2010 ROTH IRA contributions

[Deleted]

11 days left before you can max your 2010 contributions for your ROTH IRA!

Did you do yours already or you don't plan to?
Were you able to max it or not this year?
Plan for next year?

I just processed our last contributions for 2010. It will put both of us at 2K/each for the year so sadly did not max it .

Next year based on our current salaries/expenses it will be about 2K again unless we both get some nice raises then we might try to send in more or max it.

[txengineer]

Yes, already contributed 5k. I try to do it in early January every year.

[Deleted]

I did it this year for the first time. 22K to my 401k and 6k to my Roth. Felt good.

[SVT]

I'm waiting till the last minute to do the complete contribution of $5000.

[illinicheme]

We maxed two Roth IRAs for 2010. We contribute on a monthly basis throughout the year.

[txengineer]

Apr 7, 2011 23:45:09 GMT -5 SVT said:

I'm waiting till the last minute to do the complete contribution of $5000.

SVT, I'm curious - why wait till last minute? I'd think keeping it invested earlier would allow a bit more time for growth?

[buster]

Apr 7, 2011 23:50:29 GMT -5 @illinicheme said:

We maxed two Roth IRAs for 2010. We contribute on a monthly basis throughout the year.

Same here. Already 2k of 10k into 2011.

[SVT]

Apr 7, 2011 23:55:10 GMT -5 txengineer said:

Apr 7, 2011 23:45:09 GMT -5 SVT said:

I'm waiting till the last minute to do the complete contribution of $5000.

SVT, I'm curious - why wait till last minute? I'd think keeping it invested earlier would allow a bit more time for growth?

Sold house last month and started new job with almost double the pay so I've only had the money for a month. Since a little over $5000 in cash is about all I have right now, I'm waiting just in case something comes up (emergency) or I change my mind for some reason. It's a risk mitigation thing. I don't care at this point about getting the money in ASAP. I'd be happy just to max it for 2010 at this point. Going forward I won't have a problem; I have more than $2500/month leftover after bills now.

I also have $3600 left in student loans at 9.25% when last month I had $12000. I took all the money I had except for the $5000 for the Roth in case I want to contribute for 2010.

Hopefully I made sense.

[txengineer]

Apr 8, 2011 2:53:21 GMT -5 SVT said:

Apr 7, 2011 23:55:10 GMT -5 txengineer said:

SVT, I'm curious - why wait till last minute? I'd think keeping it invested earlier would allow a bit more time for growth?

Sold house last month and started new job with almost double the pay so I've only had the money for a month. Since a little over $5000 in cash is about all I have right now, I'm waiting just in case something comes up (emergency) or I change my mind for some reason. It's a risk mitigation thing. I don't care at this point about getting the money in ASAP. I'd be happy just to max it for 2010 at this point. Going forward I won't have a problem; I have more than $2500/month leftover after bills now.

I also have $3600 left in student loans at 9.25% when last month I had $12000. I took all the money I had except for the $5000 for the Roth in case I want to contribute for 2010.

Hopefully I made sense.

Totally made sense. I was just wondering it there was an investment reason.

[zibazinski]

Did I hear you could do 6k now? I plan my finances poorly which is why I do it at the last minute but am TRYING to do better this coming year.

[Deleted]

As another thread suggested, you can't always do it all. I put $5000 in my 457.

With the legislature discussing increasing my contribution to my pension, it's only going to get tougher to come up with the extra.

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2011 7:42:56 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Did I hear you could do 6k now? I plan my finances poorly which is why I do it at the last minute but am TRYING to do better this coming year.

If you are 50 and over, you can contribute 6K since you are elligible to make a catch up contribution of 1K.

But the limit is still 5K for everyone under 50.

[txengineer]

Apr 8, 2011 7:42:56 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Did I hear you could do 6k now? I plan my finances poorly which is why I do it at the last minute but am TRYING to do better this coming year.

You can contribute 6k if you are older than 50

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I made he final contribution some time ago to max out my 2010 Roth contribution, and also have made 50% of my contribution for 2011. I am on the cusp of the phase out rules for the Roth so I do not make my full contribution until late in the tax year.

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2011 7:56:52 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

I made he final contribution some time ago to max out my 2010 Roth contribution, and also have made 50% of my contribution for 2011. I am on the cusp of the phase out rules for the Roth so I do not make my full contribution until late in the tax year.

Nice, that means per IRS income definition you are at that salary where you can say "Yeah"

[mandyms]

Can someone explain the difference from including up until April to include on previous taxes or just using the amounts contributed from January to January (I do automatic withdrawl monthly) to claim on the next year? Is one better than the other?

[txengineer]

Apr 8, 2011 7:56:52 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

I made he final contribution some time ago to max out my 2010 Roth contribution, and also have made 50% of my contribution for 2011. I am on the cusp of the phase out rules for the Roth so I do not make my full contribution until late in the tax year.

Yeah, MAGI is tricky. My gross is above the phase out, but with max 401k contribution, I was able to bring it down below the phase out. I should be able to do this for another few years. I basically make Roth contribution for the year as soon as the year begins.

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2011 8:07:42 GMT -5 mandyms said:

Can someone explain the difference from including up until April to include on previous taxes or just using the amounts contributed from January to January (I do automatic withdrawl monthly) to claim on the next year? Is one better than the other?

The way you are doing it is just fine...

But for the folks that are not able to max it by the end of December of that Year, per the IRS they have till April 15 of the following year to do it (2010 it is April 18)

Basically it makes no difference to someone that can do it from Jan 01- Dec 31... but for folks like me, those 4 months gives us a little time to put an extra 500-2,000 in there.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Yeah, MAGI is tricky. My gross is above the phase out, but with max 401k contribution, I was able to bring it down below the phase out. I should be able to do this for another few years. I basically make Roth contribution for the year as soon as the year begins.

Yes, true. A few years ago, during the great Bush economy, I was making money hand over fist on my investments. Thusly my taxable income sky rocketed as did my Fed tax liability. For that one year, I was caught in the phase out threshhold.

[sue]

Maxed for 2010 and 2011.

[phil5185]

We invest our $12,000 in January, we start protecting our returns from future taxation as early as possible.

[telephus44]

I have $2500 (half) so far. I would like to fully fund it for 2010, but I will fall short unless I want to complete wipe out my EF. I plan on running the numbers this weekend since today is our last paycheck before 4/18 and seeing exactly how close to maxing it I can get.

I will say, that every year come Jan I scramble to try and find the money, so last month I actually started an automatic $250 per month into my Roth for 2011. So I won't have to scramble to come up with as much next Jan for 2011.

[ilovedolphins]

I usually max mine out at the end of December. I like to keep the money handy throughout the year in case of emergencies then I put $2500 into my Roth and $2500 into an IRA. I don't know what I will do this year. I can't decide if I should keep putting half in each or max out one or the other.

[gaultamort]

I made my max out contribution last night and DH made his day before yesterday. This is first for us, and I couldn't be happier. We increased our monthly contributions by $50 each this year, but we don't max out soley on these monthly contributions.

I've made a better plan to max out each before the end of this year--by putting money saved into our IRAs! So far, I've found an "extra" $400 this way. I'm also inching closer to maxing out my 401k...now to get that SIMPLE increased...

[telephus44]

Update - I managed to find $1900 between all my checking accounts. I will probably take the last $600 from the EF just in principle. EF is at $3200 and I'm aiming for $5000.

So I will! Yay me!

[lynnerself]

We are also of the set it and forget it persuasion.
Contributions go in automatically $500 a month, every month.

[azphx1972]

I usually wait until the last minute to do one lump sum contribution because 1) I'm a procrastinator, and 2) I hate doing more data entry than necessary. This year I contributed half when the DOW was below 11k, and just contributed the remaining half this week after the latest Japanese earthquake (which didn't affect the market that much, but oh well).

[Deleted]

Apr 8, 2011 17:42:36 GMT -5 telephus44 said:

Update - I managed to find $1900 between all my checking accounts. I will probably take the last $600 from the EF just in principle. EF is at $3200 and I'm aiming for $5000.

So I will! Yay me!

Nice, good job!

[zibazinski]

I'm going to work on my goal of $500 per month as opposed to 5k when my tax guy reminds me.

[HappyLady]

Full amount to my Roth--I contributed it as I sent in my taxes for the year. I always wait to the end, in case I get that windfall that puts me over the income limit...