The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: cazaubon on January 19, 2015, 03:43:34 PM
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I am thinking about setting up a CD ladder to get me from ER to social security (12 years). I can't do Roth conversions because all my money is in a 401K and I need it next year, not 5 years from now, and the US/Canadian tax treaty does not cover Roths anyway (my money is in the US and I am retiring in Canada). I have 8 years of expenses in a ladder right now, but that will only get me to 58. Should I make a ladder for the following 4 years now (since the market is high) or just add CD rungs as I go along, to preserve possible return on stock portion? 72t SEPP plan will start withdrawals next year and I wanted to avoid sequence of returns risk by withdrawing only CD funds for the first part of my retirement. Any thoughts?
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I am thinking about setting up a CD ladder to get me from ER to social security (12 years). I can't do Roth conversions because all my money is in a 401K and I need it next year, not 5 years from now, and the US/Canadian tax treaty does not cover Roths anyway (my money is in the US and I am retiring in Canada). I have 8 years of expenses in a ladder right now, but that will only get me to 58. Should I make a ladder for the following 4 years now (since the market is high) or just add CD rungs as I go along, to preserve possible return on stock portion? 72t SEPP plan will start withdrawals next year and I wanted to avoid sequence of returns risk by withdrawing only CD funds for the first part of my retirement. Any thoughts?
We would need a more complete picture of your finances to give you any meaningful advice.
I would not recommend a CD ladder--even a jumbo 10 yr CD is only paying 3% these days.
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I am thinking about setting up a CD ladder to get me from ER to social security (12 years). I can't do Roth conversions because all my money is in a 401K and I need it next year, not 5 years from now, and the US/Canadian tax treaty does not cover Roths anyway (my money is in the US and I am retiring in Canada). I have 8 years of expenses in a ladder right now, but that will only get me to 58. Should I make a ladder for the following 4 years now (since the market is high) or just add CD rungs as I go along, to preserve possible return on stock portion? 72t SEPP plan will start withdrawals next year and I wanted to avoid sequence of returns risk by withdrawing only CD funds for the first part of my retirement. Any thoughts?
Edit: the following information is likely incorrect. It was my bad that I did not read your post fully. I assumed you were a US resident.
Are you 50 years old right now and have eight years of expenses already set up in a CD ladder?
If so then the Roth conversion pipeline will be ideal for you. Start the Roth conversion pipeline before year 3 of your ladder and then you would have the money available to you in the eighth year when your current CD ladder ends. I would not do the SEPP 72t.
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Yes, I will be 50 (when the withdrawals start next year) and have 8 years already set up in a ladder. I was told by our corporate tax consulting firm that I should not open a TFSA or a Roth IRA because the tax treaty does not treat monies inside these accounts as non-taxable - any earnings received inside them would be immediately taxable. The tax-free withdrawal status was not the issue, it was taxation of the money inside the Roth/TFSA during the holding period before withdrawal. Is this not correct?
Also, the CDs are inside my 401K, so I need to set up the SEPP 72t just to get those out, and once set up the SEPP must run for 5 years or until I am 59.5 if I have understood the rules correctly. The part about the early distribution from 401K is interesting to me - I am figuring with Canada federal and Quebec provincial income tax I am going to be paying about 30%, which is more that I will owe the US. So if I paid the 10% penalty to the US, I could apply that against the 30% tax I owe Canada anyway?
After looking at the CD rates vs an intermediate term treasury bond fund, I was thinking maybe that would be another option. Thoughts?
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Thank you for all that detailed information Cathy, I really appreciate it. I am a dual US/Canadian citizen residing in Quebec. I do not have any Roth IRA or TFSA accounts since I was warned off them. My husband does our taxes and is very competent (retired engineer). I think we may want to do a taxcaster run before setting up the SEPP 72t to see how it would affect our US and Canadian returns. If it does indeed prove to be a wash by paying the 10% extra to the IRS and end up paying less to CRA, then that is certainly the way I want to go to avoid the restrictions of the SEPP. Many thanks!!