Archive for March, 2009

Tax Diversification Strategy for Retirement

Strategy for RetirementAt the end of the day, all of your retirement money is treated in one of three ways: taxable, tax-deferred or tax-free.  Taxable income is taxed during the year in which it is received, e.g., pension or investment income.  Taxable income may also be tax-favored if from capital gains, dividends or certain other activities. Earnings from tax-free municipal bonds are lower than their taxable counterparts; thus, taxes are implicit, so put these bonds in the taxable classification.  For many retirees, Social Security benefits are taxable also; as I mentioned before in my Retirement Blog.  Tax-deferred earnings are not taxed as income now but will be in the future when withdrawn and used, e.g., IRA, 401(k) and annuity earnings.  If passed to the next generation, the deferred taxes will be paid by the beneficiary or the estate of the deceased.  Tax-free income may have been taxed earlier but is not again taxed when withdrawn and used, for example money take from a Roth IRA.   

Which of these three tax strategies is best?  The correct answer is “it depends” because the best strategy depends on factors that cannot be predicted: changing tax rates, life expectancy, future income, allowable deductions and more.    Since the future is uncertain, diversification would appear to be prudent.  The exact composition of the diversification will be a matter of personal preference, but it seems logical tax diversification might be better than the risk of guessing wrong.  Unfortunately, most retirees have little tax diversification.

The tax deferred bucket can be accomplished by using qualified retirement accounts such as IRAs, 401(k), 403(b), etc. or tax-deferred annuities.  The taxable bucket is generally filled with investment/business income, rents and salary/wages, plus Social Security benefits are generally taxable.  The difficult bucket to fill, especially for the affluent, is the tax-free one.  While income from municipal bonds is tax-free, the lower returns offset this feature.  The logical choice for tax-free income is the Roth IRA.  Most employers have not yet added the Roth option to their 401(k) and most high-income families cannot qualify for Roth contributions or conversions.  In 2010 the Roth conversion income limit will be suspended, allowing higher income families to take advantage of tax diversification.  

With tax diversification you can hedge the uncertainties of future tax changes.  This is why the window of opportunity for a Roth conversion in 2010 should not be ignored.  If your current adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000, you do not now qualify for Roth conversion but you will in 2010.  As icing on the cake, the taxes from a 2010 Roth conversion can be spread equally over 2011 and 2012.   Unfortunately, many will miss the opportunity because their retirement money is unnecessarily locked in 401(k) and other employer-sponsored plans which prevent withdrawal unless an easy, but relatively unknown, provision is added to the plan.  Once converted to a Roth it will not be subject to income taxes nor required annual distribution, plus all money and future earnings will be tax-free to the beneficiaries. If you need tax diversification, ask your financial advisor about converting your qualified retirement money to a Roth IRA.  

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.
March 2009
TheRetirementPros.com
 

 

Helpful Resources:    Tax-Free Retirement Income & More (12 min Video Report), You, Taxes & Retirement (eReport PDF & 10min Video Report).

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Digging Your Retirement Money out of the Hole

Near Retirement - Digging out of the HoleAs I mentioned in my retirement blog, many retirees with money in the “market” face a dilemma: outliving their money UNLESS the market recovers. They now know as “myths” what heretofore were known as “facts”.  Facts such as: diversification works; blue chips stocks are safe; dividends can be counted on; retirement accounts are secure; market risks are suitable.  Among these “myths” is: you’ll do fine in the market long-term.  Ever noticed that “long-term” is never quantified?  Let’s look at the long-term from the prospective of retirees or those in the retirement red zone.

Let’s say you and your spouse have saved all your working years, and at age of 63 (in late 2007) your retirement accounts totaled $450,000.  Given your expected Social Security of $2,000 at age 66 (when you plan to retire) and your spouse’s $1,000 (50% of yours as a dependent), your retirement “nest egg” was adequate.  In fact, by taking equal annual payments over 30 years, assuming a 5% earnings rate, you could count on about $30,000 yearly from your retirement money.  You’ll have about $65,000 a year, with your SS benefits adjusted annually for inflation.  With the house paid for, the kids educated and self-sufficient and your modest lifestyle, you’re feeling secure as long as your health holds up.  Then along came the Great Recession and the market meltdown.  Back to the drawing board!

It is now March 2009 and you’re one year away from the planned retirement.  The $450,000 has shrunk to $225,000 and you’re afraid the carnage is not over.  You’ve lost 50% of your nest egg.  How much of your “long-term” will it take to dig out of this financial hole? Your first surprise was that a 50% loss means you’ll need 100% growth to get back to where you started.  Your most recent calculation was a shocker: if $30,000 a year is withdrawn from your current retirement savings and the rest grows by 5% annually, there is nothing left in less than 10 years.  Is that “long-term”?  Plan-B is to withdraw $20,000 annually: your $225,000 is now gone in less than 17 years, still short of the “long term”.  Also, prices (inflation) will surely be a factor over the next ten to fifteen years, so your “long term” could be even shorter.  You decide to work another year in hopes things get better.

If you can save $25,000 during the extra year of working you’ll be helped because (a) you’ll have money for one more year of retirement and (b) you’ll have one less year of retirement: you’re two years closer to your goal but is that good enough? For your nest egg to recover fully, you’ll still need 80% growth to cover the 50% loss.  At 7% compounded annually, which is not unreasonable, it will take almost nine years to reach $450,000.  In the meantime just a 3% annual rate of inflation means a dollar today is worth $0.74 ten year from now – but one of your needs in retirement, medical services, has been growing at 8% annually.  Another blind alley!

Now you know why “you’ll do fine in the long-term” is a myth for most retirees.  You simply do not have the time to recover from a major market meltdown like that suffered since late 2007.  No one knows the future direction or recovery time of the market.  It may be logical to assume that given the precipitous drop in the market over the past 18 months, it will recover soon.  But, in 1929 the market nosedived until 1932 and was then mostly anemic before diving again in the last 30’s.  The wartime economy of the 1940’s put recovery on hold.  The market did not again reach the October 1929 level until November 1954. Could it happen again?  Anything is possible, but we sure hope recovery is soon and the 50% loss is erased quickly – but that’s not likely.  So, when you next hear that “long term” the market is always the place to be, ask yourself: how long is the long term?

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.
March 2009
TheRetirementPros.com

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You, Taxes and Retirement – PART I: Overview

You, Taxes and RetirementRegardless of where you turn there is a tax – income, sales, property, gas, estate, gift, liquor, tobacco, telephone, import, export, capital gains, unemployment, Social Security, Medicare and several hundred more that you pay knowingly and unknowingly. The National Bureau of Economic Research has estimated that the average worker is in the 40% marginal tax bracket. It has gotten so bad that not only must you pay a Social Security tax while working but you’ll most likely pay income taxes on the Social Security benefits you receive. In fact, about the only tax that has been abolished in a retiree’s lifetime is the “poll tax” – you are no longer taxed for voting. It seems that new taxes are being invented at an alarming rate. Politicians are fond of taxing corporations because they don’t vote. Generally “tax-the-corporation is acceptable to citizens” because most think corporations actually pay taxes. Corporations do not pay taxes – they simply pass them forward to customers in the form of higher prices and lower wages/benefits.

Currently the economic and financial situation is in awful shape; as mentioned in this retirement blog. Elected officials, and the regulators that they have appointed to run our country’s institutions, have grossly mismanaged our economy to the brink of absolute failure. Our government has taxed us to the hilt to support entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, free education and other promises they can no longer deliver. To compound the problems they have foolishly gotten involved in war after war by rationalizing that our “national interest is in jeopardy”. Certain businesses have enjoyed favorable tax treatment and/or allowed to operate with little regulation to the detriment of the general population. Our financial institutions have been encouraged to promote spendthrift ways to foster consumption today and pay tomorrow. In recent years the nation’s saving rate has plummeted into minus territory as we’ve borrowed against the equity in our homes to take vacations, buy bigger cars, update wardrobes and buy second homes for relaxing from the stress-filled environment of a helter-skelter life of making more money to spend. The government solution to all these excesses is, you guessed it, spend our way to prosperity. This will lead to the cruelest tax of all, the silent killer that affects those least able to afford it and the one tax that few of use call a tax: inflation.

We now find our nation facing the worse economic and financial calamity since the great depression of the 1930’s. In an effort to stem the economic tsunami that threatens to derail the American way of life, our governments is taking bold initiatives to bailout the wrecked institutions – from banks to housing to automobiles to individuals. Our Congress is busy piecing together a quilt-work of program to infuse trillions of dollars into the economy’s businesses to keep them solvent to brighten the hopes they can survive in a global landscape. The massive collective debt that is being incurred by our government will have to be repaid – either by those now living or a future generation. In the meantime, those who hold the colossal U.S. debt will receive debt service payments in the form of semi-annual interest checks. In order to repay these huge deficits now piling up on top of an already gigantic national debt, it will be necessary to return the national savings rate to the plus category. This can be done in one of two ways or a combination: cut expenditures or raise taxes. There is a third way – that awful tax we call “inflation” – but this is simply a subtle way of taxing by increasing the prices of everything. In fact, inflation has been called “the cruelest tax of all” because it falls on those least able to afford it: the poor, retired and other living on fixed income.

So, in the face of this mounting massive debt, which remedy do you suppose will be pursued by our governments? Will it be cutting expenditures? Or will higher taxes, including galloping inflation, be the answer? More than likely it will be a slight-of-hand maneuver sold as “more government expenditures to promote faster growth to restore economic and financial equilibrium”. In other words, incentive will be provided to consume more and faster even though this is exactly the economic prescription that cause the problems we now face. This economic nostrum is tantamount to the snake oil elixir that was peddled in yesteryear to cure all ills and it will have the same curative powers. If you believe that governments are incapable of solving our economic and financial problems, you’ll have to take matters into your hands to make sure your economic well-being, and that of your loved ones and heirs, is secure. Let’s talk about some ways that can be accomplished.

First and foremost, there are taxes which I suspect will be rising over the foreseeable future. Of course, there will remain sizeable tax loopholes through which the wise can find ample fresh air to live a prosperous life. You’ve simply got to take advantage of every tax break approved by Congress – whether the benefits accrue to you while still alive or to your heirs once you’ve passed on to a heavenly economy where gold is used as a paving material. In what follows, I’ll review some easy-to-use and relatively unknown ways that you can pay fewer taxes.

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.

Related Resource:  You, Taxes and Retirement (Video Seminar  10 minutes)

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Stay tuned for You, Taxes and Retirement Part 2: Tax Deferral & Annuities, Part 3:Tax Savings Benefits of Roth IRAs, Part 4: Getting Social Security Right and Part 5: Life Insurance is the Ultimate Tax Dodge.

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You, Taxes and Retirement – Tax Deferral & Annuities (PII)

You, Taxes and RetirementIf you missed part 1 of this 4 part series, you can view the retirement blog post can be found here >>.

The first is by putting as much money as you can in tax deferred places. The first opportunity is to sock away as much money as possible in your IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457, SIMPLE, Keogh and various places classified as retirement accounts. There are literally hundreds of “shelters, qualified accounts and safe havens” in the tax code because of special interests that were rewarded for political contributions and favors. You can shelter from current income taxes all or a sizeable portion of your income by using the special provisions of profit-sharing plans, deferred compensation plans and various other tax-friendly part of the tax code known only to well-versed financial advisor, tax attorneys and tax accountants. But, you’ll need to engage the services of one or more of these professionals to be assured it’s cost effective and legal. For most people, however, there is a far easier way to enjoy tax-deferral and at the same time get safety of principal. You need to know about fixed annuities.

Fixed annuities are issued by insurance companies. Many who can benefit refuse to entrust their money to an insurance company because they are afraid of losses. This is ironic because the same people have no problem in relying on an insurance company to protect their home, health, life, car, business and virtually everything else of value. Fixed annuities range from (a) the simple ones that pay you a set rate of interest that is changed at yearly or multi-year intervals to (b) more complex ones whose interest is linked to changes in a stock or bond market index. Also, you can purchase an annuity that pays you an annual income for life or you can select a combination annuity that is designed to produce annual earnings but be changed into a lifetime income if needed. Don’t confuse a “fixed annuity” with a “variable annuity” because the variable version has substantial market risk and could result in sizeable losses of your principal. Fixed annuities are guaranteed by the insurance company to never have a loss if held for the full contract term, generally ranging from three years to as many as fifteen years.

All annuities have one thing in common: tax deferral. This means that you will pay no income taxes on earnings until you actually withdrawn them. So if you have ample money for retirement, it makes a great deal of sense to put your “to be used later in retirement” money into an annuity to postpone the payment of income taxes. This means you’ll earn interest on your principal, interest on the interest you did not withdraw and interest on the money you would have paid in taxes. This “triple compounding” will boost the growth of your money and you’ll have more in the longer term. Speaking of longer term, annuities work best in the long term and are not appropriate for money you’ll need early in retirement.

Another benefit of fixed annuities is that the interest you earn is not reported as taxable income and this means that taxes on your Social Security benefits could be lower. Another benefit is that there are no mandatory withdrawal requirements so the tax deferral can work for the remainder of your years. At the end, your money will pass to your named beneficiary without having to go through the delay and expense of probate. Of course, your heirs will have to pay taxes on the tax-deferred earning you leave them. But, you can mandate how the money is paid out to them – in a lump sum or over a period of years. If the money happens to be qualified money from an IRA, 401(k) or other retirement account, you can “stretch” the payments over the lifetime of the beneficiary. If you would like to know more about how annuities work and whether or not they can help solve your tax problems, help is as close as your financial advisor. If you are not using the help of a professional financial advisor, please reconsider because they are needed just a much as a medical, tax, legal or spiritual advisors.

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.

Related Resource: You, Taxes and Retirement (Video Seminar 10 minutes)

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Stay tuned for Part 3:Tax Savings Benefits of Roth IRAs – How to Getting Social Security Right and Part 4: Life Insurance is the Ultimate Tax Dodge.

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You, Taxes and RetirementPlease view Part 1 and Part 2 of this 4 part series before viewing.

As I mentioned before in this Retirement Blog, another great way to save taxes is to convert your qualified retirement money to a Roth IRA.  There is an income test to qualify – currently you can convert to a Roth IRA if your total taxable annual income is not more than $100,000 annually.  This limit is being suspended in 2010, so if you don’t qualify now you will want to re-visit Roth IRA conversion in 2010.  You pay the income taxes when you convert and then from that point forward you’ll pay no income taxes on earnings or the principal.  So if taxes go up, as I suspect they will, you’ll be paying zero income taxes on money withdrawn from a Roth IRA.  What’s more, at the current time the Roth income is not counted in the formula that determines the taxes on your Social Security benefits.  Also, unlike a regular IRA there are no required minimum withdrawal requirements as long as your spouse or are alive.  The beneficiaries who inherit the money will also not have to pay taxes on the principal or earnings but they will have to make minimum withdrawals they can stretch over the reminder of their life.  There are several other great benefits of using Roth IRAs for your retirement money and you’ll want to thoroughly investigate these with your financial advisor.  This is another reason to have a financial advisor, so if you haven’t already start your search today.

Getting Social Security Right

Most Americans take Social Security for granted and don’t realize it can serve as a valuable tax and income planning tool in retirement.  Did you know that about two-thirds of retirees start their SS benefits before normal retirement age?  Many times they started without giving any thought to the tax or income wisdom of doing so.  Social Security benefits grow annually by 8% plus a Cost of Living Adjustment (measure of inflation) for each year they are postponed after age 62.  This means that by postponing you could approximately double your benefits if delayed until age 70.  But why would you want to do that?

First, where can you find an investment that annually grows 8% plus inflation and has the backing of a government promise plus is always tax-favored when received?  Second, it could mean your spouse will get a big increase in SS benefits when you die because the surviving spouse is entitled to the greater of what they were receiving of what the deceased spouse was getting.  Postponing until age 70 roughly doubles the SS benefits, meaning the surviving spouse will have more income for life once you’re gone.  Third, you never pay taxes on 100% of your Social Security benefits; therefore, you want as much of this tax-favored income as you can get.  By postponing SS benefits, a relatively larger portion of your income in retirement will be tax-favored and you will pay fewer taxes over your lifetime.  Fourth, by using your fully-taxable money first (IRA, 401k, 403b, etc.) you exhaust it first and once the delayed SS benefits are received you’ll pay fewer taxes on them.  Also, if taxes rise as I suspect, paying taxes later on retirement accounts could cost you relatively more.  Most retirees are worried about SS being done away with, but a short reflection will verify that such would be political suicide.  At the current time there are 50 million Americans drawing SS benefits and another 78 million boomers that started turning 62 at the beginning of 2008.  This “voting majority” would throw out of office any politician that attempted to stop SS benefits.  The only risk of delaying SS benefits is that neither you nor your spouse will be around long enough to recover in higher benefits the lower benefits lost while delaying. But, one peek at the mortality tables will tell you that the odds are substantially in your favor.

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.

Related Resource: You, Taxes and Retirement (Video Seminar 10 minutes)

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You, Taxes & Retirement – Life Insurance is the Ultimate Tax Dodge (P-IV)

You, Taxes and RetirementPlease view my retirement blog posts Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this 4 part series before viewing.

The final tax planning tool is life insurance. Life insurance is the only place you can put your money where it is safe, grows tax deferred, can be tapped in case of an emergency and then passes tax-free to your beneficiaries at your death. Life insurance offers you a way to leverage your estate because generally at your death it pays a multiple of the premiums you paid. The income is tax-free to your heirs. The life insurance policies available today span a wide range of choices that allow you to perfectly match your needs and affordability. Some policies offer linked benefits in that they provide cash in case of emergency or other needs, pay tax-free a multiple of the death benefit to cover long-term care expenses, pass to your heirs tax-free the death benefits when you pass, and even if all the benefits are used to cover long-term care will pay a residual benefit to assure that the final expenses for a dignified ending are covered. Life insurance is a great way to build an estate or to protect one that you’ll already built. Again, you’ll want to manage your income and estate taxes by working with a financial advisor to tailor life insurance coverage to fit your circumstances.

CONCLUSION

Concluded were four great ways (see previous blog posts) to beat the tax-man at his own game: fixed annuities, Roth IRA, timing your Social Security benefits and life insurance. You don’t have to be rich to take advantage of the benefits offered by these tax-deferred and tax-free retirement/estate planning tools. Unfortunately these options can be complicated and you’ll need the help of a professional financial advisor to steer you through the maze created by our taxing authorities. If you aren’t using these methods no doubt you’re paying more than your fair share of taxes. More taxes mean less to spend on your retirement and less to leave as your legacy. One of things our government has provided is an ample supply of loopholes in the tax laws, but they did not furnish an easy-to-use reference manual. Nonetheless, there are qualified financial advisors who specialize in retirement and tax planning that can lead you through the maze and save you loads of taxes which will make your retirement a better one or allow you to leave a bigger estate for your loved ones. But, you’ve got to get pro-active and make sure you’re not paying more than your fair share of taxes.

Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.
March 2008

Related Resource: You, Taxes and Retirement (Video Seminar 10min)

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Get out of the Traditional Market Box

Confusion in the investment markets continues to decimate account values while shell-shocked investors look for answers. As mentioned in this retirement blog, you’ve experienced it everyday for the last year – growing losses, shrinking values and more bad news.  Some losses have been so severe that again attaining the last high water market seems impossible. If you’ve lost 50%, or more, you now know your tolerance for loss is not as great as you thought, but still many are holding onto the hope that staying put is the best strategy.  That may not be the case.  Let’s look at a real world situation.

While no investor has been immune to the downturn, many variable annuity owners are feeling better because of their investment’s “highest anniversary value”, or ‘high watermark’, death benefit lock. This “high watermark” feature awards the greater of the actual account value or the highest anniversary value as the death benefit.  If you have ridden your variable annuity from its peak value of late 2007 down to today’s paltry sum, the “locked in” death benefit exceeds by a wide margin the current account value.  Only problem is: you’ve got to die to get the high watermark value.  Ironically, it is this “death feature” that could be prompting you to keep the variable annuity.  If so, read on because you have another option.

Mary Smith is a 72 year old retired school teacher in New Mexico.  She put $100,000 into a non-qualified variable annuity in 2001.   Her account value grew and peaked near $225,000 in late-2007 before plummeting back to $140,000 at the end of 2008 (parenthetically, had Mary hung onto her variable annuity the current value would approximate $105,000).  Under her contract provisions, Mary’s beneficiary will receive the greater of (A) the account value or (B) the high watermark death value.  Had Mary died at the end of 2008 her daughter would have received a $225,000 pre-tax benefit – $85,000 greater than the actual account value of $140,000.

    $100,000 variable annuity cost basis
    $140,000 account value
    $225,000 variable annuity ‘highest account value’ death benefit

Mary got professional help and learned about another alternative.  She was torn because she needed to protect her account value from future market losses, but she also wanted to maintain the high watermark death benefit.  The financial advisor who sold her the variable annuity in 2001 said “keep the account as it will surely grow back to $225,000 in her lifetime”, and this was Mary’s position until her got better advice.

Mary’s current advisor recommended a single premium life insurance contract that could provide a higher death benefit for her daughter, reduce her equity market exposure and reduce the income taxes paid on the annuity.  Plus, he recommends a rider on the life policy that gives Mary access to the entire death benefit under certain conditions if she ever needs it. Here’s what it looked like.

    $125,000 single premium life insurance ($140,000 minus $15,000 income tax)
    $300,000 death benefit (guaranteed to age 125)
    $12,000 per month LTC benefit, if needed (25 month benefit)

By addressing Mary’s concerns with life insurance as a wealth transfer solution, the new advisor helped Mary increase the death benefit amount for her daughter by $75,000 and he created access to $300,000 should she ever need long term healthcare – that’s nearly triple her variable annuity account value.  Additionally, by withdrawing the $140,000 during her lifetime, Mary has reduced the income taxes due on her annuity gains by 50%.

The moral of the story: before you decide to stay put in the market when you’re sick over the risk of more losses or no recovery from the current market meltdown, get a second opinion.  Of course, it helps to work with a financial advisor that thinks outside the traditional “stock market” box.  Financial planning is simply too complicated for the average investor; thus, don’t be shy about going with the pros when it comes to your money.

 
Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.
March 2009
TheRetirementPors.com

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Roth to the Rescue

Retirement Blog: Roth IRA to the RescueThe strategy of converting to a Roth IRA is emerging as one of the bright spots on an otherwise dismal financial landscape.  As you know & as I mentioned in my retirement blog, once qualified money is placed in a Roth IRA it, and subsequent earnings, is income tax free forever.  As you may not know, now is an excellent time to convert to a Roth IRA if you can qualify.  Qualifications are straightforward: first you must have qualified money in a retirement account that can be moved, and second your Adjusted Gross Income (single or married filing jointly) cannot exceed $100,000 during the conversion year.  Should the smart money pivot to the Roth?

Since late 2007 the stock market has lost roughly 50% of its value as measured by the broad market indexes.   Dividend rates have been slashed, bond issuers have defaulted or been downgraded, plus bank CD and other fixed rates have plummeted.  Virtually every investment from AIG to Zales has tanked along with everything in-between, including all types of real estate and commodities from aluminum to zinc. In fact, all investments allowed for company-sponsored retirement accounts, except gold and other precious metals which usually are not among the choices, are in the cellar.

Since you must eventually pay taxes on retirement money, why not pay the IRS when the burden is the lowest?  The smart money is betting that the market is closer to the bottom than the top.  Even if wrong about the market, it appears taxes are headed higher because there are limited ways to address the massive deficits now being logged by the federal government: raise taxes, cut spending, inflation, economic growth or a combination.  The consensus for the win, place and show is: higher taxes, higher inflation but tepid growth, respectively.  Lower government spending is not likely.  How might this affect the typical retirement-minded couple?

The Losels are a middle-income couple in their mid-60’s and managed to save $350,000 in IRAs.  This nest egg, along with Social Security of $25,000 annually was thought to be enough for a modest retirement income of $45,000 annually based on a 30-year retirement and earnings of 4% annually.  Unfortunately for the Losels, they invested their money in mutual funds that have lost 50% since 2007 and now are $175,000.  They’ll need a 100% increase to get back to break-even.  The Losels’ plan is to convert $100,000 to a Roth IRA in 2009, pay the taxes when they file their 2009 return and avoid future market risks.  They met with their financial advisor to determine how much they should convert to minimize taxes and also where they should invest their Roth IRA money.  They’ll pay $25,000 in additional taxes for tax year 2009 from other money they have; thus, the entire $100,000 in the Roth IRA will be tax-free when used.

The Losels now have the following advantages:  they have $100,000 that will grow tax-free; they can remove it tax-free from the market to a safe place; they will not have required minimum withdrawal requirement; they can pass tax-free any unused amount to heirs who can withdraw it tax-free over their lifetime; withdrawals will not be used to compute taxes on their Social Security benefits; if income taxes rise in the future they will not be impacted; if they leave it in mutual funds and values drop further before their 2009 taxes are filed, they can undo the conversion and redo.  If the Losels have a long retirement, converting to the Roth will, when looking back years from now, have been a very smart decision.  And, the really good news is that beginning in 2010 there will be no income limits to qualify.  If you need a rescue package, consider a Roth IRA conversion.
Shelby J. Smith, Ph.D.
March 2009
TheRetirementPros.com

Related Topics by Dr. Shelby Smith:
Tax-Free Retirement Income & More (12min Video Seminar), You, Taxes and Retirement (eReport PDF & 10min Video), Addressing Your Greatest Retirement Worry (10min Video Seminar).

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