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- Newsgroups: misc.invest
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!cs.yale.edu!news
- From: blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom M. Blenko)
- Subject: Re: What good is a non-deductible IRA?
- Message-ID: <1993Jan4.051202.7618@cs.yale.edu>
- Sender: news@cs.yale.edu (Usenet News)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: wren.systemsz.cs.yale.edu
- Reply-To: blenko-tom@cs.yale.edu
- Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
- References: <31DEC199200435030@csa1.lbl.gov>
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 05:12:02 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- AARON SCHINDLER writes
- | blenko-tom@cs.yale.edu writes...
- | >I am a student on a stipend and therefore see a lower tax
- | >rate than if I were employed. Assuming that my tax rate
- | >will by higher when I retire, it makes sense for me to
- | >contribute to an IRA now and to take no deduction -- a good
- | >part of the benefit arises from the differential in the
- | >tax rate (between now and when I retire). I haven't worked
- | >out the figures, but I suspect this becomes advantageous
- | >even if I end up paying an early withdrawal penalty
- | >(sometime after my tax rate goes up).
- | >
- | >I believe the same reasoning works for anyone who expects
- | >there tax rate to be higher when they retire.
- |
- | I have a gut feeling that you are wrong, Tom. Compounding is the
- eighth
- | wonder of the world, after all. Let's work some numbers on this
- one.
- | (Another "What if...")
- |
-
- I did some further research and my original assumptions
- about tax treatment were incorrect. Under the correct
- treatment, using 25 years to withdrawal, current rate of
- 15%, and future rate of 30%, the break even point for
- deductible vs. non-deductible is at an (annual) rate of
- return of .040. For 10% vs. 30% the number is .064, and for
- 20% vs. 30% the number is .010. This takes into account
- opportunity cost and assumes an intermediate tax rate
- for non-IRA investment of 30%.
-
- Going back to the original subject, this doesn't make
- non-deductible IRA's look very attractive (also
- doesn't make much room for early-withdrawal games)!
-
- Tom
-