One of the key components of determining your Social Security retirement benefit is called the Average Indexed Monthly Earnings, or AIME (don’t you just love the acronym-loving Social Security Administration? Errr… SSA.). The AIME is calculated by taking the highest-earning (by index) 35 years of your working life while covered by Social Security, and then [...]
Posts from ‘January, 2010’
A Cash Flow Dilemma – Should I take distributions from my IRA or from my taxable account?
I know, long title… but I wanted to fully describe the content of this article, which is to answer the following dilemma: I have a sizable IRA and a sizable taxable account that holds appreciated stocks. I am in need of additional funds (above any RMD required from the IRA) – so which account should [...]
IRS Guidance Regarding Filing Status
The IRS recently issued Tax Tip 2010-03, which provides taxpayers with guidance on determining filing status for 2009 tax returns. For additional information, you can review IRS Publication 501. The text of IRS Tax Tip 2010-03 follows. Eight Facts About Filing Status Everyone who files a federal tax return must determine which filing status applies [...]
Social Security Full Retirement Age – Explained
The Full Retirement Age, or FRA (gotta love the government for their acronyms!), is a key figure for the individual who is planning to receive Social Security retirement benefits. Back in the olden days, when Social Security was first dreamed up, FRA was always age 65. Then, in 1983 the Social Security Act was amended [...]
The Heartbreak of Withholding From Indirect Rollovers
Taking early withdrawals from your retirement plans is rarely a good idea, and should only be considered when it’s the last possible option available to you, generally speaking. But this article is more about the pain you could experience if you don’t handle a rollover correctly – bypassing the trustee-to-trustee transfer option and going with [...]
What’s Up With Medicare Premiums? How Increases Are Determined
If you are collecting Social Security and covered by Medicare, you may be wondering why your Medicare premium didn’t increase for 2010… or if it did increase, why did it – since it didn’t increase for so many? To understand this quandry, we need to look at the system for determining increases to Social Security [...]
Current Year IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Separately
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Separately Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on that page to determine eligibility. For [...]
Current Year IRA MAGI Limits for IRAs – Single or Head of Household
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Single or Head of Household Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on this page to determine [...]
Determining Your MAGI
There are income limits for contributing to an IRA (traditional and Roth), and below are links by filing status to illustrate the income limits in the situation where you are or are not covered by an employer-provided retirement plan, given your filing status. This, along with your filing status and your Modified Adjusted Gross Income [...]
Current Year MAGI Limits for IRAs – Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Widow(er)
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Widow(er) Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on that page to [...]
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".
