The critical decision of whether to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA continues to provoke questions and cause some confusion. Today we review some key points that seem to be confusing or that are gray areas in the rules.
The new health care laws, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and a companion law, make sweeping changes in how your medical care is financed and provided. The changes are phased in now through 2018. The law is too broad to cover here. I focus on the items that will affect those in or planning for retirement, especially items that weren’t covered much by the general interest media.
Very few tax strategies come with second chances. One that does is the conversion of a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. By converting taxpayers are able to create a stream of tax-free income. Then, the taxpayer is a able to reverse the conversion when it was not the best move.
Estate planning mistakes fall into two major categories.
Investors are starting to fall into traps with their IRA investments. The traps have been around for many years. They are being sprung now because more investors are attracted to nontraditional investments.
The easiest, surest way to increase your retirement income is to shop for annuities just as you would for anything else. Few retirees or prospective retirees do this, but I’ve shown over the years shopping will increase income.
You can spend a maximum of 4% of your retirement fund the first year and increase the distribution for inflation each succeeding year after.
The clock’s ticking on a little known Bush-era tax break that could create major savings in your golden years.
The clock’s ticking on a little known Bush-era tax break that could create major savings in your golden years.
We can hope that the Fed will soak up a large chunk of the stimulus money that was handed out, but based on the sheer volume of cash involved, the central bank will struggle to tamp down inflation over the next few years.
