One More Week

You’re running out of time. Next Thursday is a very important day, and I’m not talking about me turning another year older, even though that’s exactly what will happen. This year I’m not even talking about filing personal (not business) income taxes since that deadline has been extended until May 17, 2021. I’m talking about the ability to contribute to your Roth IRA for the 2020 calendar year. Allow me to explain.

Disclaimer: I’m not telling you to run right out and do this if you are not in a position to do so. You should NOT put money away for retirement if you’re struggling to make a house or rent payment. I implore you to be responsible with your finances, and I’ve written many posts outlining how to do this in the fairly recent past. I invite you to peruse my blog library.

A Roth IRA is one of a few GREAT places to put money away for retirement. The best thing about this type of retirement account is that the money grows TAX FREE which means the government will never be able to take any of the growth away from you. Note that there are restrictions on contributions which I won’t go into detail about now. But, if you are in a position to contribute to a Roth, I encourage you to speak to a tax professional to find out IF you can for the year 2020 and HOW MUCH.

My urgency today is to remind you that you have until April 15 of any given year to contribute money to a Roth IRA for the previous year. Some may ask why one doesn’t just contribute during the actual year, and the simple answer is that sometimes one doesn’t know IF or HOW MUCH one CAN contribute until one’s tax return is filed. I am a prime example of that. I am self-employed and am over a certain age threshold so I need to file my taxes before I know how much I can put away for the future.

I’m just letting you know that if you are in the same position as me and want to put money away to grow TAX FREE (and who doesn’t?) you’d better hurry.