There are several advantages to having a Roth IRA retirement plan set up for your retirement funds. There’s tax flexibility, and although your contributions aren’t tax deductible, the minimal tax penalties for withdrawals and other investments make a Roth IRA retirement plan a good choice. If you ever need the money, you can feel safe about withdrawing it, without it costing you half of the money in the fund. There are several drawbacks for such a plan though, for example: Roth IRA contribution limits.
Although all retirement plans have a yearly contribution limits, especially ones in which employers match your contribution, there are some heavy penalties if you don’t abide the Roth IRA contribution limits. Most other plans offer a maximum contribution to an account of about 12% of yearly income. Roth IRA contribution limits allow only $5000-6000 yearly, regardless of your yearly income. A plus side to this though is you can run a Roth IRA whilst running a different, separate retirement plan as well.
Despite the Roth IRA contribution limits, the contributions you make to your funds are not tax deductible, you you’ll find yourself paying for the money in taxes anyway. The plus side is that as mentioned above, the money can be withdrawn, distributed and invested before the retirement age while avoiding tax penalties on those actions, as well as early withdraw penalties being considerable lower than with other retirement plans. This is beneficial in case of financial emergencies.
The current Roth IRA contribution limits set a heavy price if you go over your contribution limits. If you don’t withdraw the excess funds in the account, you will be subject to a 6% tax penalty on the extra funds. Depending on the amount of excess funds, this can be quite a lot of money lost for no reason. So be attentive to the Roth IRA contribution limits, and be sure to stay within the limit to avoid giving money away for no reason. Something else to be attentive about, although on a bit of a separate topic is the Roth IRA income limits, which directly affect whether you can even contribute to your IRA.
Overall, Roth IRA retirement plans are a very flexible retirement system. They offer lower to no penalties for early withdrawal, as well as money distribution and investment. One of the biggest things to be careful with this type of IRA system is the Roth IRA contribution limits, as you really don’t want to give money away in tax penalties. Instead, use any excess funds and put them into a different and separate retirement plan, as even when you have a Roth IRA, you can have other plans as well which only adds to the benefits of a Roth IRA.