On May 7, 9:43 am, Bill Woessner <woess...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> What sort of balance do you all suggest for balancing retirement and
> non-retirement savings? Up until now, we had been diligent about
> maxing out our 401k and IRA contributions. But since our non-
> retirement savings are going to be significantly depleted by the new
> house, we've tem****arily stopped all those contributions to allow time
> for our savings to recover.
Keep up the Roth IRA contributions and 401K up to the level of
matching funds.
I don't think that you have enough to build a new house, can you
postpone it?
> Another consideration: Large purchases. Certainly the new house
> qualifies, but what about things like a new car? My wife's car is 4
> years old. It runs perfectly and doesn't have any problems. However,
> I suspect she'll be interested in getting a new car in, say, 2-4
> years. When that time comes, I'd prefer to pay cash for the car
> instead of having a car payment. Of course, that money will have to
> come from non-retirement savings. How do you strike that balance?
There's nothing wrong with a loan, just don't buy luxury cars or all
the options.
> I have one closing comment, which is really a rant. If Congress
> didn't see fit to try and micromanage our financial lives, this
> wouldn't be an issue. We would have one unified savings which may or
> may not be conceptually partitioned in to retirement and non-
> retirement savings. But instead, we have 6 separate retirement
> accounts (401k, Roth and IRA times 2), each with its own rules,
> regulations and fees. We have to decide upfront if money goes in to
> one of the retirement accounts, never to be seen again until age
> 59.5. Sure, we don't HAVE to use these retirement vehicles, but we
> get slapped with higher taxes if we don't. It really seems like a
> government-created headache to me.
You can convert your standard IRA to a Roth IRA, eliminating two of
your accounts. When you leave your job, you can convert your 401K
accounts to standard IRA accounts.
--
Ron
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