About Letting Adult Children Stay Home
Dear Liz: I didn’t think your advice was very good to the parent who asked about retirement planning for a 25-year-old son who was living at home. You got on your high horse about how the parent should charge him rent because he has to learn responsibility sometime. I took the opposite approach with my kids and told them they were welcome to stay with me as long as they liked, provided they were saving money for a down payment on a house. I also advised them to put 20% of their incomes into retirement accounts because it’s important to start saving when you’re young and not saddled with expenses. Once they saved up their down payments, they moved out and bought their own houses. It really didn’t cost me anything to have them live with me and I got to spend more time with them, which is important too. Too many other old folks complain that their grown kids never visit, but I wonder whether they ever did any favors for their kids when they were younger.
A: A parent’s freehandedness about money doesn’t necessarily ensure gratitude, but your approach is certainly reasonable. You set clear financial terms for your adult children, and they rose to the occasion. Yet another approach might be charging rent, then returning the payments as a gift toward the child’s down payment on a first home.
What you don’t want to have is an adult child who’s not paying rent, not saving for the future and spending his money on whatever he pleases. That kind of prolonged adolescence does no one good.
What to Do with 401(k) from Old Job?
Q I am 30 years old and have saved $65,000 in my former employer’s 401(k).  I recently switched jobs and am trying to decide where to put this money. I don’t want to roll it over into the new employer’s plan because the investment choices are not as good.  Can I roll it over into an IRA?  Why would I want to do this rather than just leave it with the former employer?
A: First, congratulations on not touching your 401(k) when you left your old employer! More than half of young workers cash out their retirement funds when they change jobs, according to Hewitt Associates research, and the damage to their future retirement security can be severe. Not only do they incur big tax and penalty bills for the early withdrawals, but they lose all the future tax-deferred returns their money could have earned.
If you want more investment choices than your former employer’s plan provides, you might consider rolling the old 401(k) into an IRA. The brokerage where you open the IRA can help handle the details. Another reason people opt for rollovers is for simplification purposes: they may have a number of 401(k) accounts with different employers, and want to consolidate their money in one place. Consolidation makes tracking your money easier and can help you reduce administrative or custodial fees, as well.
Using an IRA rather than a 401(k) has a significant drawback, however: your retirement money may not be as protected if you’re sued or you file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy reform package just approved by Congress limits the amount in an IRA that can be protected from creditors to $1 million. If you think you’ll save more than that–and given what you’ve accomplished so far, there’s a pretty good chance you will–you might consider leaving your money in a 401(k), which is protected by federal retirement law from creditors.
How To Catch Up on Retirement Prep
Q: I am a 60-year-old computer programmer who has endured some bumpy years.I have no cash in the bank and no money in retirement funds, which were cashed out along the way. What I do have is debt: credit cards, a mortgage and a small auto payment.
I recently landed a job after a period of unemployment that allows me to start seriously paying off the credit cards, but there is no retirement plan.
I know you have good advice about putting pennies away and over 30 years or so they will become big bucks, but I don’t think I will have 30 years. And so my question is: Is it too late for me?
Â
Â
A: If your dream is to buy a fancy yacht and sail the world, then, yes, it’s probably too late for you to build a retirement nest egg that would support that lifestyle.
If your dream is simply to retire someday, then it may not be too late, as long as you’re willing to make difficult choices.
As a guidebook, pick up a copy of “Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (Penguin Books, 1999). This book describes the strategies and lifestyles of people who radically altered their ideas about how much money they need to live. Many retired in their 50s, 40s or even younger or at least switched to part-time work they enjoyed.
These are not folks who drive luxury cars or ski Aspen in the high season. Most lead extraordinarily frugal lives. But they’ve unchained themselves from the work-spend cycle that keeps many people stressed and in debt.
You actually have an advantage that younger advocates of this “financial independence” movement lack: You soon will have a guaranteed source of income. The annual statement you should be getting each year from the Social Security Administration will show how much you can expect to get each month if you retire at 62, 65 or 70.
If you can ratchet your expenses down to the smallest amount shown (the benefit at age 62), then conceivably you could retire in two years. More likely, you wouldn’t want to live on quite that little, and will want a few more working years to pay off your debts, build up your funds and increase your future Social Security benefits.
To get to your goal, you will probably need to make drastic changes in how much you spend now as well as in retirement. You may need to move to a cheaper area (again, now or in retirement), and you may have to watch your pennies for as long as you live.
That may sound grim, but lots of people live on small, fixed incomes in retirement and still manage to have happy lives.
As Ralph Warner explains in his book “Get a Life: You Don’t Need a Million to Retire Well” (Nolo Press, 2005), money is only part of the retirement equation: Good health, good relationships and absorbing interests matter too.
What’s the IRA contribution limit?
Q: You recently wrote that the maximum that could be contributed to an IRA was $4,000. I thought the limit was $3,000, or $3,500 if you are 50 or older. When did the limit change?
A: On Jan. 1. The contribution limit for people under 50 rose to $4,000 this year; people 50 and older may make an additional “catch-up” contribution of $500, for a total of $4,500.
The $4,000 limit is scheduled to remain in effect until 2008, when it will rise to $5,000 annually. The catch-up amount, however, will rise to $1,000 next year. That means in 2006 and 2007, people 50 and older will be able to contribute a total of $5,000 a year.
When the regular limit rises again in 2008, people under 50 will be able to contribute a maximum of $5,000, while those 50 and older can contribute $6,000 annually.
You have until April 15, by the way, to make an IRA contribution for the previous tax year. But you can contribute only the previous year’s limit. So if you’re funding a 2004 IRA, you’re limited to $3,000 (or $3,500 if you’re 50 or older).
Simple it isn’t. But for those who can afford to contribute more, the rising limits offer a great opportunity to put away more tax-deferred dough.
Minimizing Taxes on Unexpected Income
Q: I recently received compensation for serving as executor for a deceased neighbor’s estate. The amount was just under $10,000. I am 72, single, with few assets. What is the best way to invest this money so I don’t wind up paying a chunk in taxes?
In the retirement community where I live, this is a common question, because many residents serve as executors for their neighbors, and all have very modest income.
A: The income you receive as an executor or personal representative is taxable as income in the year you receive it, and there’s not much you can do about that. What you’re probably asking is how to minimize future taxes on any gains this money might generate.
One of the easiest choices, if you really don’t want to pay any taxes, is to simply invest in a tax-free money market account. These accounts typically invest in insured municipal bonds with little risk of loss, and your money is accessible whenever you need it.
What you probably don’t want to do is invest in an annuity. These are often pushed on seniors who want tax deferral, but annuities usually come with relatively high expenses and surrender charges that could seriously eat into your stash if you needed to withdraw money.
Before you do anything, though, you might want to have a chat with a tax professional about the implications of your investment. You may be overestimating how much this money will cost you. If you’re in the 15% tax bracket, for example, you may be better off in a taxable money market account that earns a higher return. Currently, taxable money market accounts are averaging better than 2%, while tax-free money markets average less than 1%.
Many seniors get in trouble with inappropriate investments in trying to avoid a tax bite that’s really little more than a nibble.
