Quote:
Originally Posted by Ladygolfer93
You are so right ! I was never a particularly high earner but a Roth never made sense for me. It really depends on your circumstances, do you work for a public or private sector, all kinds of considerations. For some it is indeed a good vehicle, but certainly not for most at all. My major concern is HOW MRD's are figured, WHEN they are figured, etc. I am quite frustrated with the variety of answers I have received by Fidelity (depends on which rep you get on which day as to the answer). One Vanguard rep just said she really was not sure !
Will my new MRD be figured on my balance on Jan. 1, 2019 ? Even my tax preparer gave an answer different from the two brokerages mentioned ? Dah !!
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Calculating your RMD (required minimum distribution) is not very difficult. For example, if you will turn 70.5 this year (2019), your RMD for 2019 will be the balance of your traditional IRA on December 31, 2018 divided by 27.4. For following years, the calculation is done the same way, but it is always based on the IRA balance on December 31 of the previous year and the number you divide it by gets lower each year based on an IRS life expectancy table. Many people think that IRA is an acronym for "individual retirement account", when in fact, it stands for "individual retirement arrangement". The IRS doesn't care how many IRA accounts you have, they only look at the entire balance of all accounts. The problem comes in when you have multiple IRA accounts with different IRA custodians. It is not possible for Vanguard or Fidelity to calculate your RMD unless they are the custodian for all of your IRA accounts.