One of the hottest vehicles in retirement planning continues to be the humble IRA. Fidelity Investments came out with a study last week showing that the average IRA had more than $81,000 in it at the end of the last tax year, up from just $52,900 in 2008. That's an increase of 53 percent in just four years.
Of course, a lot of that is the result of the bull market we've experienced over the past four years. But people are also putting more away into their IRAs. Account holders contributed an average of $3,920 to their IRAs last year, an increase of 7.5 percent since 2008.
Within the world of IRAs, the Roth is an increasingly popular option. Fidelity reported that in 2012, conversions from traditional IRAs to Roths were up 11 percent from the year earlier. Remember, a regular IRA is funded with tax-free dollars but is taxable
upon withdrawal, while money that goes into a Roth is taxable, but can be withdrawn tax-free.
No comments:
Post a Comment