Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Roth IRA, the savior of retirement funds?

by Jonathan Tse


Traditionally, the Roth IRA accounts were only open to people with incomes of less than $100,000. But beginning January 1, 2010, people with incomes greater than $100,000 can transfer their assets to Roth accounts. Unlike most other IRAs, the money grows tax free and there is no tax on withdrawals after the age of 59.5. The only problem is that no one knows about these benefits of the Roth, so there are very few people who would know to take advantage of this. Many employers are now trying to promote this to improve on their own offered retirement packages. Normally, in the IRA system, money placed in its account will grow tax free, but withdrawals made will be taxable.

For younger people who want to start saving up for retirement, Ross is very useful when used in conjunction with a pre-tax 401(k)plan so that they will have access to both a taxable and tax-free source of retirement funds. For younger people, since they are usually starting off in low income bracket, Ross benefits them greatly.

Many people are contemplating transferring the money in their 401(k)s directly to Ross accounts, but professionals warn that there are dangers to this. A danger is that the transfer may lead to IRA accounts being dropped. One would receive a tax bill with more value at the time of conversion, but may also later end up with an account that is worth significantly less. Although there are dangers to doing this, the benefits would mostly outweigh the dangers.

http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/retirement/which-ira-is-best-7968/
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10608381/1/confusion-about-roth-iras-abounds.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091005/BIZ01/910050304/1010/Time-to-move-the-nest-egg

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