As we all are painfully aware, the costs and complexity of healthcare are skyrocketing, and nothing seems to be slowing things down. Granted, it seems like the present administration is making overtures to give the appropriate attention to the problem, but… as we all know, paths to places we don’t want to go are paved [...]
Posts from ‘March, 2009’
Penalties for Changing SOSEPP
So – you’ve begun your Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SOSEPP) from your IRA to satisfy your §72(t) requirement. Allofasudden, something happens that causes you to make a change to your payment – either purposely or by accident. What happens? . Well – first of all, we must understand the timeline associated with an SOSEPP: once [...]
IRA Basics
To start off, let’s talk about the basics of IRAs. The following information holds true for both traditional IRA (TIRA) and Roth IRA (RIRA) plans. IRA accounts can be held at a variety of institutions, from banks and credit unions, to brokerages and insurance companies. Essentially, if it is a financial institution, quite likely there is [...]
RMD Holiday in 2009
Late last year, as part of the bailout packages that were spinning through Congress, a provision was added to the tax law that allows for a “holiday” on Required Minimum Distributions for the year 2009. What this means is that if you are over age 70½ and thus subject to Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from your [...]
Tax Loss Harvesting: It’s Never Too Late
We’ve discussed before on these pages the benefit of tax-loss harvesting. Briefly, this is where you have a taxable account, holding stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, and (as was the case this past year) the market declines, leaving your holdings in a loss situation. Once you sell the holding, you have realized the loss, which [...]
SOSEPP & How a QDRO Affects It
In addition to the 72(t) exception available for folks with a QDRO (see this post), there is also the question of how a QDRO impacts an established Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SOSEPP) – which, as we know, once established can only be changed one time. Although not definitive, below are summaries of three Private [...]
401(k) & Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDRO)
An exception to the 10% penalty on distributions from a qualified plan (but not an IRA) is when the distribution is pursuant to the imposition of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO (cue-DRO). A QDRO is often put into place as part of a divorce settlement, especially when one spouse has a considerably larger retirement plan balance than [...]
Snake Oil Sales, 2009 Style
By now you’re probably sick to death of the conversation around the Jim Cramer vs. Jon Stewart ratings booster. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, you can find a CNN report about the whole affair here. An interesting point in all of those conversations is that, in spite of what you may think, [...]
The March Continues…
Greetings for March… the time of year when the earth begins the awakening process, and we see that there is, in fact, an end to the darkness of the winter. Perhaps we’re seeing a similar awakening in the markets…? This past week we’ve seen nearly an 11% increase. Taken by itself it is a somewhat [...]
The Ultimate “Do Over”
We’ve talked about it before – the decision of when to begin taking your Social Security retirement benefit is very important. (you can see my post on the subject here) The problem is, sometimes we aren’t in a position to delay receiving the benefit… or maybe we didn’t consider what a difference it would make [...]
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".
