Estimating Your Retirement Needs with an Online Calculator Beginning the process of making retirement contributions is a big step for anyone. Today, proper retirement planning seems more important than ever, but where do you begin to crunch numbers? For many, an online retirement savings calculator offers an anonymous, low-commitment method to obtain the basic estimates you need to get started and know how much money you need to retire comfortably. More than just providing one metric, retirement calculators can provide a lot of useful information about how to achieve that desired nest egg amount. From adjusting your risk profile to…
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Losing a loved one can bring not only an emotional burden, but also significant financial responsibilities related to settling the estate. If you are a beneficiary to retirement plan assets, you may inherit control of all or part of a retirement plan account. So, what exactly can one do with an inherited Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or a Roth IRA? What responsibilities do you have to the newly inherited account? The answers to these questions may depend on your relationship to the deceased. Here I will discuss several factors that will determine what you can do with inherited retirement assets.…
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According to the Social Security Administration, average life expectancies for current retirees are now 86.5 for women and 84 for men. While this means people can expect to enjoy more than 20 years in retirement, it also means that their retirement savings must sustain them for decades. But for many, the idea of living off one’s savings is terrifying and leads to fear of outliving their assets. In its 2019 “Retirement Planning Survey,” Financial Advisor Magazine reported that 45% of advisors said outliving assets is one of the biggest threats that their clients face in retirement. Another 2019 study from…
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On June 23, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice that told taxpayers they could unwind any required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts that they had taken in 2020. This provides a significant opportunity for IRA beneficiaries who didn’t need this money for expenses. They can put these distributions back into their IRAs to grow there tax-deferred, lowering their total tax bill. Required Minimum Distributions In general, IRA beneficiaries who are at least 72 years old (or 70½ if they were born before July 1, 1949) are required to take a certain fraction out of their regular IRAs each year.…
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On December 16, 2019, Congress agreed to a spending bill which included a law called the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). The SECURE Act was passed only by the House in the summer, but seemed to be falling by the wayside until it was attached to this spending bill. The new law is effective January 1, 2020. Below is some insight into the major implications of this new law, and some thoughts on how to lessen the impact of the most important change: the removal of the stretch RMD provisions on inherited IRAs. What did…
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