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| BondsOnline.com: instant access to and extensive coverage of over 3.5 million stocks, bonds, indexes and other securities covering major and emerging markets and exchanges across the globe. |
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| Bonds Online |
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| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
|---|
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S&P National Bond Index
|
3.00% |
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S&P California Bond Index
|
2.96% |
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S&P New York Bond Index
|
3.13% |
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S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
|
0.70% |
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| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
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| More |
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| Income Equities: |
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| Preferred Stocks |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
|
848.03 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
|
636.26 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
|
1,701.05 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
|
1,276.26 |
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| REITs |
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S&P REIT Index
|
174.07 |
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S&P REIT Index (TR)
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425.30 |
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| MLPs |
|---|
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S&P MLP Index
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2,469.58 |
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S&P MLP Index (TR)
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5,428.50 |
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See Data
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Raiding the Future to Pay for Today |
The Motley Fool - April 27, 2011 - By Chuck Saletta
According to a recent Bankrate survey, in 2010 nearly one out of every five Americans raided their retirement money to cover urgent financial needs. Even more alarmingly, around 17% of people with full-time jobs tapped their retirement plans early. That combination is a tragedy on many levels.
For one thing, it's a sign that times are still tough for far too many people. For another, it suggests that a lot of folks have been living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little saved aside from their invested retirement accounts. And to make an already bad situation worse, tapping retirement money early often leads to penalties on top of ordinary income taxes on the withdrawn amounts.
But perhaps the biggest long-term risk from those raids is the risk of never being able to retire, driven by the loss of compounding from the money that's no longer working on their behalf.
Stem the bleeding
While little can likely be done for those who've exhausted all other options and desperately need the money now, there are ways to minimize the impact of such a move. For one, there are legitimate exceptions to the tax penalty on early withdrawals. Those include situations like:
- Substantially equal periodic payments,
- Permanent disability or death of an account holder,
- Excessive medical expenses or health insurance premiums if unemployed, or
- Education or some first-time home buying expenses.
While not ideal by any stretch, if you find yourself in a situation where your only option is to tap your retirement accounts early, check to see if you can qualify to avoid the penalties. Because if you do qualify, that's less of your precious retirement money lost without doing you any good.
For the complete article.
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| Stuff to look at |
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Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
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