Podcast Episode - Ask Suze & KT Anything: What is The Safest Way To Rollover My Retirement Accounts?

Listen to Podcast Episode:

On this episode of Ask Suze & KT Anything, Suze answers questions about the best ways to rollover a retirement account, real estate tax exemptions, life estates and more.

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Podcast Transcript:

00:00:31

KT: Come on, you can do it.

00:00:34

Suze: All right everybody, I'm trying my best. I know. I'm supposed to be saying, November 17^th, 2022 but all I want to do is laugh.

00:00:43

KT: No laughing. It's November 17^th, we have a lot to get through. And we're going to first tell you about great news from Alliant.

00:00:52

Suze: But wait, wait, KT.

00:00:55

Suze: You've got to welcome everybody.

00:00:57

KT: It's the Women & Money podcast. There's 400 odd episodes, you know about it.

00:01:02

Suze: What if they're listening to the first time? We're growing by 100,000 listeners a month.

00:01:07

KT: You just hit the jackpot today on November 17^th.

00:01:12

Suze: And why is that?

00:01:13

KT: Because we not only have an amazing selection of questions which Suze will answer and give you great advice. I selected these questions. Many of them are about a Roth so listen up. But before we get

00:01:27

KT: there, were going to tell you why you hit the jackpot. Alliant has a sweepstakes. They're giving away money.

00:01:35

Suze: Oh you bet they are, KT! In fact everybody, they are giving away $10,000 to 2 people.

00:01:47

Suze: Get what that means? Two of you can win $10,000 in the Suze Holiday Sweepstakes with Alliant Credit Union. Doesn't that just sound like Bob Barker or one of those people on TV? But anyway, that's besides the point. But here seriously is what I want you to know. If you're already a member at Alliant Credit Union

00:02:12

Suze: via the Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account or checking account, don't worry, you are automatically entered into the sweepstakes. Now.

00:02:23

Suze: Alliant has sent an email to all of the Ultimate Opportunity Savings members, and in that email you will find a link. And what you do with that link, is if you simply copy it,

00:02:40

Suze: and then send it to a friend who doesn't yet have an Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account, send them that link, and if they open up an account, they fund it with $100, here's what's so fabulous about that. You get another entry into

00:03:00

Suze: the sweepstakes, and your friend gets an entry into the sweepstakes. So if you keep doing that, you could have a whole lot of entries into this $10,000 sweepstakes for two people. Now. If you are one of the new people who don't have an idea of what I'm talking about, what is the Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account?

00:03:25

Suze: Well this was an account that was created two years ago with Alliant Credit Union to help all of you save. Where you simply opened up the account, put in $100 a month for 12 consecutive months, at the end of those 12 months, Alliant would give you $100. They're currently also giving you 2.5% interest on that money.

00:03:51

Suze: So if you want to be part of the sweepstakes, if you want to be part of the Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account family, then you would go to myalliant.com, and it's there where you would open up an Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account

00:04:10

Suze: and learn more about how you can participate in the sweepstakes. And by the way, you don't have to learn a lot because as soon as you've opened up the account, you are automatically entered once you funded it for $100, you are automatically entered into

00:04:28

Suze: the Suze holiday sweepstakes. That is what you need to know. So let's get on it everybody. All right, KT, what do you got for me today?

00:04:39

KT: Hi, Suze.

00:04:41

KT: You ready? I have some great questions for you, but are you ready?

00:04:46

Suze: I am. We just got through that. I have to say it's such a...

00:04:50

KT: we laughed all morning because we were talking about Thanksgiving, her favorite holiday of the year. And she can't wait because for two years, we had no company. It was just me, Suze and Colo eating

00:05:04

KT: the biggest Turkey on earth. And now we have 16 guests, 16 family members around the table. We're very, very excited. Very excited. Suze can't wait. Suze my first email is not a question, it's from Teresa. But she has something really great to share. And because we're in the season of thanks, this is a big thank you to you Suze.

00:05:34

KT: It says Suze. This email is to thank you. I watched your Saturday night show for many years, I was in $20,000 of credit card debt in 2007. That was a serious year everybody. And I applied your principles, and have recently retired with a large retirement income. Almost $20,000 a month with pensions and investments.

00:06:03

KT: I

00:06:04

KT: worked

00:06:06

KT: 2 to 3 jobs after I started listening to you in 2008. I paid off my credit card debt, my house and I saved a lot. She and then she says what she did, she was a nurse practitioner and nursing professor. And she said I worked and worked and worked.

00:06:26

KT: I will be eternally grateful to you for your guidance to me, and listen to all of your podcasts. May God bless you richly and KT to for all your days. Love Teresa.

00:06:41

Suze: You know what I love most about this email?

00:06:44

KT: What?

00:06:45

Suze: And Teresa thank you so much. When I get emails like that, I can't tell you have goose bumps all over right now, goose bumps because

00:06:54

Suze: you know for years for 40 years, I've been doing this and it's you know, you talk into a microphone, you look into a camera, and it's so rewarding when you actually hear back from the people that you so hope that you have touched. But the real reason KT, that I love that you chose this is because of this following reason.

00:07:15

Suze: Sometimes so many of you out there feel so hopeless. You feel that you're in credit card debt, why should you get out? You're never gonna be able to make it, you might as well just charge to the max, have a great time now, and do all of these things. 2007 was just 15 years ago right now.

00:07:37

Suze: In 15 short years, look, look what she did. And Teresa is no different than every single one of you.

00:07:50

Suze: But she had the drive, the willing to work, to save, to live below her means but within her needs, and she did it.

00:08:01

Suze: And I just know that if Teresa can do it, you can do it. And so this is a great great email to instill hope for all of you who may feel like

00:08:14

Suze: you'll never get out of debt and there's nothing you can do.

00:08:17

KT: And look at what she's retired with. I mean that's

00:08:20

Suze: a lot of money. Okay.

00:08:24

KT: Next is from Patricia. And this is a question. Good morning Suze. I recently sold my home and netted $368,000. But when I purchased the home,

00:08:37

KT: I put 125,000 down. My question is, do I have to pay capital gains tax when the 125 that I put down was already my money before that before the sale? Because the mortgage company sent the info into the IRS, do I qualify for the 250,000 tax exemption because I lived there for seven years as my primary residence?

00:09:07

KT: Thank you for all you do.

00:09:09

Suze: So do you want this to be your pop quizzie?

00:09:11

KT: No way.

00:09:13

Suze: Alright.

00:09:14

KT: No because I'm not sure how. You tell me the answer and then make it a pop quiz.

00:09:18

Suze: KT only wants quizzes that she knows the answers to. Wouldn’t life be easy if that's how it always worked. Aright. Patricia,

00:09:27

Suze: here's what you need to know. First of all the $125,000 that you put down is not going to be taxable to you. A very quick calculation. If you got $368,000 back and $125,000 of that was your original deposit that you put down, you actually probably had a gain of about $243,000. Every one of you is allowed.

00:09:57

Suze: When you own a home, $250,000 of an exemption, if you lived in that home as your primary residency for two out of the past five years. So maybe, right, you owned that home. You rented it for a little bit. And then you move back into it or whatever it may be, as long as you lived there for two out of the past five years,

00:10:27

Suze: as your primary residency, when you sell that home, you get a $250,000 exemption. If you own it with somebody else, they get a $250,000 exemption as well. If three of you owned it, you each get a $250,000 exemption. That's number one. (KT: I didn’t know that.) Well you do now.

00:10:55

Suze: What are you looking like that for?

00:10:58

KT: Is it $250,000 each person?

00:10:59

Suze: Yes.

00:11:01

Suze: So the

00:11:01

Suze: two of us own a home. Together we sell it, we get a $500,000

00:11:06

Suze: exemption.

00:11:07

Suze: So Patricia, you really have very very little to

00:11:12

Suze: worry about. Number one if I did my calculations correctly, I do not think on any level that you're not only not going to have to pay taxes on 125,000 that you put down, which you are not, but I don't think you're going to owe any capital gains tax on this home either.

00:11:32

KT: Okay. Next question is from Susan. She said hello Suze, could selling a Treasury note or bond in an IRA before maturity possibly cause a loss? I plan to hold them until maturity, but wonder what would happen if they are sold earlier because one

00:11:53

KT: RMDs in the traditional IRA require me to sell, number two when I die, and my IRA beneficiary sells, if either of these could possibly cause a loss at my age, would you advise limiting long term treasury investments to notes but not to 20 or 30 year bonds.

00:12:16

KT: Now, what is her age 65. She's 65. There you go.

00:12:22

Suze: Alright, should that have been your quizzie?

00:12:25

KT: Well yeah.

00:12:26

Suze: All right everybody we're having a switch up for the quizzie. Usually it's at the end of the podcast, but this is where normally I asked KT and all of you a question,

00:12:38

Suze: to see if you know the answer to it or not. The question is this. Could selling a Treasury note or bond, doesn't matter if it's an IRA or not, but just first could selling a Treasury note or bond

00:12:56

Suze: before maturity possibly cause a loss. Yes or no.

00:13:02

KT: Yes.

00:13:03

Suze: How does it cause a loss?

00:13:04

KT: Because you're selling it before the maturity date. You get a penalty. There's a penalty.

00:13:10

Suze: You're positive on that. That's why you would get a loss.

00:13:15

KT: Yes.  (Suze makes the wrong answer noise) All right. Ask me part two.

00:13:19

KT: Darn it, go to part two. What's the next part?

00:13:24

Suze: Alright. And part two is well

00:13:28

Suze: here

00:13:29

Suze: she goes again. It doesn't have to be about Roth's people. It could be about - her new thing is Treasuries are driving her crazy. Series I bonds are driving her crazy.

00:13:40

Suze: Alright, so the first answer Susan is of course it could possibly cause a loss. Remember a Treasury note or bond has a maturity date, and between the day that you buy it and the date it matures when you're guaranteed to get your money back, it fluctuates in value, it goes up in value. If interest rates go down

00:14:09

Suze: and it goes down in value, if interest rates continue up it goes up in value. Therefore depending on when you sell it, if you bought it and now all of a sudden interest rates skyrocketed. Let's say you bought a Treasury note a year or so ago and now you need to sell it before it matures, chances are you are absolutely going to take a loss on it.

00:14:35

Suze: That's how it works. However, you're 65 years of age. I think you have more of a chance in the long run of interest rates going down than them continuing to go up for years to come. However, if this is something that worries you,

00:14:57

Suze: then limit your maturities to six months, three months, one year, so that you don't have to worry about that.

00:15:06

KT: So that's part two. Don't buy 20 and 30 year.

00:15:09

Suze: No. Right. And you know, I wouldn't be buying 20 or 30-year Treasuries right now anyway. Right. Because we'll see what happens. We may have missed it, but I still think Treasury interest rates will come down, and then eventually go back up again. And that's when.

00:15:26

Suze: However, KT, if she bought

00:15:29

Suze: a 20 or 30-year Treasury bond, and interest rates started to go down and down and down,

00:15:39

Suze: and then she could sell it while she was still alive and make a profit, or beneficiaries would then sell it at a gain, not a loss. Alright. There you go. Alright go

00:15:54

Suze: on.

00:15:55

KT: So next is from Gillian.

00:15:57

Suze: So she got her quizze wrong, everybody. There will be no quizzie at the end of this podcast because she already just did.

00:16:05

KT: We can do another one.

00:16:06

Suze: No, no, the one. We can only take one a podcast. Trust me.

00:16:14

KT: She can't go EHHH too many times.  Alright, ready. Next is from Gillian. I have a Traditional IRA, I've been contributing to it since January 2014. Can I switch it to a Roth IRA? Well why not? Why not?

00:16:31

Suze: Gillian, KT's right. Why not? But you just have to know any amount you convert

00:16:39

Suze: from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you will pay income taxes on it. Here we are, almost at the end of the year.

00:16:49

Suze: So if I were going to do it, I would be converting some this year and then some next year to divide the tax burden. You might want to see a CPA before you do this. So you know the amount that you should convert without putting you in a higher income tax bracket. But everybody, if you're thinking about converting,

00:17:11

Suze: why not do some this year and some next year since we're almost at the end of the year. KT.

00:17:17

KT: Alright, next is from Alison. I have a couple of these um Roth questions. You ready? I have a 401k with my past employer. And I want to get it out of there Suze.

00:17:31

KT: The company is not doing well. My current job has a 403 b. Can I roll this into it or should I put it somewhere else?

00:17:41

Suze: Yeah, if I were you, I would put it somewhere else. I would absolutely do an IRA rollover with your 401k,

00:17:48

Suze: Okay, but I would not make a mistake where I had the company send me the check, and then I deposited it into an IRA. Open your IRA rollover first, at a discount brokerage firms such as TD Ameritrade,

00:18:06

Suze: Schwab, Fidelity. Any of them, I don't care which one you use. Right? And then have your new custodian at that brokerage firm contact your ex-employer for them to send the check directly from the ex-employer to your new account. Got that? That's what I would do if I were you. Alright? Yeah, KT.

 00:18:29

KT: This next question from Meena is, I think it's a trick question.

00:18:35

KT: Hi Suze, because of the stock market value going down, I've closed an old 401k account I had with Fidelity which had 25,000 in it. Fidelity sent me a check for $19,000 because of the 20% withholding tax. Now this is the trick part of the

00:18:56

KT: question. How can I invest it somewhere with no risk of losing money?

00:19:02

Suze: She's already lost a lot of money. Let me tell you why my dear Meena. You just did exactly what I said to the last person who wrote in not to do. The reason that you had $25,000 in there,

00:19:17

Suze: and now you only got $19,000, is because when an ex employer sends you a check or even your current employer because you've just retired, right? And they send you directly a check. They have to withhold 20% of the amount that they are sending you for taxes. Okay?

00:19:41

Suze: So they withheld close to $6,000 or 20% essentially of what you had in there. Number, one.

00:19:51

Suze: You now have gone from a pre-tax situation,

00:19:57

Suze: You had them send you a check,

00:20:00

Suze: you have 60 days from the date of that check to get it into an IRA account, otherwise you are going to owe taxes on all $25,000. And, if you are not 59 a half year of age,

00:20:22

Suze: you're gonna also owe a 10% penalty on that money. So that's the first thing you need to know. So you've already lost money, because you didn't know how to do this properly. However,

00:20:38

Suze: there are two things that you can do to rectify this. I'm hoping that this is within a 60 day period of time from when they sent you the check. Your email is dated November 14^th. So I think we're probably going to be okay. Alright? Therefore. You are to open up an IRA rollover account. Actually it's now it's just an IRA account. Because you have the check.

00:21:04

Suze: And you are going to go and you are going to deposit this check for $19,000 into that account immediately.

00:21:13

Suze: Number one. Number two. They have already now withheld $6,000 from you. If you don't go into your savings and put that $6,000 that they've withheld into the account,

00:21:31

Suze: you are going to owe income tax on that $6,000, plus a 10% penalty tax if you are not 59.5 years of age or older. That is why I always tell all of you only do a custodian-to-custodian transfer.

00:21:48

Suze: So if you don't want to pay taxes on that $6,000,

00:21:54

Suze: then find $6,000 from somewhere if you have it. And do what? Put it into the IRA rollover account that you will have opened, now you have $25,000 in there, you don't have any taxes, you don't have any penalties, you're all fine. Eventually you'll get that $6,000 back from the IRS that the IRS withheld,

 00:22:16

Suze: and now we're doing great. Now within your IRA rollover you might decide to convert little by little into a Roth IRA, and then you might want to think about if you don't want to lose any money whatsoever. Listen to the podcast on buying treasury bills and notes in a Roth I. R. A. 00:22:42

Suze: Alright girlfriend. That's what you need to do today today. If you let 60 days pass from the date that check, 00:22:51

Suze: you're screwed. All right go on.

00:22:53

KT: So listen to this one. This is from Nicole. Alright another Roth everybody.

00:22:58

KT: Hi Suze. And then she wrote the reason I picked this. It made me smile. Sorry for the Roth question KT. But it's a good question. She said. So this is the response I received from my financial planner when I told him I wanted to purchase two year Treasury notes in my Roth.

00:23:17

Suze: Can't wait to hear this.

00:23:18

KT: Right. And this is the response that he wrote back to her.

00:23:22

KT: As for the Roth, let's discuss. Your Roth gives you tax free growth for the long term. Short term Treasuries are kind of like a promise that you will underperform inflation. I would never recommend buying them in a Roth. You need growth. Your Roth is the best possible place for that, and you can't time the market. So that was the response that Nicole got back. All right, Suze.

00:23:52

Suze: Oh, Nicole,

00:23:53

KT: I can tell by the ugh that you’re not happy.

00:23:57

Suze: Well, first of all, one of the reasons in my opinion that financial advisors don't want to put Treasuries usually in an account or Roth is they don't make any money off of them. Number one. However, I cannot disagree with that more if I tried. When you have money in a Roth. Yes, it gives you tax free growth.

00:24:22

Suze: If your account happens to grow.

00:24:26

Suze: What if you invest a year ago, or in January, and now you're invested in such a way where you're down 50 or 70% in that account?

00:24:39

Suze: And that is upsetting you. That is like driving you crazy, and you can't sleep at night. So yes, it can give you tax-free growth,

00:24:50

Suze: but also, it does not provide any write offs for losses in what you have purchased. That's number one. I just want you to put a pin in that for a second. Okay.

00:25:05

Suze: Yes short term Treasuries right now are absolutely paying you less than inflation.

00:25:12

Suze: But they happen to be giving you a secured interest rate that's guaranteed to you for possibly one or two years until the stock market works itself out. Now if the stock market goes straight up from here, you would have been better off invested in stocks. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.

00:25:35

Suze: But I most certainly would love to know that I am guaranteed to get 4.5% or whatever it is on my money, for two years while inflation and the market is working itself out.

00:25:50

Suze: When interest rates start to go down,

00:25:54

Suze: at that point, and inflation has gone down, now you have money that's grown at 4.5%, that maybe you will take and invest in the stock market at that point in time.

00:26:08

Suze: But is he saying in here, that Treasuries is like a promise that you'll underperform inflation, and that stocks promise you that you will outperform inflation which is 7% right now?

00:26:23

Suze: Really? Maybe yes, maybe no. So the other thing I know I'm going along on this but I need you to understand this, is that I would have no problem outside of a retirement account, buying stocks for growth, and all of that because then as they grow,

00:26:44

Suze: alright so I pay a capital gains tax. But if they lose, I get to write the loss off against other things that I have growth in. So I don't have a problem with that on any level. So I just disagree with him.

00:27:01

Suze: And I think the bottom line is this. It's your money. And what happens to your money directly affects the quality of your life, nobody else's life. Not my life, not his life. So Nicole. You do what makes you feel secure. Got that?

00:27:19

Suze: Next question, KT.

00:27:20

KT: All right, this is from Mark. Hi, Suze. I'm a beneficiary of a large family inherited estate and have separate assets. I'm currently in a divorce, and would like to know what you think about life estates. My former spouse currently lives in our fully paid house, and I'm worried about having to maintain a house from my assets.

00:27:47

KT: I receive no return, and would still be entangled with my ex-wife for ongoing maintenance and management of the property. Do you recommend life estates?

00:27:57

Suze: Not in this situation my dear Mark. A life estate, usually is, let's say it's a second marriage.

00:28:08

Suze: And you have kids from your first marriage. And KT, you and I are living together and I have kids, God forbid. Right? But I have kids and I want my kids to get this house that's just in my name. But KT, I want to make sure that you're taken care of for your entire life.

00:28:30

Suze: So I create a life estate, which says you are allowed to live in this house for as long as you want to,

here's the money, here's everything. You can do so. But upon your death,

00:28:45

Suze: it goes to my kids, they cannot sell it out from under you, you get to stay here as long as you want. Okay. That's a life estate because I care about you and I want to make sure you're okay.

00:29:02

Suze: Now we're getting divorced. And I don't necessarily care about you quite as much and I actually don't want to pay for you. I don't want to have to be entangled with you on any level. So therefore, why would I create a life estate for you?

00:29:17

Suze: What

00:29:18

Suze: I would do is I would absolutely my dear Mark, put the house on the market. You should absolutely sell it if that means you have to pay rent for her for a long time or whatever. Okay? But I would not be doing a life estate in this situation under any circumstance whatsoever.

00:29:39

KT: All right, that I'm glad we're not getting a divorce. Whoa.

00:29:44

Suze: You don't have to worry.

00:29:45

KT: Why?

00:29:46

Suze: You don't you have to worry. Whose name is this house in?

00:29:49

KT: In my name. The Island houses in my name. Well, actually, all our property is joint names.

00:29:58

Suze: It’s in limited liability companies.

00:30:00

KT: Okay.

00:30:00

Suze: KT really owns it. All. All right, go on.

00:30:03

KT: All right.

00:30:04

KT: I don't own the boat though. That's in your name. Right. Yeah. That's our boat.

00:30:09

Suze: $250,000 boat vs - never Mind. Go on.

00:30:12

KT: Alright. Ready. Okay. So, so this is not a question. This is a thank you. And I want to end today's podcast with something I so want all of you to do, because I just did this. It's from Sandy. And Sandy said hi Suze.

00:30:29

KT: Just renewed my dentalplans.com and was able to benefit from your 25% discount. Thank you so much. So listen everybody, I'll let Suze comment on this. But Sandy, I'm thrilled that you renewed the dental plans. And I tell everyone I know get this dental plan. And my niece Katie has two little boys who need braces.

00:30:56

KT: So, Katie just told me that she's looking now for a dentist that is in the program, so that her boys can get braces with the dental plan, and they will save thousands and thousands

00:31:10

Suze: of dollars. Alright, so first of all, KT, I just have to tell you something before we end.

00:31:17

Suze: So, we love dentalplans.com. And all of you. By the way, if you want to learn more about a dental savings plan, which is not a dental insurance policy, maybe it's 150 a year for a whole lot of services. It's what KT and I use. And by the way, I have to use it because I have to have a bridge replaced, so it's gonna save me probably $2500 just so you know.

00:31:46

Suze: So you would go to dentalplans.com, and find out more about it. And if you want the 25% off deal, just use the code Suze. At the checkout. Alright, that's all you have to do. Suze S-U-Z-E. Deal. D-E-A-L

 00:32:03

Suze: at the checkout. Or I have it directly on my Women & Money app. There's a lot of money to be saved. Again. Just go to dentalplans.com and look at what they're all about. And I promise you you're going to save a lot of money. Okay?

00:32:20

Suze: You know what time it is? Right, KT.

00:32:22

KT: Yeah. It's time to tell everyone to be safe, strong and secure.

00:32:28

KT: We have Thanksgiving coming up a week from today, you're going to be having the best podcast experience of your life. Save room for pie.

00:32:40

Suze: Anyway, everybody truthfully until Sunday when we're gonna have a Sunday school, I think all about Social Security and what they are proposing

00:32:55

Suze: in terms of how they want to change it. And I think it's time that we really start taking their changes seriously because it will probably affect every one of you when it happens. Alright. Until then there's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to you and your money. What is it?

00:33:13

KT: Everybody we want you to be smart, strong and

00:33:17

Suze: Secure. Now, all of you stay safe. See you on Sunday. Bye bye now.

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