correct, you cannot move money from your Roth (or IRA) to your spouse’s. You can only convert $$ from your pre-tax 401k (or tIRA) to your Roth. And if you don’t currently have a Roth, your 401k brokerage would gladly set one up for you.
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Is having multiple Roth IRAs a common thing? Just never occurred to me to have multiple ones …
it is certainly not uncommon. I used to have several – due to different employers who had relationships with different benefit administrators – before finally consolidating them into one (just to make it easier on my heirs).
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Hmmm. So I could eventually consolidate them? I guess I’d have to wait five years, or does that timeframe not apply here?
there is not a separate 5-year clock for every regular annual Roth contribution. The 5-year clock starts in the tax year that you make yoru first Roth contribution.
There is a 2nd 5-year clock for conversions into Roth, but that is waived for anyone withdrawing over age 59 1/2.
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“There’s no limit to how much you can convert to a Roth IRA. The $6,500 annual contribution limit — $7,500 if you’re age 50 or older — that applies to Roth IRAs doesn’t apply to conversions. But it could be in your best interest to spread out your conversions over several years to limit your tax liability.”
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I would try to keep retirement various ‘bundles’ as simple as possible. For example, if you have various things with Vanguard, I would call that a ‘bundle’.
Our accounts through our Financial Advisor have all just moved from TD Ameritrade (which was taken over by Schwab) and gone into Fidelity. Fidelity gave the brokerage rates/transaction rates to our FA group that TD Ameritrade had, while Schwab was going to charge for a lot of transactions which were part of prior brokerage rate (and therefore costing us more money if we stayed with Schwab). DH has a Roth IRA account, I have a Roth IRA account, and we have a regular (non-retirement) account, which I may end up switching to a private Fidelity account soon, as we had that fund set aside for home improvements - and I have found I don’t need our FA to manage that account and also go through FA to pull out money from that account (extra step/hassle).
All our other accounts through FA are with annuities, which were paid for by other retirement money (with DH’s, primarily with funds spun out of his work 401k which is with Prudential – although Empower recently acquired the full service retirement business of Prudential Retirement). DH’s 401k is under his former employer’s contract and continues to be so.
We have had experience with Dreyfus and Principal with 401k accounts through employers (my prior employer, and DH’s company changing companies for 401k).
With a company 401k, one does need to understand ‘distribution’ for rules regarding the payment of your account to your designated beneficiary(s) after your death - for DH’s it stipulates length of time when beneficiary(s) must receive the entire account balance (for us it is 10 calendar years), and exceptions for extending with surviving spouse or if beneficiary is either disabled, chronically ill …
So, if a spouse does not have a separate 401k, can set one up for rollover to transfer the beneficiary funds from deceased spouse’s 401k, is the way I see it.
To me, do not want to have a lot of things a lot of places, and complicated. We consolidated a lot of things with FA, and then moved over IRA to Roth IRA with FA.
Ours did the exact same thing last year!
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Did you get the answers you needed? I was confused by your $7500 part… why not just roll over $25k to a Roth IRA (if you can afford the taxes on it).
This explanation might be a start for some looking into these changes.
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Not the dramatic change with Social Security payments, but looks like a small adjustment up. Note at the end of the article which gives minimum and maximum social security amounts.
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I thought this example of a monthly streaming service was very good, with investment amount and growth over time. I am going to share this article with DD2, ‘a spender’ and not so great saver.
Also talked about the people who have little saved - shocking percentages.
This is not my financial advisor group - it is a local financial advisor group.
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Another good reminder that our group and our kids are far removed from the average American.
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DD2 is working at making more money. Some in her field do make a lot more money right at the get go (degree in civil and architectural engineering, double major) but she was resistant to working construction, so her beginning salary out of college suffered, and then job change was based on her salary with the state which didn’t advance much…but she was happy doing the work she was doing, and making better money than many with other college degrees. She has been working for a design company for 2 years now (after working almost 3 years for state DOT rating and inspecting bridges), and we believe at the end of the year, she will get a promotion and pay increase. She is understanding more of parental advice. She plans to start working towards advanced certification after her runs in Jan/Feb (first marathon, then the next month repeat half marathon and 10 K run). She is getting more work experience which should help her on the advanced certification (the test costs $1,000, an 8 hour exam at a testing center, and employer will reimburse if she passes the test).
This is what she wrote back on private Facebook message: " I have one subscription service and that is $10. Disney + I pay full amount at the beginning. Sure, put money in savings first, but there is still not a ton left over after gas, groceries, and living expenses." She is getting a little better on her grocery shopping (looking at the flyer coming into the store and seeing items that she uses that are with discount or buy one get one free). Only this past year or so she has gotten more selective on her entertainment, travel, clothes, shoes, other expenditures.
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If my kids can support themselves and live in a way that makes them happy. And are able to put money in their 401k. Then their spending choices are theirs.
And my kids should do the same for us. Our choices are ours to make.
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I have a relative who loves to make editorial comments on how my husband and I spend our money.
What we spend it on, how it’s spent. What we should spend on. Or not.
I can’t tell you how annoyed I get.
My husband and I spend our money in our fashion. We have money in the bank. We pay all our bills. I’m pretty sure that we won’t run out.
So why would anyone care if we remodel or house? Or buy that dress? Or spend on my husband’s hobby?
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I just talked to a lady at a church social event whose son played football for Boise State some years ago, and he got hooked on Percocet - then went to heroin addiction. The parents have 6 children which were all adults at the time. She said “we paid for 4 stints in rehab and spent through all our savings”. She is a nurse (and her husband has a good paying job - so at least now they are doing a late in life rebuilding of assets/financial stability), and was driving the son to emergency with him overdosing - and that it took 6 Narcans to revive him – the ER MD said he survived due to a strong heart. She said sometimes a person that goes through that kind of terrible OD situation sometimes then gets their life straight – he is now a super achiever, running two restaurants…
So, with caution, on what choices kids do and what choices parents do – I know you are not talking about an ‘off the rails’ situation.
Some families have some cultural dynamics, good and bad.
Both DDs have retirement 401K and other plans. They will eventually get to home ownership. DH was one of four kids and I was one of five kids. We have just two DDs, and we show love and concern – but they make their own decisions in life (once of age and off our payroll), and we are at the side lines, cheering them on. With our retirement, we can help with things (child care/weekly nannying was a help for DD1/SIL for 6 weeks during Covid day care shut down; moving help by DH for DD2 short term apartment move and then driving the moving truck for out of state relocation w/o employer relocation package) - and he helped put in two ceiling fans (and correct the wiring for the 3rd ceiling fan, which DD2 put in later). DDs/family have boundaries as do we.
We are saving DD2’s BF a lot of money with his work in our city (he is living with us, so he doesn’t have rent expenses, and can pay down student loans and personal debt) - we have the room, and it is wonderful to get to know him better. They are a committed couple, they are waiting until he has his career track in her city. DD2 moved to a good job fit for her and where it will be a good job fit for him once he has gained the work experience and an opportunity opens up. BF is a hard worker. Both SIL and BF had a later career start, for BF it was totally due to his work area shut down with Covid. SIL gained experiences, but has not made financial traction – but will soon. DD2 was fortunate with her employment promotion into higher health care management to keep them afloat with 4 children under age 5.
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Respectfully I have no idea what a man who has a drug addiction problem has to do with my post. That’s not someone who is supporting himself. Or making good choices.
I talked about my children. Who support themselves and (knock on wood) have made good choices that don’t require any assistance from us.
Don’t worry, this is my last post on this! 
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And on that note, let’s move back to the OP, and not about supporting children. Thank you!
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Y’all, I spend so much time on here and always say y’all make me realize that there’s so much I don’t know. Today, I talked to a Vanguard personal adviser as we are considering using this service, and he schooled me on a couple of things I thought I understood, UGH. The whole thing makes me think I need someone more than I realized.
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