Well that threw a stick in our spokes.

[Thumper]

I always make a contribution to Lynn's IRA as early in the year as possible ... usually around this time of year. Many people wait until tax time and make a contribution (for the write-off) for the PREVIOUS year. My plan has always been to make the contribution as early as possible so it's working and earning money all year. So, we had a meeting with our broker this morning and I wrote a $7000 check as our contribution for 2021. We went over the progress of the account and it made an excellent return last year even though we've gotten a bit more conservative with our investments due to our age. As we were leaving the office, our broker said, "Oh crap! I just realized something!" Since Lynn has not worked and drawn an income this year, she cannot contribute! It's a total roll of the dice as to whether or not she'll work this year or not, much less draw enough pay to cover the contribution. We tore the check up and shredded it. Damn, this is the first time in many years I haven't contributed. We have until next April to bring home the income, but I've been trying to talk her into retiring and start drawing Social Security. I don't know what to do right now as I'm in the habit of always investing. Heck, I'm not sure of the (SAFE) alternative investment opportunities right now. I mean, what's the return on a stinkin' CD thses days? Like 0.50%? It's not even worth the effort. Any ideas out there?

[jb]

There are plenty of other places you can invest, sure it's not her IRA, but the returns can still be there. And when the time comes you can roll that investment over and place the funds in here IRA. Stocks, Bonds, Money Market, Gold, Silver, you name it.

[Thumper]

I guess what I'm asking is the best options for a decent return on a non-IRA investment without getting too risky. I was a bit more flexible in earlier years because I figured if the market crashed, we'd have time to sit it out for a recovery. Now that we're older, I've gotten a lot more conservative with the investment end of things. The IRA was easy-peasy as we have a very good and trusted broker. Just hand him the check and let him run with it. He's always done well with his choices. I guess I just need to find an investment broker of some sort, but I'm thinking it may be a little late in the game to even fool with it. I'm not talking a huge amount of money here ... we only have one IRA so it's only a $7000 annual investment. It's about like pissing in the ocean starting from the ground up with a new investment I think. I'll dig around. I may consider just using it to pay down Lynn's car loan as that's the only expenditure we have now other than normal, monthly expenses. I paid cash for my truck and it's only got 17,000 miles on it ... I'm gonna hang onto it. The mortgage is paid off. All credit cards and loans are paid off. Her car payment is all we have. Seems like a no-brainer at this point and the more I think about it, the more I think that would be the best route, plus if I make any non-IRA investments, I'd have a tax obligation to figure into the picture.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My advice is.....don’t take investment advice from over the internet, Daryl.

Buy low. Sell high.there ya go.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

You should be able to get access to pretty much the same set of investments outside an IRA as inside.


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[Thumper]

The more I think about it, the more I just think I'll let it ride. I'm trying to get Lynn to retire, but she wants to go back to work for some silly reason. If she does go back to work and brings in enough earnings by the end of the year, I can still throw this contribution into the IRA. I'm going to work on getting her car loan paid off and if I have to come up with a contribution later in the year, I'll be able to scrape that together by tax time at least. If we didn't owe squat, I'd probably get a bit more serious about looking for something. Today's meeting just caught me a little off-guard. I had no clue about the rule that you have to make x-amount of taxable (Soc. Sec. withdrawn) income in order to contribute. It's just never been an issue before because she was always working. This Covid thing has everything turned upside down.