Useful savings plans for the smallest businesses. Do you own a small business with a few employees? Are you self-employed? In either case, the SEP IRA may be the ideal low-cost, easily administered retirement savings plan for you. This is a simple pension plan using a traditional IRA. (SEP stands for Simplified Employee Pension.) It [...]

Some tax consequences to remember. There are times when people really need money – and in those times, a retirement account may seem like a conveniently liquid resource to tap. What’s the harm in taking early distributions from a tax-deferred retirement plan? Well, the tax bite could be considerable. Big taxes may await you. If [...]

While the idea of retirement has changed, certain financial assumptions haven’t. We’ve all heard about the “new retirement”, the mix of work and play that many of us assume we will have in our lives one day. We do not expect “retirement” to be all leisure. While this is becoming a cultural assumption among baby [...]

A little “delayed gratification” may help you retire more comfortably. Baby boomers are known for wanting more out of life – and for living life on their own terms. They also get a bad rap as a generation weaned on instant gratification – wanting it all now, wanting to have it both ways. It is [...]

401(k)-to-Roth rollovers are now possible before age 59½. A new possibility. Sometimes employees want to pull money out of a 401(k) before they retire. It isn’t always because of an emergency. Some workers want to make an in-service non-hardship withdrawal just to roll their 401(k) assets into an IRA. Why? They see lower account fees [...]