Tax law changes also provide workers age 50 and older the opportunity to make additional “catch-up” contributions, above the maximum amounts listed above, to Roth and Traditional IRAs and to employer salary deferral plans. IRA catch-up contributions are $500 for 2003–2005 and $1,000 for 2006 and after. Catch-up contributions for employer plans are $2,000 in 2003, $3,000 in 2004, $4,000 in 2005, and $5,000 in 2006, with amounts adjusted for inflation in 2007 and after. Older workers who take full advantage of the increased contribution limits and catch-up contributions will save significantly more than those who invest in taxable accounts or limit their contributions to pre-2002 tax law limits. (more…)

In later years, many employers have also turned to outside investment product providers and offer their services either parallel to or instead of the insurance products provided by TIAA-CREF. If you choose one of these investment products, you will not be contributing to an Retirement Annuity. You will have a separate account with the investment firm, but it will exist within the overarching structure of your employer’s retirement plan. Your employer may choose to allocate all matches to an accumulation in a TIAA-CREF Retirement Annuity, or it may choose to contribute the match to your account with the alternative investment provider. Again, this is depends on how your employer has constructed the plan. (more…)

Like the peculiar behavior of the dog in the night in the Sherlock Holmes story “Silver Blaze,” one of the obvious but overlooked clues about the insurance orientation of TIAA-CREF appears in the names of the accounts that are given to the various accumulation alternatives available to you. Each account is labeled an “annuity,” and each contribution is called a “premium.” To avoid confusion you should note that what TIAA-CREF labels as an “account,” you probably would call an investment choice or fund.

Stripped to the basics, your Retirement Annuity (or “Retirement Annuity”) boils down to an accumulation agreement between you and TIAA-CREF. (more…)

It is hard fact that the best-designed 401k plan in the most prosperous investment condition can’t have an enough income for retirement, if the person is not contributing a significant amount to the plan regularly. This problem can be as result as no continuous access to 401k plan, financial instability to contribute due to low salary, other financial priority in life, family and life needs, (more…)

It’s not just choosing the right retirement investment that helps 401k grow faster. It’s keeping your hands off them too. Most plans permit you borrowing from 401k against the account balance for compelling reasons. Those all-too-compelling reasons may reduce the amount you’ll be able to draw someday from your 401k. (more…)

If you are an employee and your employer has established a 401k plan, it is a mistake to not participate and not contribute as much as possible. When you put your money investing in a 401k, you wish to get your money’s deserving for your investment. Your main goal is by the time your retirement come so that you can retire comfortably. (more…)

After my parents moved to Florida in the mid-1980s, Mom and Dad would send us the job ads from the Sunday newspaper. In one letter, Mom circled an ad that she thought was perfect. “Look at this one,” she wrote. “It pays $401,000.” On closer inspection, we realized the job offered a 401k retirement savings plan, not a $401,000 salary. (more…)

Another old adage says that we should learn from the mistakes of others. When it comes to retirement planning, there are many legal, tax, and retirement saving mistakes you can make as a business owner, retirement plan trustee, or plan participant. (more…)

The maximum 401k contribution per year to a 401(k) plan in 1998 is not to exceed 25% of compensation. Although there is no legal minimum contribution requirement, in order to reduce the plan’s administrative costs, some plans establish a minimum amount that must be contributed.

There is also a limit on total 401 k contributions that employee and employer together can (more…)

A 401k plan is a retirement account set up by an employer into which employee put aside some of his/her salary into the account. It is named defined contribution plan because the annual amount of money that can be given to each employee account is defined. This 401k plan program does not assure a defined retirement benefit when employees withdraw their money when it is mature. (more…)