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Health & Fitness

Stop procrastinating, tune-up your IRA now!

Reader Question: The past few years I’ve gotten so busy with my job and kids, I realized I haven’t looked at my savings accounts in years.  What should I be thinking about when I look at my IRA? 

Laura: We all make resolutions to get on top of our financial situation with the New Year and then…..don’t.  If you’re like most and still haven’t checked up on your IRA this year, stop waiting and do it while the kids are back in the school and we have a calm before the holiday season starts.

Here are 4 tips to make it painless.

  1. Check whether you’ve contributed this year – if not, do it now.  Your expenses will likely go up with the holidays, so make your contributions now and spread it out over a few months if you need to.  For 2013, the maximum you can contribute to all of your traditional and Roth IRAs is  $5,500 ($6,500 if you’re age 50 or older) assuming you had at least that much taxable compensation for the year.
  2. Check your beneficiaries – is your beneficiary still your roommate from 1995 who you no longer even talk to?  Time to update it and make sure that if anything happens to you, your assets go to those important to you today
  3. Consider rolling over old 401(k)s – for some people, out of site is out of mind, once you've left a job you never look at their old 401(k) again.  While there may be good reasons to keep a 401(k) separate, if you find you never look at it and would prefer to have your money in one place, consider rolling them over.
  4. Evaluate your investments against your overall portfolio– an IRA is one piece of your overall portfolio.  You may have made allocations years ago and your financial situation is very different today.  Take a look at your allocations and consider whether those investment decisions still make sense given your current life and your whole financial picture.
Don't feel bad, but do take action now.  The longer you wait the more overwhelming it gets!

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