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Given only these non-healthy options, which single serving drink is healthiest?

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RE: where do you get more, pay more?

Comment comment by scubasteve on 17 November 2007

Put it in the Roth. Putting the $8k into your house is not earning you any return. Yes, it may save you some interest, but like you said, you're going to itemize your interest expense anyway. Your house is going to appreciate (or depreciate) the same regardless of whatever your down payment is. Its based on market conditions. If you sold your house in 10 yrs, your $8k would still come out as $8k. But in 10 yrs in the Roth, your $8k will be will almost be $20k at 9.25%. Granted, you can't touch it and you'll pay taxes on it at withdrawal time, but you'll still be much ahead when you retire. Do the Roth.

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RE: where do you get more, pay more? by scubasteve :: NR4

Sorry, I misspoke. You won't pay taxes at withdrawal time with the Roth.

Posted 17 November 2007, Hide, Parent, Reply
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RE: where do you get more, pay more? by Anonymous :: NR0

I agree with that, your house will appreciate/depreciate according to market conditions and there's not much you can do about it other than home improvements. A Roth will earn you interest on the $8000 which is far greater than saving $60 on monthly mortgage payments by putting an extra $8k down. What's more, if you lose money on your Roth IRA, there is a way to claim the losses on your tax return and withdraw money from your IRA. I thought this was interesting and would share with you.

1) Withdraw Full Balance to Claim Losses

In order to be eligible to claim losses on your tax return from your IRA investments, you MUST withdraw the entire balance from that account. For example, if you faced a loss of $5000 this year on your Roth IRA account, you must withdraw the full balance from your Roth IRA in order to be eligible to deduct this $5000 allowable capital loss from your tax return. On the other hand, if you faced a similar loss from your SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA or Traditional IRA, you must withdraw the entire balances from all these Traditional IRAs in order to deduct any losses.

Source: www.definerothira.com

2) Losses on your Traditional IRA

You can deduct losses made on your Traditional IRA only if:

*

the total balance you withdraw is LESS than the after-tax amounts (basis amounts) remaining in your Traditional IRA.

* the IRA basis is any non-deductible contributions + after-tax IRA rollovers from 403b plans, 457 plans or other qualified retirement plans.

* you fill out IRS Form 8606 which is used to determine the basis of your withdrawal amounts from your Traditional IRA. IRS Form 8606 is also used to calculate your actual IRA loss to be included in your income tax return, and the total amount of your IRA withdrawal.

Posted 30 March 2008, Hide, Parent, Reply