Chapter 1: What are the tax benefits of retirement accounts?
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You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Marielle. Tax day has passed, so you don't have to think about your taxes for another year, right? Nah, that's wrong. You could be making better choices now that'll save you money in taxes in 2026, like putting some money into a retirement account.
Chapter 2: What are the main types of retirement accounts?
The taxation of retirement accounts is probably the most misunderstood concept of investing. And what I hate is that it creates this real roadblock to people getting started.
This is Amanda Holden, financial educator and author of the book, How to Be a Rich Old Lady. Now, the thing is, many of us were never taught how to do all this. And even if we know a little bit about it, the details get complicated.
What we know is that tax law in the U.S. is like this haunted patchwork doll that has been added to and amended over time. And you can think of retirement accounts as just one cursed limb of the creation.
Spooky. But don't worry.
Chapter 3: How does a traditional retirement account work?
On this episode of Life Kit, I'm going to walk you through this. We will talk about how retirement accounts save you money on taxes, what the two main types of accounts are, and why it often doesn't matter that much which one you prioritize. That's after the break. As a financial educator, Amanda is constantly getting this question. What's better, a 401k or a Roth IRA? Her answer?
All retirement accounts are good. Retirement accounts are basically bank accounts that hold investments. And one reason everybody's always telling you to put money in them is that the stock market allows you to generate much higher returns than if you just put your savings in a regular bank account. This is former Planet Money co-host Mary Childs.
Chapter 4: What are the advantages of using a Roth retirement account?
As the economy around you is growing and more transactions are happening and businesses are growing, stocks are going to be going up and you want to be a part of that. You don't want to get left behind. So that's a reason to invest in general. A good one. But the reason to put your retirement savings into one of these special retirement-specific accounts... That is all about taxes.
Amanda writes in her book that you can think of retirement accounts as a kind of tax shelter for your investments, a container where your money can grow, shielded from taxes while it does. And that's takeaway one. Retirement accounts are not just a vehicle to let your money grow over time for when you're ready to stop working. They also have tax benefits.
Chapter 5: How do tax rates affect retirement account choices?
Now, there are two main types of retirement accounts.
Because, of course, they had to make multiple different types of retirement accounts. It couldn't just be simple.
On the one hand, you have your traditional accounts. That could be an IRA, a 401K, a 403B, something like that. With these, you take a certain amount of your income and shield it from taxes. Mark Gallegos is a CPA and a tax partner at the accounting firm Portie Brown in the Chicago area. He gave me an example.
Let's just say I decided to contribute $20,000 to my 401k.
And let's say he currently pays about 25% of his income to the government in taxes.
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Chapter 6: What should you prioritize: traditional or Roth accounts?
Now he won't have to pay taxes on $20,000 of that income because it's going into a tax shelter. So the math is 25% savings on $20,000.
It would save you $5,000 in tax savings.
And then after you invest the money, it grows tax-free.
As it's growing, as it's earning dividends, interest, capital gains, and the value is going up, you're paying zero tax on any of that money in a given year.
So that's the cool thing, right?
In a way, you're using the government's money to help grow your retirement.
You will only pay taxes once you start making withdrawals, ideally in retirement. The reason this setup works to a lot of people's advantage is that you will very likely have a lower tax rate when you retire than you do now because your income will probably be lower. So take somebody with a 25 percent tax rate.
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Chapter 7: Why is it important to start investing in retirement accounts now?
They retire with a million dollars in their 401k and they withdraw what they need to live their life.
But they don't have the same level of income in that given year because now they're retired. Maybe they have a little bit of investment income like interest dividends. They got their social security. But their income is substantially lower. So maybe they're in the 10% tax bracket. So that's the benefit.
When you pull the money out, your income is substantially lower because you're really not working anymore hypothetically. Therefore, you're paying tax on this grown nest egg at a lower tax rate.
Takeaway two, with the traditional kind of retirement account, the 401k, the 403b, the IRA, you take a certain amount of your income and you shield it from taxes.
Chapter 8: What are the best strategies for retirement savings?
Then your money grows tax-free and you only pay taxes when you start withdrawing it later on. And the thinking here is that you'll likely have a lower tax rate in retirement than you do now because your income will probably be lower. After the break, I'll walk you through the other main type of retirement account and its benefits. And we'll also talk about how to choose between them.
Spoiler, you don't necessarily have to choose. Before the break, we talked about traditional retirement plans. On the other hand, you have Roth accounts, and you'll recognize these because they all say Roth in the title. Roth IRA, Roth 401k, Roth 403b.
Roth is the reverse. You are paying income taxes up front, but later on, you won't have to pay any income taxes when you pull the money out.
Which means you'll never pay taxes on your investment profits. Roth accounts are an especially good option for folks who currently have a low tax rate, for instance, because they have a low income. Here's one scenario Mark gave me.
Let's just say an 18-year-old is working through school and they're making a part-time job and they decide, hey, I've got some earned income. I'm going to contribute a bunch of it to my Roth IRA that I just set up and then I start working and I got a Roth 401k and I'm maxing this Roth out along the way. And now that money grows to $2 or $3 million by the time they're 65 years old.
When they decide to start taking that money out when they're retired, guess what? They didn't get a deduction along the way for any of that because it's after tax money, but that amount of income coming out, $50,000, $100,000, whatever you're getting given here, tax-free.
But that's not the only reason to put money in a Roth. Here's another advantage they have over traditional plans. If you make early withdrawals from a traditional plan, you'll pay a penalty. But because you've already paid taxes on your contributions to a Roth, you can withdraw those at any time, penalty-free. There are more restrictions about when you can withdraw the investment gains.
You're incentivized to wait until retirement for that money. There are other differences between the accounts, too, having to do with income limits and contribution limits. We won't get into those details here because they're very complicated and depend in part on what plans are available to you.
But takeaway three, Roth retirement accounts are also tax advantaged, but they work in a different way. You pay taxes up front, but then you'll never have to pay taxes on all your investment gains. Now, Amanda says which type of account you should prioritize right now, traditional or Roth, depends in part on your current tax rate.
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