That First RMD from Your IRA What you need to know. When you reach age 70½, the Internal Revenue Service instructs you to start making withdrawals from your traditional IRA(s). These withdrawals are also called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). You will make them, annually, from now on.1 If you fail to take your annual RMD or take out less than the required amount, the I.R.S. will notice. You will not only owe income taxes on the amount not withdrawn, you [...]
What the SECURE Act Could Mean for Retirement Plans If passed, it would change some long-established retirement account rules. If you follow national news, you may have heard of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. Although the SECURE Act has yet to clear the Senate, it saw broad, bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. This legislation could make Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) a more attractive component of retirement strategies and create a path for more [...]
Eight Mistakes That Can Upend Your Retirement Avoid these situations, if you can. Pursuing your retirement dreams is challenging enough without making some common, and very avoidable, mistakes. Here are eight big mistakes to steer clear of, if possible. No Strategy. Yes, the biggest mistake is having no strategy at all. Without a strategy, you may have no goals, leaving you no way of knowing how you’ll get there – and if you’ve even arrived. Creating a strategy may increase [...]
Preparing to Retire Single Unmarrieds need to approach retirement planning pragmatically. In an ideal world, it would be simple to prepare for a solo retirement. You would just save half as much as a couple saves, buy half as much insurance coverage, and expect to live on half the income. Reality dictates otherwise. Real-world planning for a solo retirement begins with an assumption. You assume, at some point, [...]
Investing Means Tolerating Some Risk That truth must always be recognized. When financial markets have a bad day, week, or month, discomforting headlines and data can swiftly communicate a message to retirees and retirement savers alike: equity investments are risky things, and Wall Street is a risky place. All true. If you want to accumulate significant retirement savings or try and grow your wealth through the opportunities in the markets, this is a reality you cannot avoid. Regularly, [...]
