What are your 2014 money resolutions?

[dczech09]

Could you explain why 5 years is relevant? Thanks.

You cannot withdraw any earnings from your Roth 401k until 5 years after the year of the first contribution. This is regardless if you reach age 59 1/2 or not. This is assuming it is a Roth 401k that is in question.

If it is a Roth IRA, the you cannot withdraw any earnings until 5 years after the year of the first contribution being attributable.

The 5 year rules only apply in order to waive the 10% early withdraw penalty. Waiving taxes requires being at least 59 1/2, death/disability, or down-payment on a first home (limited to $10k).

Your Roth contributions can be withdrawn at any time. It is your money and you already paid your taxes on it.

[feh]

You cannot withdraw any earnings from your Roth 401k until 5 years after the year of the first contribution. This is regardless if you reach age 59 1/2 or not. This is assuming it is a Roth 401k that is in question.

If it is a Roth IRA, the you cannot withdraw any earnings until 5 years after the year of the first contribution being attributable.

The 5 year rules only apply in order to waive the 10% early withdraw penalty. Waiving taxes requires being at least 59 1/2, death/disability, or down-payment on a first home (limited to $10k).

Your Roth contributions can be withdrawn at any time. It is your money and you already paid your taxes on it.

Thanks. So, I could withdraw gains after 5 years and before 59.5, but I'd have to pay taxes on them.

[disneysteve]

That's the downside - I can't access the gains until I'm 59.5.

I guess the question is really if you anticipate needing not just the contributions but also any earnings to make ends meet before you turn 59.5. How old will you be when you retire? If you are retiring that early (it sounds like you'll be less than 54) hopefully you have a good solid plan in place to cover expenses for the years until you can tap your retirement accounts.

[bjl584]

Pretty much the same as last year for me. All of the major pieces are in place so to speak. I may do some tweaking to some of the smaller issues.

[MonkeyMama]

@feh - are you expecting to have any taxable income in early retirement? I am contrary as I Would probably not deal with the ROTH red tape for such a short period of time. If in a low-tax situation anyway, long term capital gains are tax-free. (Which means the ROTH would just complicate things for a very small benefit - maybe no benefit whatsoever).

Of course, if you have some extra money come along, take advantage of ROTH space for the long run.

[feh]

I guess the question is really if you anticipate needing not just the contributions but also any earnings to make ends meet before you turn 59.5. How old will you be when you retire? If you are retiring that early (it sounds like you'll be less than 54) hopefully you have a good solid plan in place to cover expenses for the years until you can tap your retirement accounts.

We certainly shouldn't need gains. We're not talking about much money here - between me and my wife we can only contribute $10K per year.

I'll be 50 in 3 years. I feel we do have a good plan; if the market implodes, we always have the option of going back to work.

[feh]

@feh - are you expecting to have any taxable income in early retirement? I am contrary as I Would probably not deal with the ROTH red tape for such a short period of time. If in a low-tax situation anyway, long term capital gains are tax-free. (Which means the ROTH would just complicate things for a very small benefit - maybe no benefit whatsoever).

Of course, if you have some extra money come along, take advantage of ROTH space for the long run.

The plan is to live off of capital gains in ER, and given our expenses, we will probably be in the tax bracket for 0% cap gains. Our tax exposure should be extremely small.

It's hard to determine what is "extra" money, since there's no way to know how our taxable accounts will perform over the next 5-10 years. That's one of the reasons I'm being conservative and throwing every spare dime at our taxable accounts, as that will be our source of living expenses for 10 years.

[llckll]

Beginning year 1 out of 9 years to become debt free. Approx. $400k of debt. =$

[dojo]

1. earn a set revenue from my business (at least as much as I did in 2013).
2. save as much as we can, there are lots of things we need to pay for (upcoming birth of our daughter, baptism, a vacation we already booked for, plus everything else we didn't plan for).
3. keep costs down in the 'areas' that are not important to us. We do need to handle the groceries budget better, even if we do use only fresh/good quality meats and produce. We don't eat out, so there's a lot we're saving by cooking at home.

[jpham540]

1) Max my 401k and Roth IRA.
2) Fund my taxable account in vanguard index fund and buy some individual stock.
3) Add about $10,000 to my lending club account.
4) Also start blogging just recently created one and hoping to learn more about it.

[Like2Plan]

We're going to frontload DH's 401K by putting the majority of his pay into his 401K for the first few months of the year--I figure this will be a good "financial stress test" for retirement. We will be living off slightly less than what we expect to have for income after he is retired. (We'll see how it goes).

Next, I am going to work on a transition to retirement plan for DH. Retire tomorrow, in one year, two years or longer? (Some days, I think it will be tomorrow. )

[HalfDozenDaily]

I'd be thrilled to bits to add another $5K to our TFSA again this year. I know this is not a lot to some, but to use its a huge chunk of change that I need to keep a very strict budget in order to save.

I also save around $1200 for Christmas and some "mad money" for hubby & I to split in the summer.

[Joe Moore]

I want to create some income from my savings. I have been making the wrong investments like investing on land and staff that doesn't return any income. It may turn out great in the future but it doesn't take any load off my back right now. That is what I need. So, that I can work with less stress. Also, need to pay back some debt to reduce monthly costs.

[keviny182]

-Put more money into my IRA
-Become more knowledge about the stock market and thus investing more savings into stocks/mutual funds.
-Be generally better at putting away money for a rainy day

[Nika]

Max out both ROTHes.
Max out DH's 401K (I don't have one, I have pension plan).
Max out son's ESA
pay off remaining 6K on our car.
Take one month long vacation, and 2 small ones.