Like many people, you may spend decades putting money into your IRA and your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan. But eventually you will want to take this money out – if you must start withdrawing some of it. How can you make the best use of these funds?
To begin with, here’s some background: When you turn 70 ½, you need to start withdrawals – called required minimum distributions, or RMDs – from your traditional IRA and your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 457(b) or 403(b). (A Roth IRA is not subject to these rules; you can essentially keep your account intact for as long as you like.) You can take more than the RMD, but if you don’t take at least the minimum (which is based on your account balance and your life expectancy), you’ll generally be taxed at 50% of the amount you should have taken – so don’t forget these withdrawals.
Here, then, is the question: What should you do with the RMDs? If you need the entire amount to help support your lifestyle, there’s no issue – you take the money and use it. But what if you don’t need it all? Keeping in mind that the withdrawals are generally fully taxable at your personal income tax rate, are there some particularly smart ways in which you can use the money to help your family or, possibly, a charitable organization?
Here are a few suggestions:
• Help your grown children with their retirement accounts. Your grown children may not always be able to afford to “max out” on their IRAs. You might want to help them with any excess funds from your own retirement accounts. You can give $15,000 per year, per recipient, without incurring any gift taxes – an amount far higher than the current annual IRA contribution limit of $6,000 (or $7,000 for individuals 50 or older).
• Help your grandchildren pay for college. You might want to contribute to an investment specifically designed to build assets for college. A financial professional can help you choose which investments might be most appropriate. Of course, if your grandchildren are already in college, you are free to simply write a check to the school to help cover tuition and other expenses.
• Help support a charitable org-anization. Due to recent changes in tax laws, many individuals now claim a standard deduction, rather than itemizing. As a result, there’s less of an incentive, from a tax standpoint, for people to contribute to charitable organizations.
But if you’d still like to support a charitable group and gain potential tax benefits, you might want to consider moving some, or all, of your required distributions from your IRA to a charity. You can transfer up to $100,000 from your IRA in this type of qualified charitable distribution, thus meeting your RMD requirements without adding to your taxable income. Furthermore, this move might keep you in a lower tax bracket. (Before making this transfer, though, you will need to consult with your tax advisor.)
Your RMDs can contribute greatly to your retirement income, but, as we’ve seen, they can do even more than that – so use them wisely.
We’ve still got a couple of months until 2019 draws to a close, but it’s not too early to make some end-of-the-year financial moves. In fact, it may be a good idea to take some of these steps sooner rather than later.
Here are a few suggestions:
• Boost your 401(k) contributions. Like many people, you might not usually contribute the maximum amount to your 401(k), which, in 2019 is $19,000, or $25,000 if you’re 50 or older. Ask your employer if you can increase your 401(k) contributions in 2019, and if you receive a bonus before the year ends, you may be able to use that toward your 401(k), too.
• Add to your IRA. You have until April 15, 2020, to contribute to your IRA for the 2019 tax year, but the more you can put in now and over the next few months, the less you’ll have to come up with in a hurry at the filing deadline. For 2019, you can put up to $6,000 in your IRA, or $7,000 if you’re 50 or older.
• Review your portfolio. It’s always a good idea to review your investment portfolio at least once a year, and now is as good a time as any. But don’t make any judgments based solely on your results over the past 10 months. Instead, look carefully at how your portfolio is constructed. Is it still properly diversified, or has it become overweighted in some areas? Does it still fit your risk tolerance, or do you find yourself worrying excessively about short-term price swings? These are the types of factors that might lead you to make some changes, possibly with the help of a financial professional.
• Don’t forget about your RMDs. Once you turn 70½, you generally need to start taking withdrawals – the technical term is “required minimum distributions,” or RMDs – from your traditional IRA and your 401(k) or similar plan. After the first year in which you take these RMDs, you must take them by the end of each year thereafter. If you don’t withdraw at least the minimum amount (calculated based on your age, account balance and other factors) you face a penalty of 50% of what you should have taken out – a potential loss of thousands of dollars. So, take your RMDs before Dec. 31. The financial services provider that administers your IRA or 401(k) can help you determine the amount you must withdraw.
• Think about next year’s opportunities. It happens to almost all of us: A year has passed, and we haven’t taken the actions we had planned. So, start thinking now about what you want to do in 2020 from a financial standpoint. Can you afford to ratchet up your investments in your retirement plans? If you have children or grandchildren, have you started saving for college? Have you considered ways to protect your financial independence if you ever need some type of long-term care, such as an extended nursing home stay? If these or other items are on your financial to-do list, start planning now to get them done next year.
