What You Need to Know About Keeping or Tossing Tax Records

April 19, 2017

The basic reason you need to keep any tax documentation is so that if the IRS comes calling with questions about what’s on your return, you can prove the numbers. The most acceptable rule of thumb is that for anything you used to put numbers on your tax return, you should keep it at least three years or seven if you’re toeing any lines with what you put on your return. This includes receipts, cancelled checks, tax forms and even bank statements.

But the fact is that any official tax form you receive, such as a W-2, 1099 or 1095-B, was also provided to the IRS. That’s why if you forget to include, say, that withdrawal of your old job’s 401(k) on your return, the IRS WILL send you a letter reminding you (and requesting a little extra for penalties and interest). So do you really need to keep your copy? The answer is a bit of a “yes but…” and you obviously want to keep anything that wasn’t on an official tax form like receipts for donations or property tax statements.

The biggest “but” is that in terms of what the IRS accepts, there is no need to keep a paper copy of anything that you can easily obtain digitally. Since my accountant prefers to receive documents online anyway, I scan everything to a removable jump drive and just keep that in a safe place for three years. Besides being able to substantiate what you put on your tax return, here’s why you need to keep…

W-2s – These are mostly in case you want to do something like buy a house, refinance your mortgage or some other activity that requires you to prove your income.

Bank account statements – In case you are doing any type of mortgage application, the bank will want at least the past 60 days of any checking or savings accounts you hold.

Brokerage account statements – If your only transactions for the year were dividends and interest received, then you can get rid of the statements and just keep the 1099 that you received showing the income for the standard three years. However, if you purchased investments (including dividend reinvestment of a mutual fund), you’ll want to keep the statements as long as you hold the underlying investment plus three years. This is so that when you do sell, you’ll be able to properly calculate any gains or losses based on what you paid for the shares. The “plus three years” is because once you sell and claim the gain or loss, it becomes a tax document.

Receipts for home improvements – That new roof you had to put on your home may have been your least favorite purchase of the year, but if you’re lucky enough to eventually sell your house for a gain greater than the exemption amount ($250,000 for single, $500,000 for married), you’ll be able to reduce the gain by the cost of any improvements you made to the home throughout the years. One simple way to keep track would be to keep a running list, either in Excel, in Google Sheets or even by hand. Then scan and store the receipts with the other tax documents for the year of the expense.

Home sale/purchase documents – Besides providing evidence of any basis you used to calculate a gain (or lack thereof) on the sale of your home, you’ll want to keep these documents in case you need them on future mortgage applications. When my husband and I purchased our home, the title agency uncovered something that indicated he still owned the home in Michigan that he’d sold years before. He had to show them the sale document in order to avoid compromising our purchase.

IRA-related forms – If you ever made a non-deductible contribution to a traditional/pre-tax IRA or converted a traditional/pre-tax IRA to a Roth IRA, you’ll need the documents proving that so when you begin your distributions, you can avoid paying taxes twice on any of your savings. It’s best to create a separate file just for these forms and when they come in the mail each year, either scan them or place them into their designated place.

While you really should keep all tax documents for at least three years, make it seven if the interim years include red flag items like self-employment income, a home office deduction or large non-cash donations. The IRS really has a seven year statute of limitations to audit returns if they have any reason to believe abuse of the tax code. (That statute of limitations disappears if they uncover massive tax fraud so just don’t go there, okay?) The above list is meant to share exceptions or alternate reasons to save certain documents. Again, it’s okay to store your documents digitally, just make sure you’re shredding the originals to help avoid identity theft.


Kelley Long is a resident financial planner with Financial Finesse, the leading provider of unbiased workplace financial wellness programs in the US. For more posts by Kelley or to sign up to have her weekly post delivered to your inbox each Wednesday, please visit the main blog page and sign up today.

 

 

Should You Be Making Catch-Up Contributions?

February 01, 2017

Turning age 50 is definitely a milestone – one that some people celebrate and some mourn while others remain ambivalent. No matter how you may feel about it, there’s at least one minor thing to celebrate from a financial planning perspective: 50 is the age when the annual contribution limits to retirement savings accounts is increased for savers via what’s called “catch-up contributions.” Here’s how they work.

Each type of retirement savings account has an annual limit that savers can contribute to each year. Catch-up contributions are intended to allow people who perhaps got a late start to “catch up” by giving them the ability to save above and beyond those annual limits:

catch up contributions 2017

So someone with a workplace retirement plan and a Roth IRA over the age of 50 could conceivably tuck $30,500 away after age 50 versus the lower $23,500 that younger workers are limited to. Even if you’re right on track with your retirement goal, the catch-up contributions can help to lower your taxable income and accelerate that financial independence day.

A strategy for 401(k) and 403(b) savers

For workers who are contributing to 401(k) or 403(b) accounts via payroll deductions at work, the catch-up contribution is typically a separate election that must be made in dollar amounts versus the regular contributions where you must elect a percentage of income. For workers whose pay varies due to hourly wages or commissions, it can be challenging to budget for these contributions or ensure that a certain amount is going in each pay period. The good news is that you don’t have to be maxing out your regular contributions in order to elect catch-up contributions.

So if you’re looking to bump your contributions up by a certain dollar amount and don’t feel like doing the math to figure out what percentage that is, you can just enter it as a catch-up amount. A small consolation for hitting that half-century mark? I think so.

Of course, I would always recommend trying to get the maximum amount into your retirement account each year, but that’s not always realistic for lower income workers or people with competing priorities like family needs or high interest debt. If you’re over 50 and thinking about making catch-up contributions, run a retirement estimate to see how they can help you get to your retirement goal sooner. Then start catching up today!

 

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Why You Should Roll Your 401(k) to Your New Employer

September 19, 2016

When changing jobs, what should you do with your employer-sponsored retirement account balance? Our blog editor,  Erik Carter, JD, CFP®, recently wrote a post titled What Should You Do With That Old Retirement Plan, in which he stated that if he left an employer, he would be very likely to roll over his retirement account balance to an IRA in order to have access to more investment choices. Erik outlined a job-changing employee’s four options: 1) leave the money in the former employer’s plan, 2) cash out your account, 3) roll over your balance to a new employer or to an individual IRA or 4) purchase an immediate income annuity (if it’s a feature of your former plan.)

Option 3, rolling over your balance, is by far the preferable choice for the large majority of retirement savers. For most people, it may make more sense to roll their retirement plan balance to their new employer’s plan rather than an IRA. Here’s why:

Lower Fees

Many 401(k) plans offer participants access to institutional share class mutual funds and very low cost index funds, especially those sponsored by large employers. Conversely, investing in your IRA can get expensive if you aren’t careful to monitor the mutual fund fees, trading costs and account fees. Before you make your distribution decision, compare and contrast the fees for all your options, including leaving your account with your previous employer, rolling your balance to an IRA and rolling it to your new employer. Not sure which option offers you the lowest cost of investing, given the type of investments your want to choose? Use FINRA’s free mutual fund fee analyzer tool.

Keep it Simple

While it’s true that there is a broader universe of investment options in a self-directed IRA account at a brokerage firm or mutual fund company than in your workplace retirement plan, many investors don’t need or want that kind of customization in their investment strategy. Keeping your retirement plan balances in one place allows you to see at a glance the investment mix of your retirement savings and how much you’ve saved simply by logging on to one site. If you’re a more “hands-off” investor, a target date fund in your plan with a date near your target retirement can offer you an easy, diversified, one-stop-shopping investment strategy.

Protection Against Lawsuits

Balances in retirement plans, such as 401(ks), are protected against civil judgments and bankruptcy. (But if you owe taxes, your 401(k) assets can be seized to settle the tax debt – and you’ll have to pay more taxes and a 10% penalty if you take an early withdrawal to settle the bill.) The higher your income and/or net worth, the more important it is to consider this factor. However, depending on where you live, your state may not extend that protection to IRAs.

Borrowing Power

Many 401(k) plans permit participants to borrow from their plan assets at a very low rate of interest. If you roll your old plan into your new plan, you’ll have a bigger base of assets against which to borrow. (A common borrowing limit is 50% of your vested balance up to $50,000, but check with your plan administrator for the specifics of your plan.)

While the disadvantages usually outweigh the advantages in borrowing against your retirement plan, there are times when it may make sense, such as preventing eviction, foreclosure or auto repossession, paying off very high interest debt or putting 20% down on a home purchase to avoid PMI. Keep in mind that you’ll repay the loan with after-tax dollars so you’ll end up being double-taxed on the interest when you eventually withdraw it, and those funds won’t have access to market performance during the loan repayment period. Also, if you leave your company for any reason before the loan is repaid, your unpaid balance becomes a taxable retirement plan distribution, subject to a 10% penalty.

Workplace Financial Guidance

More and more companies are offering workplace financial wellness programs, where financial education and guidance are offered to employees as an employer-paid benefit. Can you attend a workshop or webcast, use an online learning resource or work one-on-one with a financial coach? More 401(k) plan sponsors also offer access to robo advice, where an online investment adviser service sets your investment mix based on your risk tolerance and time horizon and regularly re-balances your portfolio.

How about you? What do you think is a better idea: rolling an old retirement plan into an IRA or into your next employer’s plan? Email me at [email protected] or let me know on Twitter @cynthiameyer_FF.

 

 

What Should You Do With That Old Retirement Plan?

August 18, 2016

One of the questions I get from time to time on our financial helpline is what someone should do with their retirement plan when they leave a job. They often end up simply leaving the plan there, but that’s not always the best choice. Let’s look at the options:

Leave the money there. This is typically allowed as long as you have at least $5k in the plan. If you’re retired, you may be able to take periodic withdrawals. It’s the simplest choice because it requires no action from you.

Some good reasons to leave the money there are because you want to have access to a unique investment in the plan or you’d like to pay a lower tax on the appreciation of any employer stock in the plan when you eventually withdraw it. Otherwise, you’re probably better off rolling into another retirement plan to consolidate your accounts and provide you with more investment options. You’ll also have to take a required minimum distribution from each 401(k) and 403(b) you have at age 70 1/2 (unless you’re still working there).

Take the money and run. You can have them send you a check for the balance. However, you’ll have to pay taxes (plus potentially a 10% penalty if you’re under age 55 or if you’re under age 59 ½ and you left your employer before the year you turned 55) on it. If it’s a large enough distribution, that money could also put you in a higher tax bracket.

Roll it over. If you don’t want to leave the money behind or send a big check to Uncle Sam, rolling it into a new retirement account allows you to continue postponing the taxes on it. An IRA generally gives you more investment options while rolling it into your employer’s plan can allow you to consolidate your retirement accounts and possibly give you the option  of borrowing against it. If you change your mind, the money you roll into your employer’s plan can typically be rolled into an IRA and vice versa.

Turn it into guaranteed income. Some plans allow you to use your retirement plan balance to purchase an immediate income annuity at discounted rates (and hence you’d get higher payments) or even into a pension plan if you have one. This provides an income that you can’t outlive and avoids any early withdrawal penalties. The downside is that you generally give up the lump sum of money and should only be considered when you’re ready to retire.

Personally, I’d roll my 401(k) into my IRA if I were to leave Financial Finesse because I’d like to have more investment options. I also know people who prefer to keep things simple by rolling everything into their current employer’s plan. If you’re still not sure what to do, consider speaking to an unbiased financial professional.

 

Are Self-Directed IRAs a Good Idea?

April 18, 2016

If you could buy a private business, a rental property or racehorses in your Individual Retirement Account (IRA), would you do so? Even if you could, would that be a wise choice? Self-directed IRAs (SD-IRA) offering non-traditional investments have become increasingly popular and more broadly available.

The self-directed IRA is a traditional or Roth IRA in which the custodian, the financial institution which keeps records and reports to the IRS, permits the full range of investments allowed by law in retirement accounts. Many types of investments are permitted in IRAs, but there are certain things you can’t do, like buy collectibles (such as art and coins) and life insurance, as well as investment strategies that require borrowing, such as shorting stock or certain options strategies. However, the reality is the vast majority of financial institutions limit retirement account investments to the more traditional ones like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs and exchange-traded funds.

“Self-Directed” Really Means “Alternative Investments Accepted”

The term “self-directed” is a bit off base. What it means is that alternative investments are accepted or offered by the IRA custodian. Technically, at most financial institutions, IRAs default to the more literal interpretation of “self-directed,” in that the account owner makes the final decisions on what investments to buy or sell, unless they have given discretion in writing to an investment advisor.

A custodian who offers self-directed IRAs agrees to keep required records of your non-traditional investments in the IRA and report them to the IRS. The custodian may or may not offer physical custody of the investment, depending on type, or may just house the records of investment activity and valuation. Common alternative investments available in SD-IRAs are precious metals, real estate, loans, and private equity.  Certain custodians of self-directed IRA accounts will accept just about anything allowed by the IRS, including tax lien certificates and dairy cows.

Very High Risk

Many alternative investments available in SD-IRAs carry a high risk of losing all or most of your money due to lack of diversification or the inherent risk of the investment itself. You may not be able to sell the investment later (lack of liquidity), meaning that you won’t be able to access the value of it to make distributions in retirement. Keep in mind that the entire burden of investigating the investment (doing your “due diligence”) is on you, the account holder. This could be a benefit when you are investing in an area of your professional expertise (e.g., the experienced real estate investor). However, it can also lead to fraud, when investors are duped into Ponzi schemes or other types of investment scams through slick offerings and piles of legal paperwork.

Beware of investing in anything you don’t understand and can’t explain easily to others. If you are considering an investment within an SD-IRA, read this pamphlet from the SEC first and do your homework. Use the checklist at the end of this post. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

High Fees

Fees in self-directed IRAs are generally much higher than more traditional types of IRAs. Expect to pay set up fees, custodial fees and annual fees to value the investment. Many of the types of alternative investments offered in SD-IRAs are hard to value, so this can get quite pricey.

Keep in mind that the IRA or Roth IRA is the owner of the investment, so you don’t have direct control over it. With investments like real estate or a business, for example, that means you have to pay the custodian to do things like collect rents or business income. (Per this Bankrate article, some custodians propose that you set up a an IRA LLC to address this issue, which may give you checkbook control but is costly to establish and has legal risk.) No matter what, make sure you do some comparison shopping for a custodian who specializes in the type of investment you want to own in your SD-IRA.

Potential Tax Problems

Investors often get tripped up by unexpected tax consequences in SD-IRAs. Most importantly, in a traditional IRA, distributions in retirement are taxed as income, not the lower capital gains rate. The investor may have been better off holding the asset outside of a retirement account. Additionally, investors miss out on the ongoing favorable tax treatments for some common types of investments, such as real estate.

Depending on the type of investment income, a self-directed IRA may not be completely tax-deferred and a Roth IRA may not be completely tax-free. For example, if the investment generates Unrelated Business Income, the IRA or Roth IRA would be taxed at the high trust rates for the tax year in which it occurs. Those taxes must be paid by the IRA, not the account owner separately.

Can’t Invest in Yourself or Your Family

Don’t get too excited about selling the family business to your IRA! Certain transactions are prohibited in retirement accounts to prevent self-dealing, including transactions with people within your linear family, such as your spouse, your parents, your children, your grandchildren and their spouses. Most of your family could not work in or on behalf of the investment or live in a property held by the IRA.

When to Consider a Self Directed IRA?

SD-IRAs are not suitable for many people. Use this checklist to see if you might be a good candidate for self-directed IRA accounts: (Aim for at least 4 out of 6.)

  • I am an accredited investor. (If you don’t know what it is, you probably aren’t.) While you don’t need to be an accredited investor to open an SD-IRA, being one means you have the income and net worth to consider alternative investments.
  • I don’t need my IRA or Roth IRA for future retirement income. Either:
    • I am fully on track to completely fund my retirement with my employer-sponsored retirement plan, e.g., 401(k), 403(b), etc.
    • I have a pension or other investments (e.g., rental income) which will fully cover my retirement income needs.
  • I have well-diversified traditional investments in my work-sponsored and non-retirement brokerage accounts that can be liquidated to pay future living expenses if needed.
  • I have professional expertise and experience in the SD-IRA investment which I am considering.
  • I want to add a target percentage of precious metals to my retirement portfolio for diversification.
  • I am considering making a small private equity investment that might pay off big (a possible strategy in a Roth SD-IRA) but could also go bust.

Two Ways To Make Next April 15 Less Taxing

April 15, 2016

In the early days of my career as a financial advisor, there were some “interesting” investments that my clients owned. There were a lot of oil and gas partnerships that were very mediocre investments if viewed solely as an investment vehicle, but they offered spectacular tax advantages that made them wildly popular. People wanted to buy them solely for the tax benefits. And then…tax laws changed and these investments tanked! Clients couldn’t get out of them because no one else wanted them.

Similarly, I have had many conversations lately with people who are looking for magic strategies to reduce or eliminate their tax burdens from 2015. (It must be close to April 15th.) Newsflash – there is very little you can do in April 2016 to impact your 2015 tax return. When it comes to tax planning, the key is to start early in 2016 (I’d suggest NOW if you haven’t already) to impact the tax return you’ll file on April 15th 2017. A couple of my favorite ways to reduce income tax burdens are available right through your employer in many cases:

Health Savings Account (HSA): This is my #1 favorite right now. The contribution limit for single in ’16 is $3,350 and for a family it’s $6,750. Contributions are either pre-tax (through your employer) or tax deductible (if you write a check) and if used for medical expenses, they are tax-free on the way out too.

Are you kidding me??? The IRS allows a vehicle to be tax-free in AND tax-free out? That’s remarkable. You can build a substantial bucket of money in the future, and the IRS can help subsidize it. I can’t think of another vehicle where you’re allowed to “double dip” with tax benefits in and out.

401(k): Another great way to minimize next year’s taxes is to get as close as you can to the IRS maximum on your 401(k) contribution. This year, it’s $18,000 ($24,000 if over 50 years of age). If you’re in the 25% tax bracket, getting to the $18,000 mark would save you $4,500 in current year taxation. Rather than just stop at 3% or 6%, whatever the employer matching contribution is…..work toward getting the max contribution. If you can’t do it this year, you can increase your contribution by 1-2% per year until you’re there.

I hear and read a lot of “experts” talking about stopping at the level of employer matching contributions and then opening an IRA or Roth IRA outside of the employer account. I’m not opposed to that, but not everyone is disciplined enough to make that work.  But if you get up to the maximum contribution and then do the IRA or Roth IRA, you’re going to be saving an enormous amount of money and getting closer to your retirement goals with each passing paycheck. For perspective – I’ve never met someone who was within months of retiring complain that they had too much money saved for retirement!

These are two quick and easy things that you can do to make next April 15th much more manageable and reduce your overall tax burden. These are the obvious ones, and a future blog post will touch on some of the not so obvious ones. Until then, get busy contributing to your HSA and 401(k)!

Don’t Let a Backdoor Roth IRA Become a Trapdoor IRA

February 03, 2016

Updated February, 2018

I was talking with a married couple the other day who were happy that they both made high incomes but unhappy that they could not contribute to Roth IRAs and enjoy some tax-free income later in retirement. According to IRS rules, married couples who file their taxes jointly cannot contribute to a Roth IRA when their combined incomes exceed certain amounts.

However, they perked up a bit when I mentioned the possibility of still contributing to a Roth IRA – even with their high incomes – using an idea called a “backdoor” Roth IRA. It works like this: even though the IRS has an income limit on Roth IRA contributions, there is no income limit on Roth IRA conversions from a traditional IRA. So step one would be to open traditional IRAs (one for each of them) and contribute up to the annual maximum amount to each traditional IRA.

Step two would then be to convert their freshly funded traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs and pay tax on any growth that took place inside the traditional IRAs between the time they deposited money into them and the time they converted them to Roth IRAs (which should be close to nothing, assuming the steps are done within a week of each other). That’s how the “backdoor Roth IRA” works in its simplest form. But there may be a catch…

Pre-existing traditional IRA balances complicate matters

As with any financial strategy that may sound a little too good to be true, the backdoor Roth IRA strategy comes with an expensive gotcha if not done properly. Thanks to the IRS pro-rata rule, taxes on a converted traditional IRA are due not just on the funds being converted, but may also be due on any other non-Roth, never-taxed IRA monies, too.

As with any financial strategy that may sound a little too good to be true, the backdoor Roth strategy comes with an expensive gotcha if not done properly

For instance, suppose you also had a 401(k) from a previous job worth $45,000 that you rolled into a traditional IRA after leaving that job. Using the backdoor Roth IRA strategy, you deposit $5,500 of after-tax money into a separate traditional IRA and then quickly convert that $5,500 to a Roth IRA.

At first, it seems this conversion is tax free since the $5,500 traditional IRA didn’t grow to more than the original $5,500 before you converted it to a Roth IRA. The catch is that the pro-rata rule requires you to consider all untaxed traditional IRA money that you have, not just the money that you are converting when calculating any tax you may owe on the conversion.

Running the numbers

In this case, the after-tax $5,500 IRA contribution would be approximately 11% of your total traditional IRA funds ($5,500/[$45,000 + $5,500]), which means the IRS will assess taxes due against 89% of the $5,500 conversion. Instead of a $5,500 Roth IRA conversion that was more-or-less tax-free (no growth in the account yet), you will instead owe taxes on just over 89% of the $5,500 or $4,895, which would be taxed as ordinary income.

Avoiding the trapdoor

So how does one avoid this backdoor trapdoor? Ideally, anyone considering a backdoor Roth IRA should avoid rolling over any old 401(k) dollars into a traditional IRA until the calendar year after the conversion. If you’re going to use this as an ongoing strategy, you could either leave old 401(k)s in their old plans or roll them into your existing 401(k). If you’ve already rolled an old 401(k) into an IRA, you may be able to roll these funds into your current 401(k), assuming the plan allows for these incoming rollovers.

What if you have a traditional IRA that you’ve made past contributions into from years past? Well, you’re out of luck. You can still do the backdoor Roth IRA, but it won’t be tax-free.

Even though your income exceeds the limits, you can still contribute to a Roth IRA. You just have to use the backdoor. However, the key to a tax-free backdoor Roth IRA contribution is making sure there are no other untaxed traditional IRA dollars lurking in the background, ready to turn your backdoor Roth IRA into a taxable trapdoor IRA.

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How To Save For Retirement Without Your Employer’s Help

November 05, 2015

At Financial Finesse, we help people make the most of their employer’s benefits to improve their retirement preparedness. But we recently received a comment on one of our Facebook posts from someone whose company doesn’t offer retirement benefits. If you’re in a similar situation, what can you do? Here are some options: Continue reading “How To Save For Retirement Without Your Employer’s Help”

3 Reasons Not to Ditch Your IRA

November 13, 2014

I read this astonishing article today titled “3 reasons to ditch your IRA.” The author makes the case against contributing to traditional IRAs but all his arguments could be used against traditional pre-tax 401(k) plans as well. Before you cancel your pre-tax retirement account contributions, let’s take a look at his arguments and why they might be problematic: Continue reading “3 Reasons Not to Ditch Your IRA”

What to Do When Your Pension is Terminated

July 24, 2014

As traditional pension funds continue to go the way of the typewriter all across America, you may find yourself in the position of having to decide what to do with a pension plan that’s being terminated by your employer. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean the money disappears. It just won’t be added to anymore and you have to choose what to do with the money. While this may sound like the kind of thing you’d rather not deal with, these come with an expiration date and a default option that may not be your best choice. So let’s look at the pros and cons of some common options. Continue reading “What to Do When Your Pension is Terminated”

How I Plan to Kick Off The New Year

January 02, 2014

A new year often brings new changes. In fact, some research shows that we’re more likely to initiate changes in our behavior during the beginning of a time period like a year, month, or week. Here are 3 steps I plan to take this month to kick off the new year: Continue reading “How I Plan to Kick Off The New Year”

How to Avoid a 50% Mistake

December 18, 2013

Every year, the Ward family gathers around the table to share a traditional Thanksgiving meal together.  Each of us takes turns sharing what we are thankful for and before long, the whole dining room is alive with laughter and joyous conversation.  After the kids are excused, the adults sit closer together to talk about more serious issues, and inevitably the subject of money enters the discourse.  Fortunately, there is a financial planner among them, so everyone knows who to ask when financial questions arise. Continue reading “How to Avoid a 50% Mistake”

How to Get Around Roth IRA Income Limits

July 25, 2013

Updated February, 2018

A while ago, I wrote about some reasons to consider contributing to a Roth IRA. But if you earn too much to contribute to one, these arguments may seem like a moot point. However, there are a few things to keep in mind before completely writing off the Roth IRA. Continue reading “How to Get Around Roth IRA Income Limits”

The College Fund You Don’t Know You Have

March 14, 2013

I talk to many parents of students approaching college age who fret about having little or nothing saved for college. They know how important a college education is and want their children to be able to go to the school of their choice while graduating with as little debt as possible but at best, they only have a few thousand dollars set aside for college expenses, barely enough for one semester’s worth of meals. The rest of their money is tied up in emergency savings, retirement accounts, and a home with little or no equity. Yet, there is one potential bright spot… Continue reading “The College Fund You Don’t Know You Have”