Mega and Backdoor Roth Contributions: Do You Feel Lucky?

Mega and Backdoor Roth Contributions: Do You Feel Lucky?

Often politicians pass laws that have unintended consequences, making tax planning difficult. This year the uncertainty revolves around two methods to build up your tax-free savings that may go away if the Biden administration’s Build Back Better legislation passes. I’ll describe the situation and the three possible outcomes. As background, some workers have the ability…
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Is 2022 Shaping Up To Be A Stock Market Disaster?

As of this writing the S&P 500 is currently down almost 6% since the start of the year, one of the worst January performances in a long time. Does this indicate 2022 is likely to be a terrible year for the stock market? Let’s start with a basic tenet: nobody can predict the future. There…
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New Tax Reduction For Some IRA Owners

It’s always nice to get a tax break. Starting in 2022 required minimum distributions (RMDs) by seniors from qualified retirement plans such as IRAs and 401(k)s will be reduced, courtesy of a change to life expectancies instituted by the IRS. Here’s an example to illustrate the change. Suppose Mary Taxpayer, born on March 1, 1950,…
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Key Tax Changes For 2022

It’s a new year and that generally means inflation adjustments to qualified retirement plan contribution limits as well as changes to other tax benefits and penalties. Here’s a brief summary of the changes most commonly utilized for 2022: 401(k) & 403(b) plans: Salary deferral limited to $20,500 (plus $6,500 if over age 50). Total additions…
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How Well Is The Stock Market Really Doing?

The year 2021 is coming to an end and the stock market is experiencing a level of volatility not seen for some time. The stock prices of previously high-flying companies such as Facebook are down from their previous highs. Could this be the beginning of a major downturn? One indicator that many technical stock analysts…
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Will Tech Stocks Keep Growing?

The technology sector of the U.S. stock market has been on a tear. During the last decade the T. Rowe Price Science & Technology mutual fund (which I will use as a proxy to represent the sector) rose over 300% (see chart below). Younger investors who started buying stocks or mutual funds less than ten…
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