Buy Bonds For The Yield
A bond is a loan to the government, a corporation, or a municipality. The borrower agrees to pay you interest for a set amount of time and return the amount you loaned them . The interest income you receive from a bond or bond fund can be a steady source of retirement income if you plan their maturities right.
Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, Moody’s, and Fitch Ratings are companies that rate bonds. Bonds are given quality ratings, which give you an idea of the issuer’s ability to pay the yields and give back your principal.
There are short-term, mid-term, and long-term bonds. Bonds have different rates some have adjustable interest rates , and others have fixed rates.
High-yield bonds pay higher coupon rates but have lower quality ratings. Low-yield have higher quality ratings because they tend to have lower risks. Each can be used differently in a retirement plan.
For retirement, individual bonds can be used to form a bond ladder. This strategy uses the maturity dates of bonds to match your financial needs at any given time. This investment structure is often referred to as asset-liability matching or time-segmentation.
In this strategy, the intent is to hold the bonds until maturity. If you plan to retire in May of 2040, for example, and need your first payment, you will begin by purchasing a $1,000 bond that matures in May 2040. Next, you’d buy one that matures in June, then August, and so on.
Reassess Your Risk Tolerance
Theres a common belief of investing that says, if you want safety and security, you have to sacrifice good returns.
This belief can be very costly especially if youre close to retirement.
If you want your portfolio to grow, you want to hold both stocks and bonds.
Morningstar reported that, Since World War II the S& P 500 stock index has returned 11.1 percent, which is 7 percentage points more than the CPI. Even if future returns dont match those gains, equities are still likely to outperform other assets over the long term.
According to Morningstars Head of Retirement Research, David Blanchett, A 50-50 stock and bond mix, which gives you growth and income, is a good starting point for retirees.
Other advice, especially given to older investors, is to build up cash savings so, if the market takes a dip, you have cash on hand and can avoid tapping into your depleted investment portfolio.
The downside to cash is that most money market accounts pay little to no interest.
So, if youre cash rich, you risk losing value due to inflation.
While its important to reallocate your investments per your tolerance to risk, if you are too cautious, you risk coming up short when you retire because you arent able to maximize growth.
Contribute To An Ira And Solo 401k Plan
QUESTION 1: Can I make both solo 401k and Traditional IRA contributions for the same year?
ANSWER: Yes you can contribute to both your solo 401k plan and your IRA in the same year. However, the IRA contributions may not be fully tax deductible since you are also contributing to a solo 401k plan. It comes down to your modified AGI which means you may be able to deduct some of your IRA contribution. for the AGI chart.
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The Popularityand Costof Convenience
According to a recent Vanguard study, 77% of retirement plan participants were using at least one target-date fund. Age-based options are popular for several reasons. First, its a turnkey solution for investors who arent comfortable creating their own asset allocation. The fund manages all the rebalancing, so the investor can be hands-off.
Another reason for the rise in target-date funds isnt about choice at all. Age-based funds are commonly the default investment option in 401 plans. Many busy executives never get around to considering a change.
Convenience doesnt come without a cost, however. Morningstar reports that although costs have been declining, the average expense ratio for a target-date mutual fund is .62%. The expense ratio on an investment is essentially the price you pay the fund company to invest in that particular product. These costs eat into your return, so its an important factor when picking investments.
Do You Have A Pension Or Other Income
Target-date funds arent intended to account for your entire financial picture. If you have a sizable pension or other sources of income in retirement, consider factoring that in. In some situations, it may make sense to consider a pension as part of your fixed income allocation. Otherwise, you might be invested more conservatively than youd like.
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How To Invest Your 401
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Nothing is more central to your retirement plan than your 401. It represents the largest chunk of most retirement nest eggs.
Finding the money to save in the account is just step one. Step two is investing it, and thats one place where people get tripped up: According to a 2014 Charles Schwab survey, more than half of 401 plan owners wish it were easier to choose the right investments.
Heres what you need to know about investing your 401.
Understand What A 401 Is
While you sign up for your 401 through the company you work for, it is typically managed by a separate financial firm, such as Vanguard, Fidelity, Principal, Schwab, etc. This is the company you will receive important information and disclosures from about your account and investments.
If you leave your employer, in most cases your account will remain at the financial firm that originally managed it, unless you roll it over to a new company .
You can begin withdrawing money penalty-free at 59 ½ in most cases. If you withdraw money before that age, you will be hit with a 10% early withdrawal penalty and pay income taxes on the distributions. You can also take a 401 loan, which needs to be repaid, including interest. Learn more about that here.
Not every employer offers employees a 401. If that’s the case, you can open an IRA, which also offers tax advantages for those investing for retirement, on your own through a brokerage firm.
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What Is A Target
A target-date fund is a diversified investment mix based on your age and the year you expect to retire. When youre younger, the exposure to equity will be much higher, perhaps 90%. As you get closer to the target retirement date, the fund automatically gets more conservative, shifting away from stocks and more heavily into bonds.
Target-date funds are usually a fund of funds. As a type of wrapper, a target-date fund will typically hold different weightings of various other funds managed by the same company.
Use Assessed Value Of Property For In
No. The taxes owed on the in-kind distribution of the land will be based on the fair market value of the land. As such, it would not necessarily be appropriate to use the assessed value . The most conservative approach would be to obtain a third party valuation such as an appraisal or at least an assessment from a professional such as an experienced realtor based on comps, etc. Ultimately, the governments concern is the underpayment of taxes especially from the distribution of property owned inside a solo 401k plan or a self-directed IRA.
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Rules Change Regarding Offering Solo 401k Plan To Par
QUESTION 5: Have the rules changed for 2020 regarding whether I can still fund my solo 401k if I have two part-time employees that work less than 1000 hrs/year, but more than 500 hrs/year? Would I have to open up retirement accounts for them?
ANSWER: In short yes resulting from the SECURE Act, but it would be for those part-time employees who satisfy the new rule by 2024. Effective for tax year 2021 , solo 401k plans will need to be offered to part-time employees who have three consecutive 12-month periods of 500 hours of service and who satisfy the plans minimum age requirement. Hours of service during 12-month periods beginning before January 1, 2021, are not taken into account for this rule. We are waiting for the IRS to release more guidance on this new rule in 2020. See Section 112 of the ACT for more information.
Last Weeks Most Popular Solo 401k FAQs
How Financial Situation Can Affect How Much To Invest In Stocks
If your goal is retirement in 20 years, your ability to take risk in a retirement account would be higher than in the account you use to pay your monthly bills. Your retirement account has time to recover from setbacks, and any immediate losses could be recovered. In your bill-paying account, a loss could very well jeopardize your ability to pay rent next month.
If the outlook for your financial situation seems uncertain, it can make sense to have a relatively lower allocation to stocks.
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Invest In Dividends And Dividend Income Funds
Instead of buying individual stocks that pay dividends, you can choose a dividend income fund. These funds have managers who own and manage dividend-paying stocks for you. Dividends can provide a steady source of retirement income that may rise each year if companies increase their dividend payouts.
However, in bad economic times, dividends can also be reduced or stopped altogether.
Many publicly traded companies produce what are called qualified dividends,” which means the dividends are taxed at a lower tax rate than ordinary income or interest income. For this reason, it may be most tax-efficient to hold funds or stocks which produce qualified dividends within non-retirement accounts , etc).
Be cautious of dividend-paying stocks or funds with yields that are higher than the average rate. High yields always come with additional risks. If something is paying a significantly higher yield, it is doing so to compensate you for taking on additional risk. Dont invest without understanding the risk that you are taking.
How To Make Your 401 Selections
8 Minute Read | September 27, 2021
If you value your companys 401 benefit, the day you receive your enrollment package is an exciting one. Soon youll be building your retirement nest egg with the help of your employers 401 match and the right investment selectionsyou cant wait to get started!
So you rip open your envelope and glance over the contents: forms, a nice-looking brochure, and maybe a letter from your employer welcoming you to the companys 401. Once youve read the letter, however, the rest of the materials simply dont make a lot of sense. Theres information about vesting, beneficiaries, equities, risk assessments, and 401 selectionsbut nothings clicking.
The only thing that seems clear is that investing in a 401 is important business. Your ability to retire depends on you getting it right. But how can you make such major, long-term decisions when you dont even understand what the choices are?
Understanding your workplace 401 is the first step toward the retirement of your dreams, so let’s get started.
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The Rewards Of Diversification
Choosing among various asset classes doesn’t just manage risk. Greater rewards come from diversification.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Harry Markowitz referred to this reward as the only free lunch in finance. You will earn more if you diversify your portfolio.
Heres an example of what Markowitz meant: An investment of $100 in the S& P 500 in 1970 would have grown to $7,771 by the close of 2013. Investing the same amount over the same period in commodities would have made your money grow to $4,829.
Now, imagine you adopt both strategies. If you had invested $50 in the S& P 500 and the other $50 in the S& P GSCI, your total investment would have grown to $9,457 over the same period. This means your return would have surpassed the S& P 500-only portfolio by 20% and be almost double that of the S& P GSCI performance.
A blended approach works better.
Mom And Brothers Participation Question:
Yes provided they are all owner-employees in the S-corp with not other full-time W-2 common-law employees. The S-corp would sponsor the solo 401k plan and all 5 would participate in the same solo 401k plan. Each participant would separately hold their retirement funds in participant accounts. Lastly, when it comes time to determine if a Form 5500-EZ will need to be filed for the plan, all of the participants balances will need to be added up and if the combined value exceeds $250,000, a Form 5500-ez will need to be filed each year by 07/31.
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Know Your Plan And Your Options
With the heavy lifting complete, June is ready to choose her funds. She understands her asset allocation of 80% stock funds and 20% bond funds. She wants some diversification beyond the U.S. and wants to keep her investing low cost and simple. You may prefer a greater number of funds in your 401 for broader diversification. With the diversification decision, theres no right or wrong answer.
Heres a sample of the fund choices in her 401 account:
| U.S. Stocks |
|---|
Next, June must decide whether to choose several funds from each category to populate her 401 or to keep it simple and just select one from each category. To help with her decision, she visits the Vanguard website to read about the returns and risks of each of the investment funds.
If your 401 lacks low fee, index funds, you might research the individual fund offerings more thoroughly. A default choice is to go with a target-date fund.
Decide How Much To Contribute
One reason experts like 401 plans so much is because they make it easy to start investing. “They take the guesswork out of when to invest because money comes out of your paycheck automatically,” Christine Benz, director of personal finance at Morningstar, told Grow earlier this year. “Turns out, that’s a really great way to invest.”
Still, you need to decide how much money to contribute each pay period. Experts typically advise you aim to put away 10% to 15% of your salary for retirement each year, but even if you’re juggling a lot of other expenses, some is better than none. “Put $50 or $100 in there just so you’re used to saving and seeing a statement that has investments in there,” Reyes recommends.
As you earn more money, aim to increase your contributions. You can make an annual 401 contribution of up to $19,000 a year, plus an extra $6,000 if you’re 50 or older, as of 2019. Those amounts increase to $19,500 and $6,500 for 2020.
It’s especially important to contribute to a 401 if your employer offers a match. There are a variety of formulas for matching contributions, but the average reached a record high of 4.7% this year.
That means, if you make $50,000 and contribute at least that amount, your company will contribute $2,350 as well.
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Spread 401 Money Equally Across Available Options
Most 401 plans offer some version of the choices described above. If they dont, a fourth way to allocate your 401 money is to spread it out equally across all available choices. This will often result in a well-balanced portfolio. For example, if your 401 offers 10 choices, put 10% of your money in each.
Or, pick one fund from each category, such as one fund from the large-cap category, one from the small-cap category, one from international stock, one from bonds, and one that is a money market or stable value fund. In this scenario, youd put 20% of your 401 money in each fund.
This method works if there are a limited set of options, but requires much more time and research there are an array of options. In addition, it’s not as fail-safe as the first three because the asset mix may not be suitable for your retirement goals, and you have to rebalance the portfolio to maintain a certain percentage of each asset category over time.
When possible, it is always recommended that you complete an online risk questionnaire or consult a knowledgeable investment professional before haphazardly choosing stock investments that may lose you money.
Set Your Contributions As A Percentage Of Your Salary
There are two general ways 401 plans allow people to manage their contributions — either as a specific dollar amount per paycheck or as a percentage of their salaries. If you have the option to enter your contribution based on a percentage of your salary, it’s a good idea to go that route.
If you choose to contribute a percentage of your salary, your contributions will increase automatically as your salary rises over time with yearly adjustments and raises. This can help to scale up your retirement savings goals over the course of your career with minimal intervention on your part.
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Is It Smart To Invest 401k
While 401 plans are a valuable part of retirement planning for most U.S. workers, they’re not perfect. The value of 401 plans is based on the concept of dollar-cost averaging, but that’s not always a reliable theory. Many 401 plans are expensive because of high administrative and record-keeping costs.
Total Bond Market Index Fund
Total bond funds are mutual funds or exchange-traded funds that hold bondsor debtacross a wide range of maturities. The debt securities that these funds hold are usually corporate-level bonds, but you will also see holdings of municipal bonds, high-grade mortgage-backed securities . and Treasury bonds.
You only need one good bond fund, and a total bond market index fund will provide diversified exposure to the entire bond market.
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