Saving Early & Letting Time Work for You The earlier you start pursuing financial goals, the better your outcome may be. As a young investor, you have a powerful ally on your side: time. When you start saving and investing for retirement in your twenties or thirties, you can put it to work for you. The effect of compounding is huge. Most people underestimate it, so it is worth illustrating. We will use reasonable annual return rates to do [...]
Behind on Your Retirement Savings? What steps could you take to catch up? If life has not allowed you to build substantial retirement savings, what can you do to improve your retirement prospects? Here are some suggestions: Play catch-up. If at all possible, take advantage of the catch-up contributions the IRS allows you to make to IRAs and other retirement accounts starting in the year in which you turn 50. For example, this year a worker age 50 or older [...]
A Roth IRA’s Many Benefits Why do so many people choose them over traditional IRAs? The IRA that changed the whole retirement savings perspective. Since the Roth IRA was introduced, it has become a fixture in many retirement planning strategies. The key argument for going Roth can be summed up in a sentence: Paying taxes on your retirement contributions today is better than paying taxes on your retirement savings tomorrow. Here is a closer look at the trade-off you [...]