Utilize the Roth IRA for Early Retirement

Are you interested in learning about using the Roth IRA for early retirement?

Anyone seeking financial independence must understand how to utilize the Roth IRA for early retirement in the context of their own retirement plan. Its usage will not be the same for everyone.

Government incentives and laws consequently shape and complicate all of our retirement tactics. When the retirement savings laws were written, the ages were likely chosen carefully and hotly debated.

We have to contend with the IRA/401k withdrawal age (59 ½), the minimum Social Security age (62), full retirement age for Social Security (66, or 67 if born after 1959), and the IRA/401k Minimum Required Distribution age (70 ½), all set by the regulators and subject to change.

For the early retiree, these age milestones are planning factors rather than targets.

Roth IRAs further complicate retirement planning when you encounter government limits on contributions based on income. For 2018, a single person with a Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) below $120,000 ($122,000 in 2019) can contribute the full amount of $5,500 to a Roth. For incomes up to $135,000, partial contributions are allowed. After that, nothing.

For married people filing jointly, those numbers are $189,000 and 199,000 in 2018 and $193,000 and $203,000 for 2019.. Most people won’t know their MAGI until they do their taxes, so that can make contributing to a Roth confusing during the year if you are near the limits.

Click the following link for more on the Spousal Roth IRA.

For the official explanation of how this all works, check out IRS Publication 590-A/B, “Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)”.

Note: Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is line 37 of your Federal 1040 for 2017 tax return and line 7 on your 2018 tax return.

MAGI adds back in certain deductions, but for most filers, it’s the same number. More on AGI vs. MAGI here.

Why the Roth IRA for Early Retirement?

My plan is to retire at age 55, one year before my Dad retired. Unless my target date changes, my full retirement will happen about four years before I can access my 401k or traditional IRA money. Once I turn 59 1/2, I’m not as worried.

Any money contributed to a Roth account is after-tax money, as opposed to 401k and traditional IRA money which is pre-tax. Pre-tax detracts from your MAGI. After-tax money does not, even though the government uses the MAGI to set limits on your Roth contributions.

Here is where the Roth IRA comes in handy for me. The money that I contribute can be withdrawn without penalty and without any tax at any time. However, the earnings made from contributions in the Roth are not eligible for early withdrawal.

So If I put $10,000 into my Roth and it grows to $12,000 through appreciation and dividends, I can withdraw the original $10,000 without penalty at any time. The $2,000, however, must stay until I turn 59 ½ or I must pay a 10% penalty and taxes on it.

So here’s my plan:

1. Max out contributions on a yearly basis for the next 14 years, as long as I remain eligible.
2. If needed, withdraw up to ¼ of the contributed money each year between ages 55 and 59 ½.
3. After age 59 ½, start traditional IRA withdrawals if needed. Save Roth IRA funds until later in retirement to maximize tax-free growth

A big risk with this plan is if mine and my wife’s combined income, or more specifically our MAGI, would increase to surpass the income limit of $199,000 (2018). While this is an outlying possibility in the future, it would be a welcome problem.

Building the Account

Mrs. RBD is now a stay at home Mom (SATM). But prior to the birth of our son, she had a pretty lucrative career in crisis communications. She had a nice income to supplement mine and continued to work part-time for another year after her maternity leave.

In the years she worked, her income took us over the threshold for contributing to a Roth. So 2013 was the first year we were not able to contribute to the Roth since before we were married.

As a bachelor I was a little late to the Roth game, only opening an account a year or two before we got married. So the balance on my Roth is relatively low compared to my 401k and traditional IRA.

This low balance needs to change. One of my goals is to deposit $450 per month into this account to max it out for the year. I plan to extend the goal for the next 18 years.If I contribute $5,500 to my Roth IRA for the next 12 years, and $6,500 for the 6 years from age 50-55 (so-called catch-up contributions), the total comes to $105,000, assuming the $5,500 level doesn’t change over time, although It will likely rise with inflation.

Add that to my previous contribution amount of $9,500 and it takes me to $114,500 of contributions between opening the account and when I am 55. If during the four years between ages 55 and 59 ½ I need additional income to live off of aside from my investment income, then I can tap all of it at once, or a quarter of this cash each year without penalty or tax consequences.

That amount is $28,625. I don’t want to need it, but it’s a built in backup in case my dividends, rental and other income doesn’t cover my living expenses.  Whatever money is left in the account that was earned investing over the years would stay until I turn 59 ½ or longer, depending on my situation at the time.

I could even use this $114,500 lump sum to put the final kibosh on our mortgage, or use it to supplement college education costs for my kids.

Investment Allocations

Half of the money in this account is invested in the Fidelity Mid-cap Value Fund (FDVLX) and has returned 24.76% over the past 5 years with a .67% expense ratio. I picked this fund years ago because I was looking for mid-cap exposure. It has proved to be a good investment so I’ll be sticking with it for now. Sorry to you managed fund haters out there.

Compare this to the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) which has returned 20.03% and a .17% expense ratio, or better yet the Vanguard Mid Cap Index (VIMSX) which has returned 23.11% and a .24% expense ratio.

I’ve more recently added another $6,000 of newly contributed cash in my Roth put into the Vanguard VTI index ETF. Occasionally I invest in dividend growth stocks in this account as well.

Any money I contribute to my Roth is in addition to maxing out my 401k.

During the research for this blog post, I learned that the law allows for us to open a Spousal Roth IRA in the form of a Roth, even though my wife is not working. This would allow us to double our future Roth savings.  Since this is news to me, I need to take a closer look into this and see if it fits into our monthly savings budget.

Conversions of IRAs to Roths

In the past, a taxpayer’s income needed to be less than $100,000 to be able to convert from a traditional to a Roth IRA. The IRS rules have since changed and there is no longer an income cap in place. This is a new workaround so that wealthy people can take advantage of the Roth.

My wife and I both have traditional IRAs, but we are not considering converting them to Roths in the foreseeable future. While converting is widely recommended, I don’t want to give more of my money to the government today. We’d end up paying a 25-28% tax on our current balances. No thanks. In retirement, I don’t plan on having an income higher than I do today, so my tax rate should be lower.

A Roth IRA for early retirement can be a powerful tool for the extreme early retiree. Check out the post by Jim Collins with the Mad Fientist discussing tax-advantaged accounts. The Mad Fientist explains how to create a Roth conversion ladder which can be used to access funds prior to age 59 1/2 without paying penalties.

There’s plenty of opposing viewpoints on Roth IRA investing on the internet too. 

Open a Roth IRA

When it comes to opening a Roth IRA for early retirement, you have plenty of options. My primary brokerage Fidelity offers a full range of IRAs and Roths to suit any investors needs.

Click Here To Open an IRA with Fidelity

Tracking Your Roth IRA

The best tracking tool I’ve found for IRAs is Empower. I used to primarily track net worth and all of my assets through a complicated spreadsheet. Now, Empower does it all for me in real-time. Best of all it’s 100% free.

Since my wife and I both have a Roth and Traditional IRA, plus a big 401k and taxable stock brokerage accounts, tracking our finances gets complicated. Mint.com is another option, but I prefer that tool for budgeting while Empower is absolutely the way to go for investing.

 

Conclusion

As always, retirement planning is amoebic. But I think this strategy of beefing up my Roth is a winner based on my future needs. It will serve as backup income in case my taxable investment income isn’t enough. The way you use the Roth IRA will likely be different whether you plan to retire at 30, 40, or 65.

I expect there is more I need to learn about the Roth IRA and how I can best utilize it. Some of my readers may point out other suggested uses, add an opinion or contradict something I’ve written here. I welcome any feedback, and maybe a suggestion you provide will help me or the readers who pass through here reach our retirement goals.

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