#95 - Make Sure You Know This About Your Inherited IRA

Well, hello and welcome to the Retirement Answer Man. I am your host, Roger Whitney, and today’s show is packed full of great retirement information for you to use to educate yourself on your own retirement planning. But make sure you know this: The things I talk about on this show are purely for entertainment and informational purposes. I’m not able to give you specific retirement advice because I don’t know you. If you need that kind of advice, go to your local tax accountant or financial planner, someone who knows you a heck of a lot better than I do! Alright, enough of that stuff…on with the show!

Retirement Plan Live is going to be happening in the new year! Help me make it great!

I’m soon going to be rolling out the 2nd edition of “Retirement Plan Live,” a live workshop where I use the financial situation of one lucky listener as an example so that everyone in the listening audience (that’s you) can follow along and do your own retirement planning at the same time. Last year I provided some handouts and other nifty things, but I know there’s probably some additional things I could do to make this year’s RPL even better. So if you’ve got any ideas on how I can provide you great resources to make it a practical and helpful resource for you, go to www.RogerWhitney.com/RetirementAnswers and let me know what you’d like to see. Thanks!

Standard Deviation: What in the heck is that?

In the “Jargon Talk” segment of today’s show, I’m going to do my utmost to unpack the concept of “standard deviation.” It’s a term that has to do with comparing investment portfolios and the way in which they might perform in either volatile or non-volatile ways. It’s a bit much for me to put in one little paragraph on a show notes page like this, so take a bit of time and listen in to this segment. It just might help you get a better handle on your portfolio. And if not, you’ll learn a little bit about weather and whitewater rafting (those are the examples I use).

A great idea to set yourself up for a very merry Christmas.

For the first time ever I did something to help my family prepare for the Christmas season and it gained me $1400, took only a little bit of time, and involved some exercise equipment and a pool table. Can you guess what it was? You got it! I sold some things that were sitting around my house to scrape together a bit of extra cash to pay for Christmas. On this episode I’m going to tell you exactly how I did it and give you a couple of handy safety tips to help you sell your stuff without putting yourself or your family at risk.

A listener inherited some funds in an IRA. What’s he got to do to remain legal?

I just love answering questions from listeners. There’s nothing more practical and helpful than real life scenarios. In this episode I actually have two listener questions. One of them has to do with some money that was inherited from an IRA account of the deceased family member. Are there timelines and procedures that have to be followed in order to keep the funds tax free or tax deferred? Does the money have to be moved into a special kind of IRA account? If you don’t know the answers to those questions, that’s OK. I’m going to tell you how it all works on this episode of The Retirement Answer Man.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

[0:29] Welcome to the episode.
[1:01] The upcoming Retirement plan live is going to be happening soon. Roger needs your help in knowing how to make this year’s event the best ever!

JARGON TALK SEGMENT

[3:50] Today’s “jargon”: Standard Deviation - what in the heck is that?
[4:39] The boat trip VS whitewater rafting analogy.
[5:40] The temperature analogy.
[7:53] How these analogies relate to financial investments.

HOT TOPIC SEGMENT

[8:23] Christmas shopping has begun… now is the time to consider what you might be able to repurpose or sell, in order to pay for Christmas.
[10:23] Tips for how to resell items you don’t need anymore.
[12:22] Craigslist tips for the sake of safety.

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[14:45] A 25 year old needs info on how to use her IRA more effectively.
[19:30] Steve has a question about handling an IRA he received in an inheritance.

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

[24:08] Today’s S.M.A.R.T Spring challenge: Get a realized gain and loss report. Identify the losses, and consider selling to offset gains.
[26:27] What could you do if you only have losses?

THE “BE HAPPY” SEGMENT