Take an ‘in kind’ IRA Distribution If You Expect Its Value to Increase
Once you’ve reached age 70½, you must take a minimum required IRA distribution (MRD) each year. But if you don’t need the cash to live on and you expect your IRA stock to increase in the future, consider taking an ‘in kind’ IRA distribution for improved tax benefits. Recent economic conditions have hit many equities hard. Their lowered values have [...]
Categories: ira distributions Tags: in-kind, ira distribution
401k fees – The Cost of Your 401(k) Plan After Retirement
There can be no question that saving for your own retirement is a financially sound and important thing for you to do, and one of the most common and popular methods of doing this is by investing in a 401K plan at your place of work. But what you may not know is that not all 401K plans are the [...]
Categories: 401k plan, financial advisor fees Tags: 401k fees, 401k plan, 401k plan fees
Retirement Investing During Deflation
If a recession becomes severe, dollars may suffer from deflation rather than inflation. This would change the rules you have for retirement investing over the past 30 years. What should retirees consider doing if deflation sets in? We’re familiar with the effects of inflation. Our dollars just don’t buy as much as they used to. Too much ‘easy money’ from [...]
Categories: retirement investing Tags: deflation, retirement investing
What’s Not Taxable of Your IRA and 401(k) Distributions?
Generally, your IRA and or company 401(k) distributions are taxed as ordinary income. That’s because you funded them with tax-deductible contributions and all the earnings of these contributions have been tax-deferred. So nothing has been taxed. Taking a distribution before turning 59½ will add a 10% penalty tax to the income tax. Nevertheless, you may have made some ‘after-tax’ contributions to them, [...]
Categories: 401k distributions, ira distributions Tags: 401k distribution, 401k distriubution, ira distribution
Retirement Distributions–How to Cut Senior Taxes
How you Use or Spend Your Savings Determines how much Retirement Tax You Pay When it comes time to tap your savings and investment accounts, investors often ignore which source should come first for retirement distributions. In general, many experts often advise investors to draw from their taxable accounts first, then tap qualified accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s further down the road. [...]
Categories: retirement distributions, retirement income Tags: cut senior taxes, retirement distributions
In Search of Retirement Income—International Bond Funds
Some foreign governments may offer a higher interest rate on their bonds than the US Government does. Additionally, some foreign corporations might offer a higher interest rate than the US companies. For retired investors, this could be an opportunity to diversify in an area that offers potentially higher returns, more stable returns and a hedge against the value of the [...]
Categories: retirement income Tags: Add new tag, bond investing, international bionds, international bond funds, international bonds
Retirement Income for Life With a Senior Tax Break
Most people think about charitable bequests as part of their will or trust to be consummated when they die. However, you will miss some senior tax breaks if you wait until death. If you attend to these charitable giving issues while alive, there are some big tax breaks available and a decent income for life. Charities are happy to pay [...]
Variable Annuities and the Guaranteed Minimum Payment Rider
People invest in variable annuities for many reasons including the tax-deferral of earnings, the ability to name beneficiaries and avoid probate, the growth potential of the managed sub-accounts and potentially the death benefit. Then whenever they are ready to withdraw an income from their annuity, they have the opportunity to select lifetime income payments. However, with a variable annuity you [...]
Categories: variable annuities Tags: gmp, guaranteed minimum payment, guaranteed minimum payout
TIPS to Fight Inflation (or deflation) During Retirement
Perhaps no word is scarier to a fixed income investor than inflation – especially for those who depend on the yields from bond investments for their retirement income needs. For example, inflation can reduce the payout rate of bonds over the long-term, as the higher costs of living can often weaken the purchasing power of bond’s return over time. However, [...]
Categories: deflation, tips Tags: bond investment, deflation, fixed income investing, tips, treasury inflation protected securities
Bond Investing for Retirement
What Happens to Bondholders When a Company Goes Bankrupt? Seniors and retirees like bond investments because they provide a steady income, diversify a stock portfolio, and are backed by the issuer’s financial strength. But things don’t always go as planned. Companies occasionally have financial problems and must file for bankruptcy as you well know. Investors holding bonds in bankrupt companies can at [...]
Categories: bonds Tags: bond investing, retirement investing
