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401k and IRA Blogs

5 Questions Every IRA Owner Should Ask

5 Questions Every IRA Owner Should Ask

Faced with a $1 trillion budget deficit in 2013, the government may be forced to raise taxes on items such as dividend income, capital gains, and even some individual retirement account (IRA) contributions. Each of these items has been proposed in budget planning. However, we have no control over which ones will actually make it through congress. What we at least can control is how well our IRAs are meeting our particular needs. Fortunately, Robert Cirrotti posted an article which describes 5 questions that every...

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Are 401(k) Plans For The Benefit Of Workers Or Wall Street?

Are 401(k) Plans For The Benefit Of Workers Or Wall Street?

An article came out in SmartMoney last week which highlighted the massive amount of fees that gets generated from 401(k) plans with minimal visibility to the plan participants. The article was titled, “The Big Business of 401k Plans” by Ian Salisbury and poked holes in the current 401(k) system by opening consumers eyes to the billions of dollars in annual fees that these investment banks are making off of them.  Don’t get me wrong, the banks should make money and turn a profit.  That is...

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How To Annuitize Your 401k

How To Annuitize Your 401k

For many years annuities have received some bad press.  Big names such as Suzi Orman and Dave Ramsey have made negative comments on certain types of annuities.  And even many financial planners bashed using traditional annuities like SPIA’s due to annuitization.  You see, annuitization basically means forced income and in some instances your beneficiaries might lose out if you passed away early.  There are so many misconceptions about annuities due to these SPIA’s (single premium IMMEDIATE annuities).  For instance, the average Joe hears “annuity” and...

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The “Stretch IRA” Could Be Finished For Good

The “Stretch IRA” Could Be Finished For Good

Although as consumers we are not even close to being experts on stretch IRA’s, we are certainly comfortable with the basics. We are also comfortable knowing the powerful value they contain to continue a legacy and to spread out large tax burdens.  Well our friends up on Capital Hill (who apparently are experts at finding ways to bleed more taxes out of us) are discussing a proposal that would end the stretch IRA’s for good.  As you read the well written article below by Michael...

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