Good Financial Reads: Are You Ready for Retirement?

If you are new to saving and you want to know the right place to start beyond your employer-sponsored retirement plan, then you may want to consider either a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. If these terms are foreign to you, then you've found the right blog to read. If you’re familiar with IRAs, then hopefully you’ll learn something that you had not known before. Let's start with the basics: what is an IRA? IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 introduced the IRA, while the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 introduced the Roth IRA. So what is the difference between these two types of accounts?  

We all know that each year in our 401(k) we have a maximum amount we can save.  For this year, for example, let’s say that the maximum amount is $26,000.  Typically at the beginning of the year, you look at how many pay periods you have.  To make it simple let’s say you get paid once a month.  You divide by the twelve different months you have. During the year you know that when you get to the end of the year you will fully fund this $26,000 that you can contribute.  You start at the beginning of the year and begin to fill it up.  For example, you fill up most of the year, but what most people may not be aware of is if you make too much money you cannot put in the full $26,000 or you may not be able to.  

How many times have you changed your job?  I bet more than once! Our generation (millennials; aka people born between 1980-1996) has a reputation for job hopping. Gallup conducted a study on this topic in 2016. The data revealed millennial job-hopping is a real thing.  According to their study, 21% of millennials said they changed jobs during the past year. That’s three times the number of non-millennials! 

It’s no secret that our generation is open to seeking new opportunities. Heck, we started our careers during the Great Recession and a decade later we are dealing with a global pandemic. New opportunities are a part of how we adapt to survive in our fast changing economic environment.   

PERM stands for Program Electronic Review Management. PERM processing is an integral part of the process of obtaining a Green Card or permanent residency through employment in the United States. 

If this is something you are looking to do, then keep reading to get all your questions answered. We will even cover the big question: "How long will it all take?"

Managing Retirement Accounts in Uncertain Times

COVID-19 has upended our way of life. In addition to the enormous toll it has taken on people's lives and health, it affects those planning for retirement as well. Following are some tips on how to manage your retirement plans in the wake of this market turmoil.

A river cutting through sedimentary rocks throughout millennia can create something mind-blowing like the Grand Canyon. Just like the Grand Canyon wasn’t created overnight, your investments need consistent contributions and decades of appreciation to build generational wealth. Too often, we invest for a couple of years into a 401(k) or IRA thinking our few thousand-dollar investments should be a hundred-thousand dollars. And when that isn’t the case, we give up contributing altogether.

Individual Retirement Accounts are great for one major reason… taxes are deferred until distributions are taken, sometimes on contributions and always on growth.

Deferral of taxation can be helpful in two ways:  First off, taxes aren’t coming out of the account to pay for regular growth, dividends and interest, so that money continues itself to generate growth.  Secondly, often people see themselves as being in a higher tax bracket during their working years than they figure they’ll be in during retirement.  Deferring income to a time when you may be in a lower income tax bracket makes a lot of sense!