Thursday, July 22, 2010

Personal Balance Sheet

This is a great starting point for understanding and being in control of your personal finances. Summarize what you own and owe to see your net worth. The USAA Educational Foundation has a simple form to fill out to get you started.

Friday, July 9, 2010

What is Dollar Cost Averaging?

When it comes to investing, dollar cost averaging refers to investing an amount of money in a stock or mutual fund at regular time intervals. The idea behind this investment strategy is that you are getting a lower price when the market is down even though you are paying a higher price when the market is up and, overall, the average price you pay is lower than what get from investing a lump sum. At first, this may not look consistent with my previous post on The Golden Rule... of Investing: Buy Low, Sell High, but let's take a look at an example to see how you can benefit from this strategy.

Assume you invest $100 every month for five months into a given stock. The stock price at each of these purchase dates is as follows (with the number of shares purchased):

Jan.: $20 (5 shares purchased)
Feb.: $14 (7.1 shares)
Mar.: $13 (7.7 shares)
Apr.: $15 (6.7 shares)
May: $23 (4.3 shares)
Total: $85 (30.8 shares)

The $500 invested purchased 30.8 shares, resulting in a cost per share of about $16.23. This means that when the stock price is above $16.23, there is a gain on the investments.

But what if the May stock price was still down around $15 as it was in April; what are the results then?

Total: $77 (33.2 shares purchased)
The $500 invested purchased 33.2 shares, resulting in a cost per share of about $15.06. A gain would exist when the stock price is above $15.06. The May price is not above that price so there is no gain until the stock increases.

So what do we learn from these examples? That Dollar Cost Averaging is not necessarily going to give you better returns; it completely depends on the stock performance over the given period. So does that mean I should just invest the $500 all at once? Well, if you did that in Jan. in the example, you would be even worse off since your cost per share would be $20 instead of $16.23 or $15.06. If you invested the $500 in Feb. you would be better off with only a $14 cost per share. Since we don't know how a stock or mutual fund will perform, investing continuously over a period diversifies away much of the market risk (the risk of market fluctuations). Also, most individuals do not have enough money to make a single investment now to carry them through to retirement, but rather have smaller amounts set aside each month as income is received. Another way to take advantage of continuous investing is by reinvesting dividends rather than having them paid out. This can be done automatically by your financial institution or brokerage.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Converting a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA: Why Now?

Beginning in 2010, the IRS is allowing everyone to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. (Refer to previous post to learn more about the IRA Basics.) Prior to 2010, only taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) that was not more than $100K could make the conversion. The main reason to make the conversion is to gain the tax advantages of a Roth IRA, which is tax-free growth and tax-free distributions. The catch to making the conversion is that the IRS requires you to pay tax on the amount you pull out of the traditional IRA that would have been taxed had it been taken out as a normal distribution from the IRA account. That means that the growth or earnings in your traditional IRA account is included in gross income for the year in which you convert it to a Roth IRA. For 2010 only, the IRS is allowing that amount to be split evenly and included in your 2011and 2012 gross income. The benefit here is that you can spread out the taxes you have to pay for the conversion over 2 years rather than only in the year of the conversion. Even with the IRS allowing you to soften the tax blow when converting to a Roth IRA this year, make sure that you have the money to be able to pay these taxes before deciding to make the conversion. The bottom line is that you pay the taxes now rather than later.

There are also estate tax impacts to converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. If your estate is large enough to incur estate taxes, both traditional IRA and Roth IRA assets will be taxed at the estate tax rate. Once the beneficiary has received the assets, distributions from IRA accounts are still taxed according to their taxable nature. In other words, distributions from a traditional IRA are taxed and distributions from a Roth IRA are tax-free. This results in double-taxation of the traditional IRA. Yet another benefit to a Roth IRA. If you have the cash to pay the tax on the IRA conversion, your beneficiaries may thank you for making that conversion. The bottom line here is that you pay the taxes now rather than your beneficiaries paying the tax later.