Retirement Planning
401(k), IRA, Roth accounts, pension plans, withdrawal strategies, required minimum distributions, and how much you need to retire.
Latest in Retirement Planning
Teenagers with summer jobs can open Roth IRAs and contribute up to $7,500 of their wages
A teenager earning summer wages at a pool, restaurant, or camp this year can funnel up to $7,500 into a Roth IRA for tax year...
Leftover 529 college savings can move into your child’s Roth IRA tax-free — up to $35,000 over a lifetime
Families with unused 529 college-savings balances gained a new option to move those funds, tax-free, into a Roth IRA for the account’s beneficiary. The provision,...
Workers are saving a record 9.6% of pay into their 401(k)s — even as the average balance fell 4% to $141,000
American workers pushed their average 401(k) contribution rate to a record 9.6 percent of pay, even as market turbulence dragged the typical account balance down...
IRA contributions jumped 29% to a record last quarter, with two-thirds of the money going into Roths
Americans poured money into individual retirement accounts at a record pace during the first quarter of 2026, with contributions climbing 29 percent year over year....
Required minimum withdrawals start at age 73, and skipping one can trigger a penalty of up to 25%
Retirees who turned 73 in 2025 or later face a steep federal penalty if they fail to pull money from traditional IRAs and workplace retirement...
Workers aged 60 to 63 can put an extra $11,250 into a 401(k) this year through the super catch-up
Workers who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 this year can stash up to $11,250 in additional catch-up contributions into their 401(k) plans, a provision...
SECURE Act 2.0 forces most non-spouse heirs to drain inherited IRAs within 10 years — but spouses, minor children, and disabled beneficiaries can still stretch withdrawals
A 52-year-old marketing director in Dallas inherits her late father’s $600,000 traditional IRA. Under rules that would have applied a decade ago, she could have...
Treasury Hunt at TreasuryDirect finds forgotten paper savings bonds by Social Security number for free — every Series H and HH bond in America stopped earning interest in August 2024
A retired teacher in Ohio discovers $12,000 in forgotten Series HH bonds while cleaning out her late mother’s safe deposit box. A son in Texas...
Roth IRA contributions can be pulled out tax-free and penalty-free at any age — only the investment gains have an age-59½ and five-year rule attached
When a young professional who has been funding a Roth IRA since landing her first salaried position needs $15,000 for a down payment, she can...
If you haven’t rebalanced your 401(k) since 2022, the stock-and-bond mix that felt safe then is wildly different now — most plans rebalance with two clicks
Picture the 401(k) allocation you chose sometime in 2022. Maybe it was 60% stocks and 40% bonds, a textbook moderate mix. You picked it during...
A self-employed worker can stash up to $70,000 a year in a solo 401(k) — the same retirement vehicle big-company employees use, with no employer match required
When Sarah Chen left her UX design job at a Houston agency in 2023 to freelance full-time, she kept contributing to a Roth IRA. At...
If your 401(k) holds your own company’s stock, the usual rollover can overtax it — a special “NUA” move taxes the gains at lower capital-gains rates
Imagine spending 25 years at a company whose stock price tripled during your career. Your 401(k) now holds $300,000 in employer shares, but the plan...
Some 401(k)s let you stash up to about $70,000 a year and convert it to a Roth — a “mega backdoor” move most plans allow but few employees use
A 45-year-old software engineer in Seattle maxes out her 401(k) every year, funds a backdoor Roth IRA, and still has money left over to invest....
Leave your job at 55 or later and you can tap that 401(k) penalty-free — but roll it into an IRA first and you lose the break for good
Picture this: a 56-year-old worker clears out her desk for the last time, knowing her 401(k) holds $400,000 and she needs $30,000 to bridge the...
Earning too much to fund a Roth IRA doesn’t actually lock you out — a “backdoor” contribution is legal and most high earners don’t use it
Every April, high-earning Americans file their taxes, glance at the Roth IRA section, and skip it. They assume their income disqualifies them. For 2025, the...
A 1% fee on your 401(k) can quietly cost six figures over a career — yet most savers have never checked their funds’ expense ratios
Somewhere inside your 401(k) account, a number you have probably never looked at is shaving money off your retirement balance every single day. It is...
After 70½ you can send up to about $108,000 a year from your IRA straight to charity — tax-free, and it counts toward your required withdrawal
A 74-year-old retiree who owes $45,000 in required minimum distributions this year has two choices: pull the money out, add it to taxable income, and...
Old 401(k)s from past jobs often sit in high-fee default funds — rolling them into a low-cost IRA can save tens of thousands over time
Somewhere in the records of a former employer’s retirement plan, $30,000 is quietly losing a race against fees. If that balance sits in a default...
The beneficiary form on your 401(k) and IRA overrides your will — an outdated one can send your savings to an ex instead of your family
In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court settled a case that still catches divorcing Americans off guard. A DuPont employee had split from his wife, and...
The federal pension agency is holding unclaimed benefits from shut-down plans — search by your name and the last four of your Social Security number
More than 80,000 people have retirement money sitting in a federal database, and most of them probably have no idea. That figure comes from the...