Is Your Retirement Plan Fuzzy Math?
Effective planning requires evaluating options, making strategic decisions, and then acting in a way that lets you achieve your goal. For most people, a retirement plan requires careful consideration of all these elements to ensure a reasonable lifestyle when work is...
The Five Tax Gotchas
No one likes the idea of learning bad news after it’s too late to do anything about it. But that’s exactly what most Americans will discover when they reach retirement. Are you one of them? You are if you’ve fallen victim to the allure of tax-qualified plans like...
The Retirement Drawdown Question
I published this a year ago, but it still seems relevant so I wanted to put it back out there. -Jay A recent article from Yahoo Finance (The Risks of Spending Your Retirement) had an interesting take on issues related to drawing income from one’s nest-egg in...
The High Cost of ‘Free’ Money
We know – by the rule of 72 – that money growing at 7.2% will double in 10 years. So $100 pre-tax dollars grows to $200 in 10 years; and $75 after-tax dollars grows to $150 in 10 years. That’s their proof.
However, when that $200 is taxed at the same 25% rate, the qualified account ends up with – surprise – $150. There is no mathematical advantage to tax deferral.
The Paid-Off Home Myth
If I have $1,000,000 in an IRA – the reality is – I really only ‘own’ the after-tax equivalent – say $700,000 if my tax rate is 30%. The rest belongs to Uncle Sam – I’m just ‘holding’ it for him, temporarily. So if my account grows by 10%, my portion of that growth is $70,000, and my deferred tax liability (debt) grows by $30,000.
