Comments on: PFCollege: Start Thinking About Roth IRAs

By: sophomore

sophomore — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 08:26:56 +0000

The question always on my mind is why save for retirement when you can focus on saving for a house? Sorry, newbie about personal finance in general. Why is it good to save tax-deducted income? Why not just put it in some bond?

By: G

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:55:04 +0000

If you are sued, can someone go after your retirement accounts, like a roth ira?

By: saving money

saving money — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:45:07 +0000

So if you had an income of $2,000…

While I’m sure most personal finance people know this, I just wanted to make clear to students that the money that you earn must be “earned income” – if you receive your income from interest from stocks or other sources that are deemed “unearned income” by the irs, you can’t place that amount into a roth ira.

By: fivecentnickel.com

fivecentnickel.com — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:40:38 +0000

Weekly Roundup – 09/29/06

Here’s a quick look at some articles that caught my eye over the past week.
Flexo is wondering aloud what he should do with his side income… I say put in all on black. No, wait… Red. He’s also linked up an interesting article o…

By: jim

jim — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:20:08 +0000

Kamry – It depends on the rates of the loans and whether they’re fixed or variable. If your loans are fixed rate loans and the the rates are low (low being defined as close to or lower than the rates of online savings accounts, so around 5.25%), I would recommend making the minimum payments and saving for retirement. If they are variable, I recommend consolidating them into a fixed rate loan if you can. If the rates are high, I would try to strike a balance between the two because most college graduates will be able to write off all or part of their student loan interest on their taxes (this phases out at around 65k/yr income I believe) so you can afford to not pay a little. I know it’s not a clear cut answer but that’s all I have.

By: twins15

twins15 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:45:04 +0000

Great advice! I’m in college right now, but have already put some money into a Roth, and now put a little bit in each month. I can’t afford much obviously at this point, but I figure anything is better than nothing.

By: Kamry Bowman

Kamry Bowman — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 04:20:31 +0000

For college students going into debt for college, does it make more sense to put as much money towards paying down the loans, rather than beginning retirement savings?

By: JSH

JSH — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:14:49 +0000

The income restrictions on Roth IRAs are another argument for starting early on a Roth IRA. Depending on your career choice and geographic location, the number of years you can contribute to your Roth may be limited.

By: Steve Mertz

Steve Mertz — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 01:38:59 +0000

Dear Jim-This is an excellent idea…So good that I was wondering if you might give me a small loan to fund my Roth. Seriously, Great idea and great advice-pay the taxes now and let this bad boy grow tax free!