5 Questions about the Roth IRA

The topic of saving for retirement and all of the attendant tax issues can be a complicated discussion. For me, the issue is one of those that just does not stick in my head. I can read all about Roth IRAs and Traditional IRAs and 401Ks and then forget everything I learned five minutes later. Today, I want to just talk about the Roth IRA and give five of the most important aspects of this particular retirement savings vehicle. A Roth IRA is when the retirement contribution is considered to be after tax, in other words, the money that you pay in has already been taxed. The advantage of a Roth IRA is that  future distributions will be tax-free – at least most of the time.

The Friday Gathering Ask the M-Network Edition

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The M-Network is starting the year off with a bang by beginning something that I think is really awesome: Ask the M-Network. Have a personal finance question you’ve been wanting to ask? Ask the M-Network will not only give you a chance to ask the question but give you potentially 8 different answers with 8 different perspectives!

To Ask the M-Network, submit a personal finance question to any of the M-Network members using the sites contact form on any M-Network member’s blog. Your question could be answered by several M-Network members and published within a few days on the blog where you submitted the question.

College money all at once or allotted over time?

I received a very interesting question from a reader this week. Marsha asks:

If a child has money given to them for college, should it be
literally given to them, or slowing allotted to them? Please explain the
answer. Seeking wisdom….

Well, I’m not sure if I would be considered wise or not, but I certainly have an opinion and here’s what I would do:

I would allocate it over time. As I read your question, the wisdom of Luke 16:10 came to mind:

Luke 16:10 – “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.”

A reader question: Budgeting and reminders

I have a question
Photo by: pfly

I recently gave my readers an opportunity to ask me pretty much anything they wanted and that they did. I’ll be answering all of the questions I received so far in an article next week; however, I did received one question that was on a big enough topic to address as an article of it’s own. A reader, I’ll name Liz, send me the following email:


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