Retirement plans

Traditional retirement plan contributions come with a loan attached to it with a variable rate of interest, to be determined at a later date by the tax code and your income level.

We all know that traditional retirement accounts get a tax deduction at your ordinary tax rate to the retirement plan contribution limits. We should also know that these account grow tax-deferred and that all distributions are taxed at ordinary rates.

This is a real problem if your goal is to maximize your net worth. In the early years the tax benefit makes it seem like it is the best deal on the planet. But as time passes the math tells a darker tale.

Because a lot (most) of your gains are deferred anyway with an index fund and the tax rate is lower when you do sell (compared to traditional retirement accounts) and there are no RMDs or early withdrawal penalties, non-qualified accounts should play a central role in the portfolio of most investors.

Anyone who has been around the FIRE, leanfire, FI blogosphere, podcasts and book tours know the demographic is heavily invested in index funds and for good reason. Active management’s record tends to be unflattering compared to index peers and with a heavier expense ratio for opportunity to enjoy underperformance.

People serious about building wealth as quickly as possible learn the index fund trick early on. But there are times when index funds are not an option.

Every so often I say something that starts a firestorm or causes my inbox to overflow. Since the laws of nature state I am one human being and have a limited amount of time to read and answer emails, most emails go unanswered unless from a current client.

It may have been something I said in a podcast or new readers enjoying a deep drink of my lovely prose triggering the question in question. (Yes, I wrote that intentionally.) The latest question storm revolves around retirement plans. The questions are all the same with slight nuances. As a human being with limited time to dedicate to cold call questions, I left most unanswered and the few I did respond to were given quick and to the point answers. And as I fired off these quick answers it occurred to me I misinterpreted the question asked in some cases. A fresh blog post on the subject should clear that up. If not, some ointment might also do the job.