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Financial Planning - Financial planning in general. (Moderated)
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Posted by on February 21, 2008, 3:43 pm
My favorite line from this one:
"If you make between $50,000 and $200,000, you should
memorize the several hundred pages of IRS publications
and instructions that relate in some way to things
being phased out. Or hire an accountant."
Phaseouts (ie. stealth taxes) are a real abomination in
our tax code.
That said, the article overall is a nice quick summary of
suggested steps and the types of retirement savings
accounts available to most individuals. (ie. it doesn't
cover things like self-employed plans).
<http://www.forbes.cmo/forbes/2008/0225/040.html>
Basically, it says some of the same things we here have
been saying so many times:
1. Grab employer match - 401k at least up to match
2. Fund a Roth (if you can)
3. Build up taxable accounts (which can sometimes, in
some ways, be more tax-efficient than the rest of
that 401k - so take both into account)
4. Fatten up the 401k - finish maxing it out
5. Consider college costs (probably a 529)
6. Play the conversion game (maybe do an IRA->Roth)
7. Do an HSA (tricky, though - not always available,
and the article doesn't mention this, but it may
not make any sense for less healthy folks)
Nice to see a little exploration of the issue of tax-efficiency
and investment types mixed in with the question of whether or
not to finish maxing out a 401k vs. taxable investments. I don't
think that's covered adequately in general out there.
Same issue has a nice article about pulling 401k money out
*while still employed* - which many folks don't know they can
do:
<http://www.forbes.com/personalfinance/forbes/2008/0225/046.html>
(mentions the law which allows 59-1/2 yr olds do in-service
distributions, as well as some of the complex possibilities
for younger folks to do so - in additon to a mention of the
less common "brokerage window" some folks might have. Me -
I like my 401k plan right now a *lot* and have no need to
move that money out. But not everyone is as happy with their
401k as I am.)
--
Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Are you posting responses that are easy for others to follow?
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting
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