuity a better option? Or is the $70,000 simply not enough to do anything with?
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What To Do In Retirement Do What Makes You Happy
A lot of items on this list talk about doing something amazing. But that is not the real point. You dont have to be the best, the first, the oldest or the most.
Retirement is the time when it should not matter if you are keeping up with the Jones. Now is the time to do what makes YOU happy. You can enjoy the little things or you can swing for the fences. You can make a difference to your own loved ones or volunteer and change lives in your community. You might make a fortune doing what you love or you can make ends meet while pursuing your passion.
The scale of your endeavors should not matter.
Think hard and make sure that what you do after retirement matters to YOU.
Need some help? Many of us arent sure what one thing makes us happy. Here are a few books that might be useful.
Pay Off Your Mortgage
If youre looking at where to put your cash when you retire, consider paying off your mortgage. By the time you retire, the remaining balance on your home might be small enough to pay off in a single lump sum. Then, you can enjoy the remaining years of your life without having to worry about a mortgage or rent payment. This can free up your funds for other activities, or at the very least, give you peace of mind that you will always have a place to stay for free.
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Key Steps To A Successful Retirement Transition
1. Invest in self-reflection. Once you gain clarity about what’s most important in your life, your decisions about how to spend your time get easier.
What Joel found most useful was to reflect on, and discuss, questions that helped him clarify his driving motivators and interests. Four he found especially useful:
What do you want to learn about? You now have an opportunity to learn about new topics you didn’t have time for while working full-time. Once you identify your interest areas, you’ll find endless books, webinars, lectures, podcasts and classes to fill your days. For Joel, who was a biology major in college, the opportunity to study the natural sciences again was at the top of his list.
When do you feel most useful and valued? Think about the times you’ve felt most appreciated at work and in your personal life: Who were you serving? How specifically did you add value? Time spent on this question can lead you to interesting volunteer or part-time work possibilities.
What have you been waiting to do? Many people have a bucket list of things they hope to do in retirement, like travel, play golf, spend more time with their adult kids and relocate. But beyond the obvious, think about the day-to-day priorities, wellness goals and legacy activities you wish to pursue.
In Joel’s case, taking long daily walks was a priority, an indulgence he rarely had time for before retirement, when he was a traveling consultant.
Here again, serendipity stepped in.
Convert To An Ira And Keep Contributing
You cannot contribute to a 401 after you leave your job, so if you want to continue adding money to your retirement funds, youll need to roll over your account into an IRA. Previously, you could contribute to a Roth IRA indefinitely but could not contribute to a traditional IRA after age 70½. However, under the new Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, you can now contribute to a traditional IRA for as long as you like.
Keep in mind that you can only contribute earned income, not gross income, to either type of IRA, so this strategy will only work if you have not retired completely and still earn taxable compensation, such as wages, salaries, commissions, tips, bonuses, or net income from self-employment, as the IRS puts it. You cant contribute money earned from either investments or your Social Security check, though certain types of alimony payments may qualify.
To execute a rollover of your 401, you can ask your plan administrator to distribute your savings directly to a new or existing IRA. Alternatively, you can elect to take the distribution yourself. However, in this case, you must deposit the funds into your IRA within 60 days to avoid paying taxes on the income.
Traditional 401 accounts can be rolled over into either a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA, whereas designated Roth 401 accounts must be rolled over into a Roth IRA.
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Rmds Can Be Delayed For Some Workers
Putting off your retirement? If youre still working at age 72 and continuing contributions into a 401 or 403, youre entitled to an RMD reprieve as long as you dont own more than 5 percent of a company and your retirement plan lets you. If these conditions apply, you can delay the RMDs until April 1 after the year that you separate from service, at which point youll have to start taking withdrawals.
This is true as long as you work during any part of a year. So if youre 72 ½ years old and thinking about retiring by the end of the calendar year, reconsider if you dont want to make a withdrawal. If you keep working after Jan. 1 even if its just a day youll push off the date for taking that first RMD by one more year.
Keep in mind that the delay only counts for the 401 plan of the company youre still working for. If you have other 401 plans from previous jobs, youll need to take distributions from them if youre 72 or older.
How Does A 401k Work
A 401k plan is a benefit commonly offered by employers to ensure employees have dedicated retirement funds. A set percentage the employee chooses is automatically taken out of each paycheck and invested in a 401k account. They are made up of investments that the employee can pick themselves.
Depending on the details of the plan, the money invested may be tax-free and matching contributions may be made by the employer. If either of those benefits are included in your 401k plan, financial experts recommend contributing the maximum amount each year, or as close to it as you can manage.
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Withdrawing Money From A 401 After Retirement
Once you have retired, you will no longer contribute to the 401 plan, and the plan administrator is required to maintain the account if it has more than a $5000 balance. If the account has less than $5000, it will trigger a lump-sum distribution, and the plan administrator will mail you a check with your full 401 balance minus 20% withholding tax.
Before you can start taking distributions, you should contact the plan administrator about the specific rules of the 401 plan. The plan sponsor must get your consent before initiating the distribution of your retirement savings. In some 401 plans, the plan administrator may require the consent of your spouse before sending a distribution. You can choose to receive non-periodic or periodic distributions from the 401 plan.
For required minimum distributions, the plan administrator calculates the amount of distribution for the qualified plans in each calendar year. The 401 may provide that you either receive the entire benefits in the 401 by the required beginning date or receive periodic distributions from the required date in amounts calculated to distribute the entire benefits over your life expectancy.
What You Can Do
Create a financial plan either with an advisor or on your own that outlines your retirement needs and wants, and how to get there. Your retirement planning should take into account your values and goals, your risk tolerance, your goal retirement age and the lifestyle you want. Once youve established how you want your retirement to look, calculate how much to save for retirement and how long it will take you to save that much based on the amount of income you expect from your investments, retirement savings, Social Security benefits and other income streams. You can always readjust your plans as needed.
One way to get started right now with your financial planning is to open a high-dividend account. By choosing this type of account, your money will be safely put away but still working for you and available when needed.
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How Long Will You Live In Retirement
Based on current estimates, a 65 year old man can expect to live approximately 18 years in retirement, and a 65 year old woman can expect to live about 20 years, but many people live longer. Planning to live well into your 90s can help you avoid outliving your income.
The worksheet takes into account some factors that impact your retirement savings. First, investing – because it involves risk. Second, inflation – because todays dollars will usually buy less each year as the cost of living rises. Your target savings rate includes any contributions your employer makes to a retirement savings plan for you, such as an employer matching contribution. If, for example, you are in a 401 plan in which you contribute 4 percent of your salary and your employer also contributes 4 percent, your saving rate would be 8 percent of your salary.
If you are not currently saving this amount, dont be discouraged. The important thing is to start saving even a small amount and increase that amount when you can. Come back and update this worksheet from time to time to reflect changes and track your progress.
Here are a few tips on how to save smart for retirement:
To track other resources you may have in retirement, start by getting your Social Security statement and an estimate of your retirement benefits on the Social Security Administrations website, www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement.
Get started today for a secure financial future!
How The Rollover Is Done Is Important Too
Whether you pick an IRA for your rollover or choose to go with your new employer’s plan, consider a direct rolloverthats when one financial institution sends a check directly to the other financial institution. The check would be made out to the bank or brokerage firm with instructions to roll the money into your IRA or 401.
The alternative, having a check made payable to you, is not a good option in this case. If the check is made payable directly to you, your employer is required by the IRS to withhold 20% for taxes. As if that wouldn’t be bad enoughyou only have 60 days from the time of a withdrawal to put the money back into a tax-advantaged account like a 401 or IRA. That means if you want the full value of your former account to stay in the tax-advantaged confines of a retirement account, you’d have to come up with the 20% that was withheld and put it into your new account.
If you’re not able to make up the 20%, not only will you lose the potential tax-free or tax-deferred growth on that money but you may also owe a 10% penalty if you’re under age 59½ because the IRS would consider the tax withholding an early withdrawal from your account. So, to make a long story short, do pay attention to the details when rolling over your 401.
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How To Get The Money You Need For Retirement
You will be able to count on a Social Security benefit as long as you’ve worked long enough to earn 40 credits or you’re married to someone who qualifies. But you need to make retirement savings a priority if you want to live comfortably when you’re older.
Get in the habit of making regular monthly contributions to a 401, IRA, or other retirement account. If you haven’t already done so, figure out how much you need to save for retirement and use this as your guide. But be prepared to adjust this if your plans for your future change.
If you’re not able to save as much as you’d like to right now, you have a few options. You could ask for a raise, start a side hustle, or seek out new employment. You could also work part time in retirement, perhaps switching fields to something more in line with your interests.
Delaying retirement is another possibility. This gives you additional time to save while also shortening the length — and the cost — of your retirement. Plus, it gives your savings extra time to grow before you have to withdraw them.
Caveats To The 4% Rule
Several variables can make this rule of thumb either too conservative or too risky, and you might not be able to live on 4%-ish a year unless your account has a significantly large balance.
The first caveat you should consider when thinking about applying the 4% rule to your personal situation is that it calls for putting 50% each in stocks and bonds. You may not be comfortable putting that much of your retirement assets in equities, and you may want to keep at least a portion of your nest egg in cash or a money market fund.
You also might not expect to live for 30 years after retirement, either because you retired later than most people do or for some health-related reason. And you may not feel you need the almost 100% confidence level Bengen was seeking in his rule a confidence level of 75% to 90% that you won’t run out of money might be acceptable to you and may afford a more flexible withdrawal rate.
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Why You Can Trust Bankrate
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. Weve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that were putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.
Our reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most how to save for retirement, understanding the types of accounts, how to choose investments and more so you can feel confident when planning for your future.
Attend Your 35th 40th Or Any High School Reunion
There is nothing like a high school or college reunion to get you thinking about what you have accomplished and where you might be going.
Taking stock of our lives and setting new goals is exactly what we need to do as we consider retirement.
A reunion can be an excellent way to connect with old friends and maybe be reminded of what we are passionate about which can help remind us of how we might want to spend part of retirement.
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Make A Charitable Contribution
Have a worthy cause you want to donate to? If your dreams for a lifetime of savings include helping a charity, it may be worth using your retirement funds to make a difference.
This law lets individuals aged 70 1/2 or older make tax-free donations, known as qualified charitable distributions, of up to $100,000 annually directly from their IRAs to a charity as part of their required minimum distribution. Such a distribution doesnt count as income, reducing any income tax liability to the donor. And if you file a joint return, your spouse can also make a contribution up to $100,000 each year.
But be aware that individuals who make tax-free charitable distributions from their IRAs wont be able to itemize them as a charitable deduction.
You get one or the other, Slott says. Whoever uses this strategy will pay less in taxes, so if youre charitably inclined, its the best way to make donations.
