What are the Contribution Limits for a Roth IRA?
If you are eligible to make Roth IRA contributions, you can fund an account for yourself and a non-working spouse, up to the contribution limits. As of 2016, if you are under 50 years old, you are allowed to contribute $5,500 a year to your Roth IRA. If you have a spouse, even if he or she does not work, you can make contributions into an account for him or her, up to the full limit. For two people, that means $11,000 a year can be set aside each year. Continue reading...
What Part of the Contribution into My IRA is Tax-Deductible?
Traditional IRAs can get interesting if you or a spouse is covered by a qualified plan at work. You are able to deduct all of your contributions into a Traditional IRA as long as you (or your spouse) are not a participant in an employer-sponsored retirement program. If either of you are, there are certain regulations you should be aware of. The amount of your contribution that can be tax-deductible is determined by your (and your spouse’s) modified adjustable gross income (MAGI). Continue reading...
How Can I Establish a Money Purchase/Profit Sharing Plan?
Like other qualified plans, these need a written plan document and investments to fund. A written plan document must be established and distributed to all employees notifying them of the plan and of all pertinent details, in language they can understand. Plans must be established by December 31 of the year for which contributions will be made, and, since the contributions come from the employer for both of these, the employer has at least 8 months of the following year to meet funding requirements. Continue reading...
What is the Difference Between Cash-Balance Plans and Other Retirement Plans?
Cash Balance plans are Defined Benefit plans, but are not much like Pensions as you may know them, or other types of retirement plans, for that matter. On one side of the retirement isle you have defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s and SEPs and so on, where the contributions are certain, or at least ascertainable, while the ending balance or benefit of each employee’s account is unknown, or at least does not have to be (and in most cases isn’t). Continue reading...
What is Earnings Power?
Earnings power is mostly a concept that investors talk about rather than a quantifiable amount, but there is a Basic Earnings Power (BEP) ratio that some analysts use. BEP is the EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) of a company divided by its total assets (net assets), which is also called Return on Total Assets (ROTA). Earnings power is similar to the concept of staying power when most investors use it; a company that has had strong earnings and growth, and that seems to have the skill and resources to keep earnings up well into the future, is said to have earnings power. Continue reading...
What is a Warrant?
A warrant is an agreement giving the holder the right to buy (or sell) a certain number of shares of a company. Warrants are often requested or granted when a company engages in a loan from private investors - it will give the lenders the opportunity to buy and own shares in the company if its stock appreciates or if the opportunity seems attractive. If the company fails to grow and deliver, the warrants can simply go unused with no financial impact for the holder. Like options, there are warrants that confer the option to buy shares (call warrants) and those that allow the holder to sell (put warrants). Continue reading...
What are Accelerated Benefits?
Some life insurance policies allow for death benefits to be accelerated as living benefits under certain conditions. Accelerated benefits are often included in life insurance contracts, but it is possible that they can also be added as Riders for an additional fee. Riders are addendum to a contract that contain additional contractual provisions. What an accelerated benefits rider stipulates is that if certain conditions are met, a portion of the death benefits on a life insurance policy can be paid to the insured person during their lifetime. These conditions may be that the insured person has been diagnosed with less than 12 months to live, or that they have another serious health condition which is covered. Sometimes this includes the payment of monthly benefits if a person requires long-term care. Continue reading...
What is Dividend Drag?
When an ETF is not able to offer a quick, automatic dividend reinvestment option to clients, it can sometimes take a week or more to get the dividends back into the market. In a rising market, this lag can cause the reinvested amounts to purchase higher-priced shares than they would have been otherwise. This drags the performance of the fund down, compared to an index or more efficient fund. The structure of ETFs prevents them from immediately reinvesting dividends, and they often do not offer what is known as a DRIP, or dividend reinvestment plan, which is built into many pooled investments like mutual funds (and other ETFs). Continue reading...
Who is the best custodian for my investments?
Custodians are the institutions which hold your securities for you and provide some related services. Some will have various arrangements and relationships with exchanges and broker-dealers, and some may do everything in-house; such things have bearing on what your investment options are, how much equity you must have for margin, what kind of fees you pay for various services, and so on. Different custodians tend to structure their fees and services to a particular type of clientele or a particular account size. You may outgrow the custodian you have, or you may discover that there is a better, more affordable option for an account like yours. Continue reading...
What Happens When a Company Goes Bankrupt?
There is a hierarchy of which creditors and investors will be serviced first in the event that a company goes bankrupt. When a company goes bankrupt, it is unable to pay back the money that it borrowed. The higher the bond's rating, the less likely that the issuer will go bankrupt. To learn more about bond ratings, see “What are Bond Ratings?” The possibility of bankruptcy is the risk associated with investing in bonds - you can never know for sure if you will get your money back. Typically, bonds with higher coupons are riskier investments (again, the recurring theme of higher returns = higher risks!). For example, if you see a bond with a 30% coupon, there is (obviously) a greatly increased chance that the company will not be able to pay back your loan. Continue reading...