Retirement Planning BlogRoll

I often get asked, “How much can I put in my Roth IRA?” My answer is “Well, it depends.” Some of the primary factors that affect how much you can put in your Roth IRA are your age, if you have contributed to another IRA account and how much you’ve put in that other IRA account and your Modified Adjusted Gross Income. The other factor is the maximum amount you can put in your Roth IRA changes from year to year and these changes will reflect the cost of living and inflation.

Currently, if you are under age 50 you can contribute $5,000 per year to your Roth IRA. If you are over 50 then you are allowed an additional $1,000 per year as a catch-up allowance per year. So, in other words, you can put in $6,000 a year into your Roth IRA account if you’re over age 50.

The other factor is if you are contributing to another IRA account such as a traditional IRA. The amount you put in your traditional IRA can decrease the amount and offset the maximum amount you can put in your Roth IRA. You should contact Best IRA Rescue.com at (888) 938-5872 or contact your financial planner or accountant to see if you have other IRA accounts that you may be contributing to.

Your Modified Gross Adjusted Income (MAGI) can affect how much you can put in your Roth IRA as well. The Modified Gross Adjusted Income is the amount you claim on your tax return before you claim any deductions. For 2009, if you make over $166,000 per year for married couples filing joint or if you make over $105,000 as a filing single then you will enter a phase-out stage whereby the maximum you can end up putting or contributing to your Roth IRA account diminishes as your MAGI increases.

If you meet the criteria for allowing to contribute to your Roth IRA then you should contribute to a maximum amount you can afford. Remember, putting money in your Roth IRA account is after-tax dollars. This means that you pay your taxes first when you file your taxes then you contribute that remainder amount to your Roth IRA. The advantage of this is that when you reach age 59 1/2 you are allowed to withdraw your retirement investments tax-free.

On other hand, when you put money in your traditional IRA account you pay your taxes when you reach retirement at age 59 1/2. So, in other words, when you contribute to your traditional IRA it is before taxes. The disadvantage is that you must pay your taxes at retirement when you withdraw the money and you will most likely be paying much more taxes since your investment has grown. So, in general, the Roth IRA has good tax advantages over the long term.

You should determine how much you can put in your Roth IRA by creating a budget plan. You may talk to one of our representatives or discuss this with your financial planner or accountant. It’s quite easy to create a budget plan if you have a fixed income. For those who do not have a fixed monthly salary or the income varies from month-to-month then you will have to be more prudent with managing your finances. Having a basic plan based on your monthly income whether it’s fixed or varies will help you put money into your Roth IRA to build a comfortable nest egg in your retirement.

There is one other IRA retirement plan that does not have the Modified Gross Adjusted Income limits as the regular Roth IRA. This is called the Roth IRA on Roids or Roth on Roids(tm). The Roth IRA on Roids has no income level limits and offers IRA tax-savings with benefits of a guaranteed death benefit, guaranteed principal, tax-free growth, and tax-free distributions from your policy loans. This is a real tax-savings opportunity for those individuals that have a MAGI that exceeds the Roth IRA income limits. Contact us with any IRA questions at (888) 938-5872.

Visit Best IRA Rescue to read more articles on Roth IRA.

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When do you pay taxes on a Roth IRA?
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Backstop Roth IRA
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Can I contribute to both a 401k and a Roth IRA?

A common question asked is “Can I contribute to both a 401k and a Roth IRA?” Well, the answer is a clear “Yes!” There are no restrictions from contributing to both your 401(k) plan and your Roth IRA. The only difference is how much you are allowed to contribute each year. Most financial experts will agree to contribute the maximum allowed as this will have a compounding effect on your retirement returns.

So the maximum contribution limits for a 401(k) is as follows:

The annual maximum contribution limits for your 401(k) plan if under age 50 = $16,500.

The annual maximum contribution limits for your 401(k) plan if over age 50 = an additional $5,500 per year as a catch-up allowance.

However, not every employer allows you to have a catch-up allowance. So ask your employer if they offer this benefit. The other benefit for contributing to your 401(k) plan is because most employers will offer a matching contribution. It’s like getting free money for your retirement. Again, consult with your Human Resource department if they offer this and how much they will match for your 401(k) contributions.

The annual maximum contribution limits for your Roth IRA plan if under age 50 = $5,000.

The annual maximum contribution limits for your Roth IRA plan if over age 50 = an additional $1,000 as a catch-up allowance. This means that if you are over age 50 then you’ll be able to contribute to your Roth IRA account to a maximum of $6,000.

Remember, that your contributions to a Roth IRA are after-tax dollars. So you pay your taxes first then the remainder is contributed to your Roth IRA account. The benefit of this is that you can withdraw your money at retirement without paying taxes because you have already paid your taxes initially.

One other retirement account that the Best IRA Rescue plan recommends is making contributions to the Roth IRA on Roids, aka as the Roth on Roids(tm). The Roth IRA on Roids offers you IRA tax-savings with benefits of a guaranteed death benefit, guaranteed principal, tax-free growth, and tax-free distributions from your policy loans. In addition to all these benefits, you can contribute an unlimited amount with no income level restrictions.

Read more informative articles on Roth IRA, the Best IRA plans available today and retirement financial planning at Roth IRA – Best IRA

Call us toll-free at 1(888) 938-5872 to find out more on the one of the best IRA plans avaiable.

Popular Roth IRA articles:
Can I Contribute to both a 401k, Roth IRA
How Much Can I Put in My Roth IRA
Using a Roth IRA as Your Emergency Fund
When do you pay taxes on a Roth IRA?
Can I Roll My 401k to Roth IRA?
When Can You Cash Out a Roth IRA?
Backstop Roth IRA
How Much Can I Contribute to a Roth IRA?

So, what’s next? Has your accountant or financial planner asked if you have given any thought to converting your traditional IRA to a Roth? In 2010, as it stands right now anyway, if you decide to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, the government is going to drop the limitations and they’re going to allow you to pay the income tax due over a two year period – that is, in 2011 and 2012. Now, let me ask you a question. Which is better? To pay the taxes when you buy the apple tree or when you pick the apples? The traditional IRA requires you to pay the taxes when you pick the apples. And so if you pick apples year after year, you’re going to pay taxes on every single apple that you decide to pick. That’s what the traditional IRA is about. You save the taxes when you buy the apple tree and you pay the taxes when you pick the apples. The exact opposite is true for a Roth IRA. You pay the income tax when you buy the apple tree, you nurture the apple tree and make it grow and finally, you can pick as many apples as you want without incurring an income tax.

Roth on Roids is better than the Roth IRA; however, there is one main similarity. You have to pay the taxes when you buy the apple tree (i.e. before you pick the apples). In other words, you don’t have to pay taxes when you pick the apples (i.e. after your already purchased the apple tree); in spite of that, with the Roth IRA there is no guarantee of a return and you’re going with the ups and downs of the stock market, the commodity market or the real estate market. With Roth on Roids, the principle is guaranteed; you will never lose your money because you’re guaranteed by an insurance company whose sole purpose is to roll the money tax free and then borrowing against it the cash builds up tax free. Likewise, when you go to a bank, you borrow money; it’s not a taxable transaction.

On conversions, the government is inducing you to pay the taxes now, to transfer the money into a Roth IRA. This conversion, over 18 trillion dollars has not been taxed in qualified retirement money. Approximately 9 trillion dollars is in individual retirement accounts, traditional IRAs. In 2010, you can withdraw the money, pay the tax, and put it in a Roth. The third choice is to take the money, pay the taxes and go into a Roth on Roids. No earned income, no age qualifications. The Roth on Roids still has a government intubation. It’s a government sponsored program.

With this being said, there is a word of caution. The government as of late has been buying banks and significant shares of the bankrupt General Motors and almost defunct Ford. In essence, they will be running the economy. They also seem to be haphazardly making and printing money without major forethought – a trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there. It’s this spontaneous change of mindset of the government that worries me. With such a significant asset class under their control (this includes the Roth IRA) they can easily and spontaneously change the rules and apply some new tax upon the IRA account or they can just as easily require a mandatory distribution. This is a possibility. Politicians change their minds everyday and, well, we’ll have to leave it just at that. Actually, I’m a little bit worried about that because I think they’re acting like they’re protecting themselves against us – the tax payers. However, that’s another discussion for another day.

Call us for more information about your own specific IRA conversion retirement planning. I believe you should strongly consider the Roth on Roids as part of your asset allocation strategy today. Call us today toll-free at (888) 938-5872 or (508) 429-0011 for your Best IRA Rescue Plan. We are open 7 days a week.

Now, if you have cash lying around, that’s even better. Did you lose money in 2008 and 2009 in the stock market? Did you lose money in real estate? And do you still have money left in treasury securities, or CDs, and what are you going to get out of that – 2 or 3%? Well, isn’t it better to put it to work in something that give you a guaranteed minimal return and the principle is guaranteed? Do you want to eventually get tax-free retirement income? Obviously, we all don’t have $100,000 cash lying around, but we do have equity in our homes which we can reposition, or other real estate such as commercial estate property. You may use the returns from the repositioning of your real estate for retirement income or for other reasons such as an emergency fund. Your money can grow at an average of 7% tax free and currently you can borrow at 4 to 5% so, financially, the numbers make a lot of sense.

Here is another example, if you are 45 years old and deposit $100,000, at 65, you will have $600,000 of tax free income. That’s a great asset allocation model.

Contact us toll-free (888) 938-5872 or (508) 429-0011 for your Best IRA Rescue plan today. We are open 7 days a week to take your calls and answer your questions for a free and private, initial consultation.

Now that Gold is nearing $1000 per ounce again there is renewed interest in IRA and retirement plan investing using a Gold IRA.  A question frequently asked is, “How do I set up a precious metals IRA?

Rolling over or transferring your Traditional IRA or Roth IRA into a self directed precious metals IRA can be a simple procedure.

First, apply for a self directed Gold IRA with the company you have selected to transfer or rollover your existing Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or 401(k) to. Reassign cash or securities to open the precious metals IRA. You may want to consult with a financial advisor specializing in Gold IRAs, who can help to advise and guide you, if you feel uneasy with this process.

Second, you will need to select a trustee, also with the guidance of your precious metals IRA advisor, and store the precious metals with a custodian. The custodian will charge a fee for this service. Most companies will refer you to a custodian and provide you with the proper paperwork.  It is really that simple.

It is important to understand that only specific coins and bars qualify to be held in a self directed Gold or Precious metals IRA:

-24 karat gold bars (with NYMEX or COMEX approved refiner hallmark)

-24 karat gold coins (22 karat US Gold Eagle coin is an exception)

-Silver coins or bars (.999+ only)

-Platinum or palladium bars or coins (.9995+ only)

Other important information to consider:

-Gold IRAs are not FDIC insured

-Your principle is at risk

-The cost of storage

Now that I have described to you, shared with you, how you can contribute to a Roth IRA on Roids with a guaranteed return on your contributions (read my post Roth IRA on Roids Improve Your IRA & Retirement Plan Investing). Your money never goes backwards. You’ll be able to take your money out tax free, there is a guaranteed return. I’m going to discuss with you how you are going to fund your Roth IRA on Roids using other people’s money.

I’m going to bring up Roccy DeFrancesco’s book – “Home Equity Management”. The book is very well written. Roccy is a very meticulous guy, I have a lot of respect for him. He wrote this book on how you can reposition your home equity. Let us look at your home equity for a moment. If you are in your home with a 95% mortgage, does your mortgage diminish the value’s home? Of course not, if your home is fully mortgaged it would not diminish the value. But, if you live in an area like California, with mud slides, or Florida with hurricanes and tornadoes and you own 100% of your home (i.e. not mortgaged) then whose problem would it be if your house slides down the hill or it goes under water? It would be your problem. On the other hand, if it’s heavily mortgaged, then it would not be your problem. It’d be an insurance problem and it’d be a mortgage company problem.

So what is the relation of your home equity with your Roth IRA on Roids? If you leverage your home equity and reposition it to fund your Roth IRA on Roids then essentially your money is sitting in your Roth IRA on Roids account and in investment opportunities and it’s safe. Real estate is the only leverageable asset class. Everybody understands that you buy real estate with 5% down, 10% down, depending on how well financed you are. It’s the only leverage that is recommended, people accept, people understand, the banks do it. So by repositioning your home equity in order for you to fund the Roth IRA on Roids, financially you are using other people’s money. And this could also be accomplished with commercial real estate. If you have equity in commercial real estate, refinancing it in order for you to reposition your assets definitely makes a lot of sense. At the end of the day, you still have the same assets. If you have equity in your home or commercial estate, that’s an asset. If you have equity in Roth on Roids, or other investment opportunities, together they are the same number. You’re just repositioning. You are relocating your assets. That’s all you’ve done.

So method number one from Roccy DeFransesco’s book, “Home Equity Management,” describes how to reposition your home equity for tax-free retirement. You can buy the book. I’m not trying to sell it, but it is an extraordinarily, well-documented book.

With a Roth IRA on Roids, you could contribute $5,000, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000 depending on how much money you have and how much you want to contribute and when you want to begin to withdraw your money.

It is powerful wealth building tool. When I heard about this from Roccy DeFrancesco, I was completely overwhelmed because I spent my lifetime looking for tax-advantaged products that are safe, legal, that you can use, with very little risk. You are not going to get this from your lawyer or your accountant. Your lawyer’s stock-in-trade is “possibly, maybe or I’ll look into it.” And even if he knows he’s not going to tell you because, traditionally, he works both sides of the fence.

Your accountant and lawyer would typically not look to at any type of these products because he could become an IRS target. Whenever there is a criminal investigation, his papers would be the first thing they go after, summonses. I work with accountants and I teach them and this is their usual stance on the matter. I teach lawyers and accountants for credits. They’re generally intimidated. For the price of preparing your income tax return, they’re not going to look at these types of wealth-building tools in the same way that I am trying to present to you and share with you. My wealth-building strategies are completely legal. You don’t have to hide your money, you don’t have to go offshore, you don’t have to provide a lot of documentation, and you don’t have to report your requirements to the feds.

With a Roth IRA on Roids, we need a couple of things. We need your age, how much money you want to put in, and when you want to start withdrawing from your IRA account. Based on that, we can give you your very own chart. Just give us a call at 508-429-0011 or call us toll-free for a free consultation at 1-888-938-5872.

How would you like to discover little known retirement wealth building tool that practically will pay for itself? You don’t have to go offshore to get tax free distributions for retirement, you don’t have to worry about tax free IRA distributions, and you don’t have to hide your money. It’s perfectly legal right here in the United States and your assets never leave the United States. The principle is guaranteed, you will never lose your money in the stock market, real estate market, commodity market, or any other market. There is a minimum return on your contribution, and if you die, your family will get a death benefit.

Introducing the “Roth on Roids”

So, exactly what is a Roth IRA on Roids? Well, it’s my own invention. I was listening to a seminar put together by Roccy DeFrancesco, who wrote a book called the Home Equity Management, and basically, the whole book is about repositioning your home equity so that you can buy a cash value life insurance, which in effect is a wealth building tool whereby there are no limits on how much you can contribute, you do not have to have a job or earned income, you do not have to have age limitations. It grows income-tax free, the principle is guaranteed. I was describing this to my son, and I was being very animated just like I found this great new tool. And as I’m going through it, I’m also telling him that the principle is guaranteed, you will never lose your money. You can’t do that with a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. His comeback to me was, “Well, gee Dad, that sounds like a Roth IRA on steroids.” Well. I liked the idea so much that I am attempting to get the trademark for Roth on Roids.

The way to describe what Roth on Roids is as follows. A very simplistic way to describe it. It is like a bank account that you would put into a traditional bank, like a Bank of America only with a life insurance company, there is a death benefit. So again, it is like a bank account with an insurance company that has a death benefit. That’s the simplistic approach.

It is guaranteed you will never lose your money. It has a guaranteed minimum return and a maximum return. It grows tax free, the longer you let it grow, the greater it grows. Unlike a bank account where you have an interest that you are going to pay income taxes on. Life insurance companies don’t pay income taxes. So, when you buy their products, there are no taxes due. There are taxes on the premium, but the growth has no tax. For example, if you wanted the absolute safest way to keep your money someplace, you go to a bank and get a safe deposit box. You can’t buy that kind of safety, because you can’t afford the price of the safe deposit box, and that type of security.

So, when you buy a Roth on Roids, it has cash value insurance for the sole purpose to accumulate the cash, not the death benefit. The death benefit is incidental because it has to have a component of it. But using the example that you are 45 years old, you contribute $20,000 a year for 5 years, $100,000 goes in, and you let it grow tax free. At 65, you begin to withdraw the money on the value of the policy, the cash value. If you die in year one after contributing the $20,000, you have a death benefit. The death benefit will be somewhere around $400,000-$500,000 depending on your specific health. If you die in year one, your family gets 4 or 5 hundred thousand as a death benefit. If you survive for 20 more years, you would get the benefit of 20 years of tax-free growth. In this case, you would borrow $30,000 a year over a twenty year period, that’s over $600,000 assuming a 30% tax bracket; in other words, you would have to gross earn at least $1,000,000 to receive that benefit.

Roth on Roids has no limits as to how much you can contribute. On the other hand, there is a limitation for the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA. Contributions for IRAs are $5,000 a year and $6,000 if you are over the age of 50. That’s not a lot of money.

If you were to ask your accountant, “What are the Roth IRA rules; Which is better, pay the taxes now, or pay the taxes later?” he’s going to tell you later. Accelerate the expenses, reduce the income coming in. Well, he’s not going to be wrong, but we are in the lowest possible tax rates in history of the United States. Sometimes it makes better sense to pay the taxes now. The quickest way is to answer this question: Which is better, to pay the taxes when you buy the apple tree, like with a Roth IRA, or when you pick the fruit, like with a traditional IRA? If you pay the taxes when you buy the apple tree, it’s going to be less than when you pick the fruit because you can nurture that apple tree to produce significant amounts of fruits, and every time you pick the fruit, it’s going to be tax free just as with a Roth IRA. So, your accountant is not wrong by saying defer, but sometimes it is significantly better to pay the taxes when you do buy the apple tree because the production of those apples is going to be significantly more. Thus, you are going to be saving a tremendous amount of taxes.

If you ask your lawyer, his stock in trade is always going to be “it depends, possibly, maybe.” The fact of the matter is that either he doesn’t know, or if he knows, he’s not going to tell you what’s better 401k or Roth IRA, or maybe he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know that these types of programs are available or what the Roth IRA contribution limits are. The accountant is not going to take his time to come up with these types of suggestions to you, because for the price of preparing an income tax return, he’s not going to do it. Your lawyer works both sides of the fence, and unless he can figure a way to make a fee, he is very unlikely to give you the answer as well.

I’m Rocco Beatrice, 508-429-0011. Call me with your particular situation and I will be happy to discuss it with you. If I can’t solve your problem, maybe there is no solution.

Thank you.

Hi, I’m Rocco Beatrice. I am the managing director for Estate Street Partners. I have many advanced degrees. I have a lot of knowledge. I hold a Master’s in taxation, a Master’s in Business Administration; I am a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Wealth Protection Planner, a Certified Asset Protection Planner, a Master Mortgage Broker. I hold all the credentials to value real estate and businesses.

For the past 38 years, I’ve been looking for products, advanced legal strategies, that you will be able to use to minimize your income taxes, be able to preserve your wealth, be able to protect your wealth against unscrupulous contingent fee lawyers and their predator clients. I look for ways to keep your assets away from bureaucrats who legislate continuously how to legally pick your pocket so that they’ll be able to stay in power for the next 30 years, how to put a chicken in every pot, how to buy votes. I can tell you the best way to look at Roth vs traditional IRA vs Roth on Roids.

I have worked with Fortune 100 companies. I have assisted them in creating and protecting their wealth. I am the state representative for the Asset Protection Society; I’m the state rep for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. I’m a facilitator. I will bring to the table, individuals that can solve your problems. I bring to the table a defense attorney, an asset protection attorney, a health care attorney, a conflict management attorney and other professional individuals that need to be at the table to solve your problem with their report.