4 Moves in Your 40s to Achieve Financial Goals

published 11 March 2016

The kids are old enough to drive themselves to band practice, and you’re planning an anniversary getaway with your spouse. Life is good. But college bills loom, and you’re neglecting your retirement accounts as you sock away money for college.

Beef up investing. Saving for retirement is the priority. First, max out contributions to your workplace retirement plan. In 2016, you can contribute up to $18,000 to a 401(k) or similar employer-provided savings plan (or $24,000 if you’re 50 or older). But be careful. If you stash all of your retirement savings in tax-deferred accounts, you could find yourself facing a big tax hit when you retire, says Jon Meyer, a CFP in Minneapolis. Withdrawals from 401(k) plans and traditional IRAs are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate.

401(k) Strategy for Your 40s: Add a Roth to the Mix

Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Save up to 74%

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hwgJ7osrMtUWhk5koeVme7-200-80.png

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

Block joined Kiplinger in June 2012 from USA Today, where she was a reporter and personal finance columnist for more than 15 years. Prior to that, she worked for the Akron Beacon-Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. In 1993, she was a Knight-Bagehot fellow in economics and business journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has a BA in communications from Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va.