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Retirement Planning

NoheaNohea subscriber Posts: 4
edited September 2007 in Business Planning
Greetings All,
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where to put your retirement money once you leave corporate America and work for yourself. I`ll be leaving corporate land next month and don`t know where to put my retirement money or have a plan for how to continue to add to it. Any ideas?
Thanks,Calie

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    PiperTaxPiperTax subscriber Posts: 5
    Hi Calie. The first step is to start a business retirement account (most likely a SEP IRA or SIMPLE IRA). This can be done at pretty much any brokerage firm (Edward Jones, Wachovia, etc.). Feel free to take a look at this chapter about retirement plans for business owners, excerpted from my tax guide for sole proprietors.In terms of what investments to actually put into the account, I`m partial to anything from American Funds, but let`s hear what others have to say.
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    NoheaNohea subscriber Posts: 4
    Hi Piper,
    Thanks for the tips! I`ll be looking into this over the next few weeks and appreciate having a place to start.
    Take Care,Calie
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    PiperTaxPiperTax subscriber Posts: 5
    I`m sorry, but I feel obligated to voice a respectful disagreement to the above post. Contributing money to a retirement plan is one of the single best ways a person can plan for their future.You have complete control of how the money gets invested when it`s in a retirement plan. Unless you specifically give your Financial Advisor the legal power to make transactions without your permission, there is no way that anything would ever happen in your IRA/401k without you giving the order. If a brokerage firm ever tried to do that, the Securities and Exchange Commission would jump on them faster than you could ever imagine.Also, to say that you are "taxed up the kazoo" when you pull it out is a bit misleading. You`re only taxed when you pull the money out because you were not taxed on the money (income) that you contributed to the plan in the first place. Or, if you prefer, you could put some money into a Roth IRA, in which case you wouldn`t be taxed at all (even on the earnings!) when the money comes out.Best of luck regardless of what you decide to do.Mike Piper
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