Is your retirement money in a Traditional or Roth plan?

@reinydawn (11643)
United States
October 2, 2008 7:54am CST
I think most people have their retirement plans in Traditional accounts, but there are quite a few that have converted theirs to a Roth or opened a Roth account. Right now I think the best way to go is a Traditional account. With a Traditional account, you don't pay taxes on the contributions that you make, they're deducted from your earnings before your tax is figured. But, when you take the money out - at retirement, when you're usually in a lower tax bracket - you pay the tax on it then, when you withdraw it. With this type of account, you will also pay the tax on what your money earns. With a Roth account, you pay the tax on the funds now, you don't get the tax break today. But, when you take the money out at retirement, you don't pay tax on it. When the market was good and people were getting a lot of gains on their accounts this was very appealing because it meant that you didn't have to pay tax on what your money earned. But now with everyone losing money this type of plan really doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, the IRS only allows you to move your money from one type to the other a limited amount of times. You can have both accounts at the same time and I think that's what people are doing now and putting the money in the account that will benefit them the best at the time. So, which type of retirement account do you have?
1 person likes this
2 responses
• United States
6 Oct 08
I have a Roth IRA. I think it makes more sense for me because I am only in my early thirties and I don't earn a large salary. I am not in a high tax bracket and sicne I have a long time to build up the account, I could, concieveably, have a large amount by the time I am ready to withdraw from it, so I would rather pay the taxes now.
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@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
6 Oct 08
Yes, you do have a few years to let it build up. I hope you haven't invested too much in stocks for now though since those losses aren't something that will help you out. I'm hoping things will improve for us all very soon!
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
8 Oct 08
I've got about 15 years or so to be able to start drawning from it, so I have a bit less time to make up my losses. I just cringe when I see the statements :-(
• United States
7 Oct 08
I hope you are right about this all turning around. When I put money in the IRA, I generally just put it out of my mind and don't count it among my assets on a day to day basis. Keeps me from obsessing about the stock market, especially at times like this. I have 30+ years for the account to recover from the recent losses, so I'm not too worried at the moment.
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@bubblyapple (2653)
• Philippines
3 Oct 08
I have heard these two terms, traditional and roth. What's the difference?
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
3 Oct 08
Did you only read the topic or did you read the content of my discussion and not understand after I explained the difference between the two? If you didn't understand after you read the discussion I can try to explain it to you again. If you didn't read the discussion and only read the topic, try reading the whole thing before you reply.
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