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Traditional IRA

A New Law Just Made IRAs and 529s a Little More Interesting

As last year’s U.S. Congressional session approached the Christmas holiday, a little known bill called the SECURE Act was once again teetering on the edge of failure. However, at the last minute it was tacked onto the year-end appropriations bill in order to keep the government funded. Just like that, a new series of financial rules and requirements impacted millions of American’s financial lives, though most don’t even know about it.

Following is a brief rundown of the SECURE Act’s 1,000+ page rule, with a focus on the areas that I feel would most likely impact you.

How Distributions Work in Retirement (And How They Can Hurt You!)

When I started my career in financial advising, I was clearly getting into a fairly complex business. It’s not so much because of the nature of investing and finances in and of themselves, but rather the regulation and rules that dictate what you can or must do, when, and how often.

Few things can be more complicated than taking money from your retirement account. The rules can be very particular and breaking them can be extremely costly.

Following is an explanation of some of the fundamental retirement distribution rules you should be aware of as you think about taking money from your 401(k) or IRA.

5 Ways to Lower Your Taxes Before 2017 Is Over

No one likes paying more than their share of taxes.  As a result, we’d all be wise to do a little family tax planning as the year goes along, but as the saying goes “time waits for no man.” Heck, can you believe it’s already November?!

For the wannabe tax-saver in you, here are 5 steps you can take today to potentially lower your taxes. There are many types of deductions available, but the one’s I’ll mention here are, I believe, some of the most “actionable.”

How Good Are the Tax Savings in Your 401k or IRA?

There are many advantages to using your 401k or IRA for future savings. These retirement tools are truly without compare in many respects. But if I had to pick out one attribute that shines above the rest, especially when compared to other ways to save, it’s the tax advantages.

This is well illustrated with a powerful example from an American College textbook I was recently reading through.

How a Roth IRA Is The Ultimate Utility Knife of Most Financial Tools

Like utility knives, there are a few investment tools that are relatively simple in their design and extremely powerful in their effectiveness. One of these, without question, is the Roth IRA.Here are three attributes--utilities if you will--which make a Roth IRA such a powerful tool for families to build and use their wealth.