Roth IRAs

Roth IRAs

Something we like to talk about regularly here on Retiring Well are Roth IRAs. So what exactly is a Roth IRA? You’re taking in this example, you’re taking after-tax dollars that’s going into a Roth IRA, a retirement account that then you delay over a period of years beyond age 59.5 and that growth that occurs within that Roth IRA is going to be tax-free when you later again, age 59.5 look at taking withdrawals from that retirement account. So the benefit of that is going to be again, that tax-free growth. So Roth IRAs where created back in 1998. They were named after William Roth Jr., a U.S. Senator from Delaware. And so that’s where they’ve been around for a little over 20 years now. So in 2022 the limit for your contribution would be $6K if you’re under the age of 50. And if you’re 50 or over then it’s upwards of $7K that you can be contributing while you’re working into these Roth IRA accounts. Now again with that, you have to have earned income. So whether that’s income, salary, wages, etc. and there’s certain income limits that you have to stay under in order to qualify to be able to contribute into these retirement accounts. But again, it’s something that’s valuable to be building that tax-free part of your overall retirement plan. Now if you’re already retired, no longer working, you don’t have that income anymore, there are Roth conversion opportunities. So that’s going to be where you have a traditional IRA that hasn’t been taxed yet and you have the desire to transition that taxable IRA over to a tax-free Roth IRA. So with that process, it’s a taxable event. And so it’s one where again, it’s not going to be done necessarily all at one time. It could be done over a period of years. But you’re going to be transitioning that money from taxable IRA over to tax-free IRA. So I’ve been with Centennial Wealth Advisory now for 17 years and seen a number of clients take advantage of these Roth conversions and building up those tax-free assets and seen clients where you know a married couple has that Roth IRA and one spouse passes, leaving that tax-free asset to the surviving spouse. It gives them a little greater flexibility when it comes time to drawing income knowing that they have a piece of their plan that they can draw from and not have tax implications. As well as then leaving that asset behind to children and grandchildren, tax-free is another great benefit. So if you’re looking at your retirement accounts and not sure about Roth IRAs and what role they might play for you, we’d welcome you to give us a call and we can sit down and talk further about this.