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How Roth IRAs Can Help Save for Retirement Many are at their peak earning years late in their careers. You might find you have extra money available to invest after the mortgage is paid off, and the kids have finished college. You’ll want to make the most of that money. Or, you might simply...

IRA Eligibility and Contribution Limits The contribution limits for both traditional and Roth IRAs are $6,000 per year, plus a $1,000 catch-up contribution for those 50 and older, for both tax years 2020 and 2021. You can split your contributions between the two types, but your total...

How Traditional IRA Withdrawals Are Taxed With a traditional IRA, any pre-tax contributions and all earnings are taxed at the time of withdrawal. The withdrawals are taxed as regular income (not capital gains), and the tax rate is based on your income in the year of the withdrawal.1 The idea is...

What Is a 401(k) Plan? A 401(k) plan is a tax-advantaged, defined-contribution retirement account offered by many employers to their employees. It is named after a section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Workers can make contributions to their 401(k) accounts through automatic payroll...

Roth vs. Traditional IRA Roth and traditional IRAs are excellent ways to stash money away for retirement. They share the same contribution limits. For 2021, that's $6,000, or $7,000 if you're age 50 or older.2 To contribute to either, you must have earned income. That's the money you get from...

Roth IRA Eligibility The primary requirement for contributing to a Roth IRA is having earned income. Eligible income comes in two ways. First, you can work for someone else who pays you. That includes commissions, tips, bonuses, and taxable fringe benefits. The second way to earn eligible...

How Your Roth IRA Contribution Limit Is Calculated The primary factors for determining your contribution limit are your filing status and modified adjusted gross income (modified AGI). Based on these two factors, you may either be eligible for the max, a reduced amount, or not eligible at all.1...

How Is Social Security Taxed in Retirement? You might be wondering, “If I already paid Social Security taxes while I was working, why do I have to pay taxes on my Social Security benefits in retirement?” On the surface it sounds crazy, but here’s a closer look. Let’s say your monthly pay as an...

Standard Deduction The standard deduction for 2021 will be $25,100, an increase of $300, for married couples filing joint returns; $12,550, an increase of $150, for single taxpayers’ individual returns and married individuals filing separately; and $18,800, an increase of $150, for heads of...

What follows is a view of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and some of the changes you can expect to affect your taxes in the near term. There is also an overview of some, much-discussed, provisions that didn't happen. While this guide doesn’t include an exhaustive list of every change to the...

Unfair Distribution of the Tax Burden Most U.S. taxpayers consider an income tax system that applies graduated, higher rates on higher levels of income—commonly characterized as “progressive”—to be fair. But, currently, many are concerned that the national tax burden is not sufficiently...

Standard Deduction The standard deduction for 2021 will be $25,100, an increase of $300, for married couples filing joint returns; $12,550, an increase of $150, for single taxpayers’ individual returns and married individuals filing separately; and $18,800, an increase of $150, for heads of...

Changes to the Tax Code President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law on Dec. 22., 2017, bringing sweeping changes to the tax code. How people feel about the $1.5+ trillion overhauls depend largely on their opinion of Trump's presidency. Individually, how the changes were felt...

As the presidential candidate known to have a sweeping plan for everything, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's favorite and most overused phrase is "big, structural change." "Our country is in a time of crisis—the time for small ideas is over," she said emphatically at a podium in June at the California...

"A war on seniors." "Mediscare." "A Bitter Day." With President Donald Trump's appointment of Tom Price for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary in 2017, many Americans have become concerned about the future of Medicare, the federal government program that provides healthcare to 48 million...

It's fair to say Joe Biden's electability has been discussed more than his policies. The president-elect is defined by what he is not—radical or revolutionary—and was seen by many Democrats as the candidate best suited to challenge President Trump in today's deeply polarized political landscape...

The term “Green New Deal” was first used by Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman in January 2007. America had just experienced its hottest year on record (there have been five hotter since), and Friedman recognized that there wasn’t going to be a palatable, easy solution to climate change as...

Current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell took over the role of chairman on February 5, 2018. He was nominated by President Trump in November 2017. Powell was previously a partner at The Carlyle Group, a private investment firm, and served as an Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary of the Treasury...

Early Days of the Republic The first president to have multiple vice presidents was Thomas Jefferson, who served two terms in office beginning in 1801. This was not Jefferson's preference, but the Constitution originally did not require separate votes for the two offices and specified that the...

On Nov 7, 2020, after multiple days spent counting ballots in key swing states, the Associate Press called the 2020 election for Joe Biden over incumbent President Donald Trump.1 Even though Donald Trump has yet to accept his defeat, he has some time to get used to it. President-elect Joe Biden...