{You are going to die someday, but you don’t have to live miserably until then

{You are going to die someday, but you don’t have to live miserably until then

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{In retirement, you find a lot of old folks getting tallow skin. Bad, bad. And it’s because they did not care to care for themselves. You can tell a different tale, you know. Spend more time in the sun.|You can do wonders for yourself even in retirement, if you could just find something to do. Even if you cannot travel the world as you would love to, try to offer something to the people who live around you. Their appreciation can be your reward.}

{Waking up in the morning on the first day of your retirement should be with a feeling of excitement, and not one of dread. If you are in dread, it must be because you failed to plan properly for that day. Try and help the next generation with better advice than you took.|In your retirement, you should stay in contact with friends. It helps your heart rate to be able to talk to someone from the past in an excited way. And it’s a lot better than sleeping and waking up unhappy every day.|Staying active in retirement is much easier when you have spent a whole lifetime in practice, preparing for it. Sincerely, what you get then is what you have planned for since now. Plan wisely. Map out what you want to achieve with your life at that time, eat well in preparation for it, exercise as much as you can, and save up good money to make such pursuits a possibility. That is how to make meaning of a retirement.}

{Your retirement can be much more enjoyable if you are in control of it. Only if you have let matters slip out of hand will you have that consternation that comes from uncertainty in your gut. So, which is it?|With the number of pension and retirement plans out there, you really have no excuse. You can have your retirement a fulfilling one if you can let them help you with the plans. It’s simply common sense.}

{When you have someone to do things with, retirement is often easier on you. How about you make a friend? How about you make new ones every day? Try different things all the time. It can help bring a little sunshine back into that leathered face.|There’s nothing better than a retirement well planned. You can do all the things you planned to do, and enjoy yourself doing them. The flipside is a horrid affair; one in which you get to become this sad defeated person because you did not put things in place when you could have… a curse of negligence that will have you waste away as a consequence of your non actions. |A country walk with friends often does magic for the back and the bones if you do it often enough. But lying or sleeping in during retirement is not an option. Now get off of your lazy behind and see what you can make of it.}

Refinance & Mortgage Tips

Refinance & Mortgage Tips

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If you are purchasing a home and have a substantial portion of your assets inside of a retirement account such as a 401K, 403B or other retirement product or annuity, you may choose the increasingly popular option of tapping those funds to make a down payment on your new home. Like any other accounts you may have in your name, such as brokerage accounts and bank checking, savings and money market accounts, most popular retirement accounts qualify as assets to be counted toward your “reserves”, a measure used by mortgage lenders to determine how many months of payments you must have in order to serve as a buffer covering payments you might miss if there were any interruption of your income.
Retirement accounts such as 401(k) or 403(b) annuity accounts are generally administered or sponsored in whole or in part by your employer. In addition to serving as excellent documentation of your earnings and savings, your 401K or 403B accounts can be used in a variety of ways to help finance your new home purchase. Depending on the specific restrictions applied to your account, you may have the option of withdrawing money directly from the account or “borrowing” money in the form of a loan (against your own funds) which is repaid at a generally low rate of interest. Regardless of whether you cash money out of your account or take a loan against it, be sure to thoroughly document any details of the transaction, including any withdrawal or loan application paperwork, demand drafts, cashier’s checks, deposit tickets, etc. for the purpose of substantiating this source of funds to your lender.
Lenders do treat down payment money from retirement accounts differently from program to program and state to state, sometimes from case to case. In particular, borrowing money in the form of a loan may increase what the lender’s perceives as your monthly debt obligations, because even though you are borrowing money from your own account, you are still obligated to make a payment every month which you wouldn’t have to make otherwise, and lenders will often consider this to be detrimental to your qualifying DTI or Debt to Income Ratio, making it harder to borrow as much money as you may need. On the other hand, cashing out any type of retirement account will always create a taxable event and sometimes also a penalty fee, which generally accounts to more than the nominal interest rate common to the loan option. Speak with your loan officer about the requirements of your individual program and weight the options with him/her or another trusted financial professional.
You may also consider speaking to your employer about any down payment assistance programs which may be available to you as part of your benefits package. These can come in many forms, but it is important to clarify with your employer that any down payment assistance granted does not amount to a loan and that there is no expectation of payment. Why would an employer want to help you make a down payment? Call them old fashioned, but most companies do want their employees to stick with them, and if your employer helped you achieve ownership of your dream home, how would you feel about them? As with the 401K, 403B or other retirement account options, down payment assistance from your employer should be documented in detail and all copies of communication, checks, deposit tickets and statements of account, along with signed records stipulating that the funds are given freely and not to be repaid, should be kept for submission to your lender.

A Closer Look At The Roth 401k

A Closer Look At The Roth 401k

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Roth 401k is a good retirement savings option. Although it does not provide an up-front tax-deduction, the account eventually becomes tax-free, because the withdrawals taken at retirement are not subject to income tax.

This tax benefit can only be provided to persons who are at least 59.5 years old, or are disabled, and who have held the account for a minimum period of five years. Roth 401k provides an opportunity to save with a different kind of tax treatment. It is a good option for those who are just starting their careers, and expect their income to grow in the future.

Eligibility for Roth 401k:

Anyone whose employer offers Roth 401k is eligible for this investment option. If an employee leaves his/her job, the Roth 401k balance can be rolled over into a Roth IRA. One major benefit of enrolling in Roth 401k is that an account holder does not lose eligibility when the income becomes very high. There is no provision of helping a person open this account if his/her employer does not offer Roth 401k yet. Employers provide a form to their employees to state some, or all, of their 401k contributions that will go into their Roth 401k account.

Difference between 401k and Roth 401k:

401k makes available some tax relief in the year a person may have contributed into the account. However, a 401k-account holder is liable to pay taxes on his/her contribution, along with all the investment earnings, later.

A Roth 401k account holder does not get any tax benefit in the year of the contributions, but all the earnings in the account will be free of tax for as long as the account exists. Besides, a Roth 401k-account holder can roll his/her account to a Roth IRA. The Roth IRA account continues to grow with tax-free earnings for as long as it exists. However, Roth IRA is not available to taxpayers with an income above a certain level.

Advantages of Roth 401k:

Since tax rules allow a person to make it as large as a traditional account, the Roth 401k account is more valuable compared to it. Therefore, saving in a Roth 401k account can make a person much better off at retirement. Given below is a table showing the amount required in a traditional account to have the equivalent of $100 in a Roth Account.

TAX- BRACKETAMOUNT

10%$111.11
15%$117.65
25%$133.33
28%$138.89
33%$149.25
35%$153.85

If a person is in the 33% tax bracket, he/she will have to withdraw $149.25 from a traditional account in order to spend $100. This is because $49.25 is used to pay the tax on the distribution. Roth 401k provides more wealth at retirement, as the distribution from it is tax-free.

While many companies that already have the traditional 401k plans, wanted to implement Roth 401k plans, which have been effective from January 1,2006 according to the law, in reality only a few actually have done it, because of the extra expenses involved. These companies want to first observe the success of Roth 401k before actually undertaking the cost of the implementation.

Roth 401k is a good investment option to save tax-free earnings for retirement. People can take advantage of it to be able to have a secure retirement, which is free from monetary worries.