Personal Finance For Dummies, 9th Edition

Chapter 11

Investing in Retirement Accounts

IN THIS CHAPTER

Deciding among retirement accounts

Determining how to allocate money in retirement accounts

Moving your retirement account to a new investment firm

This chapter helps you make sense of the various retirement account options and decide how to invest money you currently hold inside — or plan to contribute to — retirement accounts. (To see how much money you should be saving toward retirement, see Chapter 4.)

Looking at Types of Retirement Accounts

Retirement accounts offer numerous benefits. In most cases, your contributions to retirement accounts are tax-deductible. And when you place your money inside the retirement account, it compounds without taxation until you withdraw it. (Some accounts, such as the Roth IRA, even allow for tax-free withdrawal of investment earnings.) If you’re not a high-income earner, you may be eligible for a tax credit for making retirement account contributions — please refer to Table 7-2 in Chapter 7. The following sections detail the types of retirement accounts and explain how to determine whether you’re eligible and how to make the best use of them.

Employer-sponsored plans

Your employer ...