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Roth IRAs and the Fear of Future Legislation
When people realize how incredible the deal is for a Roth IRA, they’re often in disbelief. After all, it lets you earn tax-free income in retirement. No federal income taxes, period, on money taken out of a Roth IRA when you’re at retirement age (and at a few other life opportunities, too).
Before we head too far down this road, let’s touch on what a Roth IRA is. I spelled it out in my earlier Roth IRA basics article, but here are the key things you need to know:
A Roth IRA is a type of Individual Retirement Account (that’s the IRA abbreviation, of course) that allows most individuals to save for retirement on their own with or without a 401(k) plan at their workplace. Someone working at Home Depot could start a Roth IRA, as could a janitor or a computer programmer working for the government.
Discovery and Temptation
Anyone who has followed my “Pieces of Inspiration” weekly series knows that I have a big soft spot in my heart for folk and Americana/alt-country/bluegrass/whatever-you-want-to-label-it music. I find new music in those genres all the time that really excite me and when I do buy music these days for offline listening, it’s almost entirely from those genres.
Ten Pieces of Inspiration #177
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well.
1. Buckminster Fuller on the future
Friends as Financial Role Models
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn
Excluding my children, the four people I spend the most time with are all in their mid-thirties, they all have professional careers in science and/or engineering, they’re all debt-free, and they all have a serious cheap streak.
I’m in my mid-thirties, I had a professional career in science (until I made the unorthodox decision to write for a living… but I still employ some computer programming along the way), I’m debt-free, and I have a serious cheap streak.
Of course, one might say that many of these attributes are a big part of who I am as a person, but I also think that the people I associate with have a huge influence on me and the decisions I make each day.
The Cost of Decompression
If you work for a living, you know the feeling. You finish a day of earning money. You’re tired – mentally and/or physically and/or spiritually and/or socially exhausted.
You go home, drop your stuff by the door, and just head to the couch for a while. You sit there in a daze, watching a television show or even taking a nap for a while.
You’re decompressing.
For a lot of people, decompression is a vital part of their work day. They come home feeling like a zombie and they just need some time to recollect themselves.
Decompression used to be a vital part of my day when I worked at my previous job. I would often decompress for half an hour or an hour when I got home, watching a television show or playing a video game. I just needed some time to unwind.
Slow and Steady in an Instant World
Right now, I can buy almost every book I can think of with a few clicks of the mouse. In fact, I can find almost any product I can imagine and easily have it delivered to my home in just a few days. It just takes a moment.
It is so easy to begin to expect to see results from everything almost immediately. More and more and more of our lives are becoming instantaneous, where we have a need or a thought or a desire and it can be met with a click or a text or a phone call.
Because of that, things that don’t provide instant response and satisfaction become harder and harder to deal with.
We can’t blink our eyes and find that our debts have vanished. We can’t simply flip a switch and have an ideal body shape. We can’t click a few times and have a strong and lasting relationship with someone. We can’t dream of a productive business or a self-employment gig and then suddenly see it appear in front of us.
Reader Mailbag: Lifetime Learning
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Protecting small business idea
2. Idea for app
3. Church donation advice
4. Side business income
5. Weird student loan arrangement
6. One meal a day
7. Gardening advice
8. Retire now?
9. Rollover or pension?
The Coupon Rotation
Over the years, I’ve talked about several different methods Sarah and I have used to manage coupons at the grocery store.
At first, I wasn’t really convinced that coupons were worth the time investment. We clipped them leisurely, mostly as a Sunday morning breakfast activity.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Cookbook Edition
The internet provides an absolute mountain of recipes for people who want to find them. There’s a recipe out there for almost anything you want to cook.
So why do I still love cookbooks?
Honestly, I haven’t found a better system for browsing cohesive organized recipe collections. I can get close to that experience by browsing the archives of a specific food blog, but even then, it’s harder to browse. I can annotate recipes, bookmark them, see techniques (in good cookbooks, anyway), and also be inspired to try something new.
I’m almost always thrilled to find an interesting cookbook at a used bookstore or to receive one as a gift, even with the millions of recipes one can find online. They just inspire me to try cooking things at home.
3 Marriage-Saving Approaches to Take if Your Spouse’s Spending is Out of Control
This article was first posted at U.S. News and World Report Money.
It’s a common story. One partner in a marriage realizes the value of financial responsibility and starts working in earnest to improve the couple’s financial situation. Meanwhile, the other partner hasn’t had that epiphany and prefers to continue old financial habits.
Inevitably, these situations end up in conflict. The actions each spouse takes on a daily basis are pulling their finances in opposite directions. Just like two mules pulling on opposite ends of the wagon, no progress is made and both partners are frustrated.
Arguments ensue. Frustration takes hold. Poor decisions are made. These situations can eventually cause a marriage to dissolve.
What can you do if your spouse’s financial decisions are working against all of your plans and efforts? Here are three approaches that are well worth trying.
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