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Top mistakes when investing in a retirement plan

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Image source: moneysense.ca A lot of people make mistakes when investing in their retirement plan. Such an endeavor takes decades to fulfill, and small missteps can have major repercussions on your life savings. Keep in mind that every job, every deposit, every effort you put into your retirement plan leads to you having a comfortable life after your professional life. With that in mind, here are the top mistakes people make when investing in their retirement plan. Investing on a plan with outdated assumptions If you are working with a relatively old insurance company, be sure to make sure that you update your retirement plan using a variety of market returns assumptions. Your savings, no matter how big they are, are still subject to real-world market conditions like recessions. Even small changes in the economy can easily derail your retirement plan. Always check the computations if there is a significant change in the market. Image source: moneysense.ca Reti...

A comparison between Roth and traditional IRAs

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Roth and traditional IRAs share a lot of similarities, with the fundamental difference between the two involving the payment of taxes.  Image source:   mymcmedia.org In a traditional IRA, individuals take their contributions out of their pretax income and the investment grows with the incurred taxes deferred until money has been withdrawn.  On the other hand, Roth IRA, which was named after former Senator William Roth who authored the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, is funded after an individual’s salary has been taxed. Contributions are not tax deductible and qualified distributions when withdrawing from the account is tax free.  Because of this difference in tax treatment, contributors would have to consider carefully which account to use.  The tax rate is shifting continually. If they believe that the rate would be higher than it is now, they should consider opting for a Roth IRA because future withdrawals are tax free and they would n...