Money Advice

[gallahadesquire]

Just reporting an interesting conversation with my financial advisor:

 Unless you can Roth an IRA, funding it with post-tax dollars, or Deduct your contribution, there’s no point to having an IRA. You lose when you contribute to if, and you pay regular income tax on it when you take a withdrawal. Absent the perks mentioned, it’s better just to make regular investments; hold them until they are long-term gain; and then pay capital gains tax at a lower rate than regular income tax. 

[+ FrankR]

8 minutes ago, gallahadesquire said:

Just reporting an interesting conversation with my financial advisor:

 Unless you can Roth an IRA, funding it with post-tax dollars, or Deduct your contribution, there’s no point to having an IRA. You lose when you contribute to if, and you pay regular income tax on it when you take a withdrawal. Absent the perks mentioned, it’s better just to make regular investments; hold them until they are long-term gain; and then pay capital gains tax at a lower rate than regular income tax. 

I appreciate his position - but there are other benefits beyond taxation to consider.  Many of my friends ask for my opinion and I assist them with their investments (it is not my career - i am not an advisor but I do know a bit about it.) They are all in “high risk” careers where bankruptsy can occur (auditor, lawyer or doctor that gets sued for malpractice, business owner that goes bankrupt after a deal goes bad) and I encourage them to stash money in an IRA since the IRA has federal bankruptsy protection up to $1.3mil (when last I checked). 🤓

[+ WilliamM]

On 4/9/2022 at 12:31 PM, Charlie said:

Sorry, William, but that is untrue: men were asked that question when they were summoned by the draft board for their physicals. They weren't asked, "Are you gay?" because that term wasn't in common use in the 1960s. They were asked, "Have you had sex with another man?" I was advised by a friend in the ACLU to answer it honestly, because if the military decided to have one of their witch-hunts for "subversives," they could easily discover evidence of my history of activity in the gay rights movement, and I could receive a "Dishonorable" discharge for lying about it. So I checked the 'yes' box, and I was called into a private office for an interview. The interviewer asked if I had meant my answer, and I confirmed it. He asked, "When was the last time this happened?" I said honestly, "Last night." Interview ended, and I was not drafted.

I was not asked that question, perhaps because I was drafted in the more enlighten Commonwealth of Massachusetts, rather than Pennsylvania or New York.

 

[Rod Hagen]

On 4/11/2022 at 8:03 AM, WilliamM said:

I was not asked that question, perhaps because I was drafted in the more enlighten Commonwealth of Massachusetts, rather than Pennsylvania or New York.

 

If they had asked, and you wanted to be coy, you could have pulled a Harold Ramis: