10 Reasons Why I Love The Roth IRA (And Why You Should Too)

The Roth IRA is probably my favorite investment vehicles, and its something Ive written about pretty extensively here on this site. When I started hearing stories from folks recently about how a lot of people have never even heard of the Roth IRA, I was a little bit shocked. Maybe I shouldnt have been.

Jeff Rose of GoodFinancialCents.com recently gave a talk to a group of graduating seniors at his alma-mater about investing and retirement. While he was there he took an informal poll and asked who knew what a Roth IRA is.  Out of 50 people attending, not a single one knew what a Roth IRA was.  For Jeff that moment was a bit of an ephiphany, and he decided to start the Roth IRA Movement.  The Roth IRA Movement is a group of 140+ bloggers and personal finance journalists all coming together today to write about the Roth IRA, and to get others to start thinking about saving for retirement.

I decided to pitch in and give 10 reasons why the Roth IRA should be your retirement account of choice.

There are probably a million and one reasons to love the Roth IRA, but for the sake of brevity, here are my top 10.

  • Tax free withdrawals at retirement:  The IRA and the 401(k) allow you to add funds to your account before the money gets taxed.  Thats great because it allows you to reduce your taxable income, and lowers your taxes now.  The Roth IRA has a great benefit as well, however. You p


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Banks Struggle To Gain Public Trust Over Rate Hikes

Against a rising tide of public anger towards excessive bank profits and pay of executives, bankers are set to address a grilling by the senate over their decision to hike mortgage interest rates, despite the fact that the Australian central bank held rates steady

Whilst welcoming the fresh senate inquiry, the Australian Bankers’ Association expressed fatigue. Steve Munchenberg, chief executive of the ABA said he would support the inquiry and intends to provide evidence if he is asked for a submission.

Mr. Munchenberg said that the banking industry needed to improve its image and to do that, it would have to listen to the community.

He added that Australians failed to trust the explanation given by banks over their decision to hike interest rates in response to higher funding costs.

“We have to do a lot more work to explain why we need the levels of profitability that we do,” he said.

Speaking at an industry function in Brisbane, The ABA chief said the banking sector is struggling to obtain trust from the public over its explanation for why mortgage lending rates had to rise independent of the RBA.

Mr. Munch


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Even Famous People Have Tax Troubles

Pay your taxes. Those three little words will keep you out of the hottest of hot water since the Internal Revenue Service won’t tolerate anything less! And no one I know wants trouble with the IRS. With the US tax deadline looming, I thought I’d highlight some high profile people with tax problems in the past with one of their more memorable quotes. Enjoy !

At the top of the list only because he is responsible for the IRS and by default, for making sure everyone else pays their taxes, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was exposed during his Senate confirmation hearings for failing to pay $35,000 in self employment taxes. Ironically, as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner was required to file an annual ethics statement noting any taxes due or unpaid. Over several years, Geithner failed to pay Social Security taxes, even though he was advised by his employer (The Federal Reserve) to do so, signed an agreement indicating that he understood that such payments were his responsibility and received extra pay from his employer specifically for that purpose. Odd


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Keep Your Grocery Bill Down: Avoid Overpriced Grocery Items

Where you shop does matter. Making purchases of personal items or batteries at the grocery store is just begging to pay too much. When you buy these items at a grocery, you are paying for convenience, and the items are normally marked up.

However, non-food items arent the purchases that might be overly-expensive at the grocery store. Its quite possible that you could be spending too much on food that is marked up due to its convenience when prep time comes around.  Heres how to save money on your groceries.

Whenever you purchase produce that has been pre-cut, pre-washed and packaged, you are paying a premium. Its certainly more convenient to grab a small bag of pre-cut and washed brocoli, or to pick up a bagged mix of salad greens, but it will cost you. You could save quite a bit and get quite a bit more by buying a whole head of brocoli, and then cleaning it and preparing it yourself. You would sacrifice, maybe, five minutes in following such a scheme.

The same holds true when you buy any other produce. Fruits are much more expensive when you buy them pre-cut.


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ANZ Chief Calls For An End To The Politics Of Banking

Mike Smith, chief executive of Australian banking major ANZ says the Australian economy is not being helped by politics and called for an end to criticism of the banking industry and a focus instead on helping the economy achieve long term growth.

Mr. Smith made his comments following months of intense criticism for politicians regarding rising mortgage interest rates in response to higher costs of funding.

Mr. Smith also expressed dissatisfaction with proposed new banking regulations that will be implemented worldwide,  arguing that such stringent requirements come at the worst time for the global economy.

“I have to be blunt here and say politics isn’t helping, we need to bring more focus to the long-term opportunities and challenges facing Australia, rather than short-term point scoring,” M, Smith said.

ANZ reported a 5.7 per cent increase in cash profit for the December quarter, which stood at $1.48 billion.

Mr. Smith maintained a cautious outlook for the global economy saying that the global financial crisis had entered a “second and more protracted phase”

Mr. Smith sugg


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