Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Hero Images/Getty Images
The Roth IRA has been dubbed the Swiss Army knife of retirement for its versatility. And you need to own only 1 because it serves many purposes.
Just like the handy tool with its dominant essential blade, Roth IRAs have lots of auxiliary parts, but 1 primary advantage: Investors owe no tax when it’s time to take Roth IRA distributions.
With traditional IRAs, you receive an upfront tax deduction on your contributions in exchange for taxable income when you take the money out. The opposite is true with a Roth IRA: You save money on which you’ve already paid tax. But you’re spared from having to pay tax on either the principal or the earnings at retirement.
An added advantage: There is no penalty for taking out your contributions from a Roth IRA at any time.
However, you will owe taxes and a penalty if you take out the earnings before age 59 1/2 except under certain circumstances. But that is often a very small percentage of the total you’ve salted away.
This beautiful arrangement makes a Roth IRA good not only for retirement savings, but also for other kinds of savings. Here are 4 times when you can take money out of a Roth IRA for other things.
Share