The Retirement Savings Time Bomb . . . and How to Defuse It

January 1, 2003
As if the stock market hadn't been bad enough lately, sinking and taking the nation's retirement funds along with it, now IRA expert Slott has news of an additional nightmare: the IRS is eager to take a monstrous chunk out of whatever's left. Slott asserts the importance of recognizing what he calls playing the back nine, or understanding that however much you've saved over the years, it won't matter much if you haven't protected it from the taxman. Indeed, the author shares the story of one schoolteacher whose heroic efforts to stash away $1.2 million for her two children went for naught when the IRS claimed all but $150,000 for each child. A few of Slott's prescriptions: take your required distributions so you don't get hit with additional taxes; buy life insurance to offset the estate taxes that will bite into your IRA upon your death; and take advantage of the Roth IRA, which hands you your money tax-free upon retirement. Though 401(k)s, IRAs and taxes in general are notoriously complicated subjects, Slott distills the morass of information into useful strategies while striking a note that's alarmist enough to scare anyone with a retirement fund.