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Every week I run into a few articles that I feel are especially valuable, so each Monday I plan to share some of the best with you, my readers. I hope you find them helpful.
This week’s favorites include: why the new presidential candidates are not going to save you from paying your student loans, what is “average” when it comes to retirement savings, some of the differences between retiring at 41 (FIRE) vs 65 (Traditional), the spousal IRA for the non-working spouse, and when does your child have to file a tax return.
Happy reading!
I have heard a lot of talk about doctors wanting to wait to pay their student loans until they see who wins the election next fall, since some of the candidates are talking about student loan forgiveness. The White Coat Investor makes it very clear why Warren’s and Sanders’ Loan Forgiveness Plans Wont’s Save You. “Rich” doctors are not likely to be included in this since both candidates think the rich are already too rich. Just pay off your loans like a good borrower. If you need help with your debt, get a copy of The Doctors Guide to Eliminating Debt.
How much have you saved for retirement? J Money from Budgets are Sexy put together a few facts from the recent TD Ameritrade’s Road to Retirement report which he called How do you compare with your retirement savings? It is eye opening to see where you stand in comparison to the average American. Only 7% of those in their 40s have saved more than a million dollars. How do you stack up? As physicians, who earn way more than the average income, we should be ranked very high.
The FIRE movement is growing, but is FIRE what we think it is? Chris Mamula retired at age 41 and helped his parents with their retirement in their 60s. He shares with us what he learned about their two difference ways to retire in his article A Tale of Two Retirements: FIRE and Traditional. It was published on Can I Retire Yet? When it is time for you to retire from medicine, don’t do it before reading The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement.
When I finished residency and started my big boy job as a surgeon, my wife no longer worked at a paying job. But we were still able to fill her IRA because the working spouse can contribute to the non-working spouses IRA even if the non-working spouse has no income. Doc Wife pointed out this nice little fact in her article How to save for retirement when one of you isn’t working – the spousal IRA.
Does your child’s allowance count towards taxable income? What about the money she made from her lemonade stand and her dog walking business? Dayana Yochim put together a nice article telling us all we need to know about our children and their taxes in Does Your Child Have to File a Tax Return This Year? This article came out on Her Money from Jean Chatzky.
I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did. I look forward to updating you again next week with a few more articles I find especially interesting. If you read an especially good article, send me the link so I can share it with others.
