The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Other discussions not related to the Permanent Portfolio

Moderator: Global Moderator

Post Reply
User avatar
MomTo2Boys
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 9:42 pm
Location: The US

The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by MomTo2Boys » Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:26 pm

Hey, all,

I'm trying not to panic about the following:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlange/201 ... 8be7e3bbd7

...but it's difficult for me not to. My husband and I have a nice amount in our TSPs (we're federal government employees, but just change that to IRAs or 401(k)s if you'd like), and reading this scares me.

As a potential inheritor of retirement accounts, and as a mother who does all the money in the family and wants to be able to pass money on to her children after death, this act scares me.

Thoughts? Mitigation techniques? Message board offers of Xanax? I'm seriously unimpressed with this.
User avatar
ochotona
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 3353
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2015 5:54 am

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by ochotona » Sat Jul 13, 2019 2:57 pm

Roth conversion of Traditional IRAs...
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by dualstow » Sat Jul 13, 2019 4:22 pm

Mom.2.Boys. Blast from the past. I miss your China posts
RIP Marcello Gandini
User avatar
MomTo2Boys
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 9:42 pm
Location: The US

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by MomTo2Boys » Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:32 pm

dualstow wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 4:22 pm
Mom.2.Boys. Blast from the past. I miss your China posts
Awwwwwww!! That's very kind of you to say, but trust me, I do NOT miss China, lol!

Now Japan, on the other hand... ;)
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by dualstow » Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:54 pm

O0
RIP Marcello Gandini
jacksonM
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:59 pm

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by jacksonM » Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:33 pm

MomTo2Boys wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:26 pm
Hey, all,

I'm trying not to panic about the following:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlange/201 ... 8be7e3bbd7

...but it's difficult for me not to. My husband and I have a nice amount in our TSPs (we're federal government employees, but just change that to IRAs or 401(k)s if you'd like), and reading this scares me.

As a potential inheritor of retirement accounts, and as a mother who does all the money in the family and wants to be able to pass money on to her children after death, this act scares me.

Thoughts? Mitigation techniques? Message board offers of Xanax? I'm seriously unimpressed with this.
What is it exactly that scares you?

In my own case the only thing I can see that will affect me as a 70-year-old retiree is that it will delay the required minimum distribution from my IRA for another year and a half to age 72 instead of 70 1/2 which I'm now officially past. That's assuming when/if it passes it will go into effect immediately. Even if it doesn't go in effect this year then at least I'll have another year before I'm required to make RMD's.
User avatar
MomTo2Boys
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 9:42 pm
Location: The US

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by MomTo2Boys » Sat Jul 13, 2019 8:38 pm

jacksonM wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:33 pm
MomTo2Boys wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:26 pm
Hey, all,

I'm trying not to panic about the following:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jlange/201 ... 8be7e3bbd7

...but it's difficult for me not to. My husband and I have a nice amount in our TSPs (we're federal government employees, but just change that to IRAs or 401(k)s if you'd like), and reading this scares me.

As a potential inheritor of retirement accounts, and as a mother who does all the money in the family and wants to be able to pass money on to her children after death, this act scares me.

Thoughts? Mitigation techniques? Message board offers of Xanax? I'm seriously unimpressed with this.
What is it exactly that scares you?

In my own case the only thing I can see that will affect me as a 70-year-old retiree is that it will delay the required minimum distribution from my IRA for another year and a half to age 72 instead of 70 1/2 which I'm now officially past. That's assuming when/if it passes it will go into effect immediately. Even if it doesn't go in effect this year then at least I'll have another year before I'm required to make RMD's.
When I am thinking about my husband's and my retirement, I see our TSPs (sub in 401(k) or what have you) as one of the biggest bedrocks of our retirement planning. My husband and I may live for quite a while longer (we are in our 40s), or we may not. I always have a view toward our sons and our estate, if you will, when I think about our finances.

Estate taxes aren't triggered until you're talking about very large balances outside of what my husband and I would have. But to treat 401(k)s and retirement account like TSP accounts far, FAR less favorably than even how estate taxes are set up gives me pause and makes me rethink the game, if you will, going forward.

I have never had a desire to start messing with financial planners or to try to work extremely hard to think about mitigating death or estate taxes (or the like) because I knew that my children could, for lack of a better word, inherit any leftover TSP balance we have when we both die. But if we accrue a large amount of money in a 401(k)-like vehicle and then perhaps have a large portion of it erased by the taxes brought by this new law makes me wonder if I need to start totally rethinking how my husband and I are planning our finances. And it also makes me wonder if I need to start messing with estate planning or the like, which makes me less than happy, to say the least, because accruing retirement funds via the TSP is stupid simple for us and requires no outside professional intervention/costs/fees.

I feel like the rules are changing drastically for those who are investing/have invested heavily in these sorts of vehicles and who want to have a sharp eye out on how to best pass leftover funds to their heirs/children upon their death.
User avatar
MomTo2Boys
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 9:42 pm
Location: The US

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by MomTo2Boys » Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:41 pm

Actually, I started this thread because everything I read made it sound like the Secure Act was certain to pass the Senate and be signed into law imminently, but I just saw this:

https://www.planadviser.com/exclusives/ ... ing-house/

and also, I saw that Bogleheads has closed a ton of discussions about it because Bogleheads doesn't allow discussions about proposed law, just final law, so...

Sorry if I shouldn't have posted this here because this is proposed law and not final law as of yet.
Libertarian666
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 5994
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by Libertarian666 » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:33 pm

MomTo2Boys wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:41 pm
Actually, I started this thread because everything I read made it sound like the Secure Act was certain to pass the Senate and be signed into law imminently, but I just saw this:

https://www.planadviser.com/exclusives/ ... ing-house/

and also, I saw that Bogleheads has closed a ton of discussions about it because Bogleheads doesn't allow discussions about proposed law, just final law, so...

Sorry if I shouldn't have posted this here because this is proposed law and not final law as of yet.
Don't worry about that. One of the advantages of this board over bogleheads is that we can discuss pretty much whatever we want to.
User avatar
dualstow
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 14225
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:18 am
Location: synagogue of Satan
Contact:

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by dualstow » Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:41 pm

{This thread has run its course
And is now locked}


Whoops, sorry, I must have dozed off and sleep-typed that.
Carry on.
BH has very strict rules about discussing government policies and speculating on those policies. The good part is that nothing goes off topic for very long. The drawback is that it is quite easy to run afoul of those rules, until you can’t do much beyond sitting on folded hands.

I bet that more than half the threads here have lockable posts, as innocuous (inoffensive) as they are.
RIP Marcello Gandini
User avatar
Mountaineer
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 4959
Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:54 am

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by Mountaineer » Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:00 am

Libertarian666 wrote:
Fri Jul 19, 2019 1:33 pm
MomTo2Boys wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:41 pm
Actually, I started this thread because everything I read made it sound like the Secure Act was certain to pass the Senate and be signed into law imminently, but I just saw this:

https://www.planadviser.com/exclusives/ ... ing-house/

and also, I saw that Bogleheads has closed a ton of discussions about it because Bogleheads doesn't allow discussions about proposed law, just final law, so...

Sorry if I shouldn't have posted this here because this is proposed law and not final law as of yet.
Don't worry about that. One of the advantages of this board over bogleheads is that we can discuss pretty much whatever we want to.
Except for bringing up religion in a thread other than the religion thread! ;) But, I agree, this forum is mostly tolerant of other things that do not ultimately matter.
DNA has its own language (code), and language requires intelligence. There is no known mechanism by which matter can give birth to information, let alone language. It is unreasonable to believe the world could have happened by chance.
WiseOne
Executive Member
Executive Member
Posts: 2692
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:08 am

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by WiseOne » Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:04 am

Mom it is so great to hear from you! Have you been lurking all this time? What country are you living in now?

I can't really argue with the law, it just took away a free lunch. Why should the government defer taxes on earned income for multiple lifetimes?
User avatar
MomTo2Boys
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 9:42 pm
Location: The US

Re: The SECURE Act's Big Money Grab

Post by MomTo2Boys » Sat Jul 20, 2019 9:13 pm

WiseOne wrote:
Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:04 am
Mom it is so great to hear from you! Have you been lurking all this time? What country are you living in now?
Awww, thanks, WiseOne! That's kind of you to say.

We're back in the US of A! WOOHOO!!!!

I haven't been lurking recently, actually. For a while we lived overseas in a place where internet wasn't really that easy to have, and then we moved and I was dealing with moving/life, so now that things have settled a bit I'm back to thinking about finances. I'm sure I'll come on and try to pick everyone's brains about this and that now that I'm back in the land of good internet, though. :)
Post Reply