I suppose it would be terrible of me to suggest that you contribute that money to a Roth IRA, and just spend some other money instead.
Not terrible, but if there is no earned income, I don’t think you can contribute to a Roth.
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Oh I thought there was pay for working at the elections? I wasn’t sure how many days of counting were involved at $160/day.
Agree completely that one cannot fund a Roth without earned income.
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My mistake, I thought you were replying to @Youdon_tsay and looks like you were responding @kelsmom.
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My husband is doing conversions from his 401K to a Roth…and he has zero earned income.
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Conversions are not considered contributions.
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WOO HOO! Congrats on the upcoming retirement.
Yesterday I read something where a wealth advisor said he feels good if his analysis yields 75 to 80% odds of money holding out. And you are doing even better! Continue to track your spending (some regular expenses, some splurges) so you can revisit the numbers down the road.
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Correct. You just need to pay taxes on what you withdraw from IRA. My plan is use my after tax money to fund my spending before 75 and withdraw enough from IRA to convert to Roth to keep my tax rate at 15%.
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And we are also keeping an eye on our Medicare premium…we don’t want to go into the higher bracket for that either.
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As a married couple, you have a fair bit of headroom before you hit the first IRMAA penalty. MAGI of $218K is the penalty cliff whereas taxable income of $218K MFJ triggers the 24% bracket (but only at $211K).
The challenge is to guess/predict the future for both Fed tax rate changes and when the first spouse will die, because the single brackets are half the width of the married, at least until you hit the 35% bracket.
Triggering the first IRMAA will cost $2300/yr for a couple. It might be worth converting at 24% Fed to the top of the first IRMAA bracket of $274K. Or might not.
Definitely worth looking at the single tax brackets.
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You have a unique situation in many ways. I believe you also are still working.
DH retired at 64 1/2 and I retired at age 65. We are now 70 (I turn 70 in a few months).
IMHO you need to check required minimum distributions and see how taxes work for time before RMD.
In our years of relatively low federal taxes before RMDs, we are in our 2nd year of withdrawing some money from 401k and putting it into our own personal stock account. In part because we will have to spend down on pre-tax retirement funds on a schedule when we are at RMDs in 3 years.
We are leaving our Roth IRAs alone. We did some Roth conversions for a few years but realized we need to have access to cash with some life transitions - and also having generally accessible funds that are after tax funds. We moved some 401k money into our personal stock account last year, and intend to do it again this year.
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Is there any way to check if somebody else has filed their taxes? I
I’ve assume the answer is no (privacy reasons), but there have been two recent situations I’ve wondered. 1) parents extended and claim their accounted has since filed… my gut says they are remembering last year. 2) friend is an executor, not sure how far he needs to go back - I’ve advised consulting with estate attorney.
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As an executor, you definitely can find out if the deceased filed taxes. I know this because my executor brother had to file back taxes for my deceased brother (all back taxes had to be filed before the final estate tax return could be filed). He spent a lot of time on the phone with a wonderful IRS employee who helped him through it.
In your parents’ situation, I don’t think you could find out anything without power of attorney - and even then, it might not be an easy task. I think an elder care attorney might know the options, if any.
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No idea, but I have a surprising number of friends who discover their parents or other relatives have quit paying taxes. I hope you get answers.
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Some seniors quit filing federal taxes when IRS sends letter saying income way too low, don’t bother. The clip level is very low. Per google… For the 2026 tax year, single filers aged 65 or older generally stop having to file if their gross income is below $18,150, while married couples both aged 65 or older can stop if their combined gross income is below $35,500.
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Understood. That was not the case in the situations I know.
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LOL - kick the can down the road, let the heir/kiddos untangle the mess
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Even with mild cognitive decline filing taxes may feel insurmountable to many older adults. The last few times my dad did theirs it took hours and hours even with turbo tax. And he was cognitively all there. Once he died my mom was helpless (I’ve done them for her since then). Even finding an accountant and gathering up the documentation would have been too much for her as well as unnecessary given her low income. I asked her for her 1099-R this year and she literally had no clue what I was talking about (I got a duplicate from the financial advisor). Her income is pretty low and her taxes relatively simple but it’s definitely high enough she has to file.
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It’s good the advisor had it. I thought they only got mailed to the retiree.
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My father’s lawyer, who manages all his finances for him, stopped filing his taxes several years ago. I am sure because his income level is so low.
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