Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

LIVING WELL

A TASTE OF THE HOLIDAY

Enjoy the holidays with ideas for "lite and luscious holiday eating".

Use your lunch hour and taste the good life with the Cooperative Extension Service December 15 at noon at the Extension office. This is part of the monthly lecture series, "Sandwich-In-A Healthier Life".

There is a $2 fee and pre-registration is required. Class size is limited. Call 887-2818 today.

INS AND OUTS OF

IRA WITHDRAWALS

If you expect to retire in the near future or are closing in on your 70th birthday, you need to carefully consider strategies for withdrawing money from your IRA (Individual Retirement Plan).

Decisions you make about your IRA withdrawal are crucial, because most of the time once you choose a withdrawal method, you cannot change it.

A new booklet, Retirement Planning-Withdrawals from Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) (FSHEC111) is available from your county Extension office, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.

It will help you understand when required withdrawals for single and married persons at age 70 "must begin, the difference between the "recalculation" method and the "term certain" method when figuring mandatory IRA withdrawals, income tax implications, to consider whether you name spousal or non-spousal beneficiaries, and how withdrawals are taxed when your contributions are not tax deductible.

There are strict Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements about the minimum annual mandatory dollar amount you must withdraw from your IRA, but IRA owners have a one time choice among two withdrawal methods, recalculation or term-certain.

What most IRA owners don't realize is that each IRA custodian may not offer both withdrawal options. For example, some IRA custodians only allow the recalculation option for mandatory minimum withdrawals beginning at age 70". If a term-certain method better fits your financial plan, you might want to transfer funds to another custodian before age 70?

And if you have multiple IRA accounts, the IRS says mandatory withdrawals can come from one or more accounts. If you want to withdraw from your lowest yielding account and hang on to the principal in your better performing accounts, some fund managers may not go along with you.

By planning ahead, you can transfer IRA funds to a firm with withdrawal rules that meet your financial objectives.

The rules for withdrawing funds from an IRA are complicated. Failure to withdraw the required amount requires payment of a penalty equal to 50 percent of the value of the missed withdrawal.

In most cases, withdrawing funds from an IRA before age 59 means a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty.

You may need the assistance of a specialist, such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Finan-cial Planner (CFP), or an attorney who specializes in taxes to follow these rules. Fees paid to such ex-perts should be less than the 50 percent penalty.

For more information about money, contact your county Extension office.