Comments on: Spousal IRA For Stay At Home Moms

By: Retirement Savings Options: 401(k) Matched, Roth IRA Maxed, Now What? | Frugal Dad

Wed, 13 May 2009 10:02:11 +0000

[...] to a Roth IRA won’t help with your taxes in the year they are made, but earnings grow tax free over the [...]

By: Six Secrets to Saving Money When You Are Young | Frugal Dad

Six Secrets to Saving Money When You Are Young | Frugal Dad — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:45:52 +0000

[...] or I would continue running on this financial hamster wheel for the rest of my life. I halted my Roth IRA contributions, temporarily, and dropped back on my 401(k) contributions. I also suspended my [...]

By: Is Cash Still King? | Frugal Dad

Is Cash Still King? | Frugal Dad — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:00:37 +0000

[...] various types of mutual funds and am comfortable making investment elections for both my 401k and Roth IRA. However, as I begin to dabble with savings outside of retirement plans, I can’t help but [...]

By: Do Personal Finance Magazines Appeal to the Average Reader? | Frugal Dad

Do Personal Finance Magazines Appeal to the Average Reader? | Frugal Dad — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:00:12 +0000

[...] survive real world financial situations. Sure, I occasionally toss in a more technical article on spousal IRAs, or setting up subaccounts at ING, but for the most part I try to share my common sense approach to [...]

By: Roth IRA

Roth IRA — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:00:22 +0000

Thanks for the informative post. I am sure this option is often overlooked as an effective avenue to save for retirement.

By: Peter T

Peter T — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:07:53 +0000

The IRA maximum contribution per year is the sum of the contributions to your Roth and Traditional IRAs, I believe. Once you have maxed out your Roth IRA, you cannot contribute to another IRA. It doesn’t concern me personally, because I save for retirement through a 401k, which is separate from IRAs, and use our Roths as emergency funds and tax diversification. People without 401k, however, should carefully plan their retirement savings. Another advantage of a Roth: The maximum annual contribution is the same as for a Traditional IRA, but that money is already taxed, so the 5000 dollars on a Roth are effectively more worth to you than 5000 dollars on a Traditional IRA.

By: MInTheGap

MInTheGap — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:55:10 +0000

I guess I’m not clear on the advantages of having a spousal Roth IRA. Not that I don’t understand the concept of the Roth IRA– I had one myself.

Is the benefit simply that you can sock more money away so that this would be an “advanced” retirement step?

Is it something that you consider when you don’t have access to a 401K plan and you’re trying to maximize retirement?

I’ve got up to 20% 401K at my work, and I’m only contributing 1%– planning to bring it up. What’s the benefit to me of having a Roth for my spouse as well?

By: Big Game

Big Game — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:49:19 +0000

My wife and I opened a Roth for her and I don’t even think there was a distinction made whether or not it was ’spousal’ Anyway, a great investment vehicle. Even better is a self directed IRA with which you buy real estate and all gains stay under the IRA umbrella. I can’t wait to start utilizing that vehicle.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:41:49 +0000

It takes a little more time and commitment, but I fund my wife’s Roth IRA over the course of the year. I don’t use automatic investments though. I split up the contributions into 5-6 investments. Since I put the money into index funds or other mutual funds heavily weighted to equities, I wait to contribute on the days that the stock market is down big. On those given days, I wire the money from my account and buy the mutual fund. Mutual funds will execute at the NAV at the end of the day. In this manner, we take advantage of the swings in the market and get extra returns that we would not normally get by just doing an automatic account builder…

By: Marci

Marci — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:36:27 +0000

Insight into the older 2nd marriages and separate finances…… Sometimes it’s because of the kids… things just tend to go smoother within the family when you are working with 2 separate sets of grown kids and grandkids if you keep things separate. Hubby’s kids get his stuff and wife’s kids get her stuff at death… having joint accounts for the everyday stuff that both contribute to works for the living expenses. Just tends to keep harmony in the family better. And if the family is happy, then the couple can be happier And no one gets accused of being a gold digger.

Each situation is different, of course.