Originally from ticket #11499.
Tim.
Hubby and I had a long talk about your software last night. After
staring at the Investments page a while, I saw the power of this utility
and also realized (got more realistic about it) how much WORK and TIME
it would take for me to make my own custom application.
I was aware of the options mentioned below... (thanks)... and I've
played with some other settings.
The thing that really GOT ME THINKING was your comment in a previous
correspondence of how "people use our software to over-analyze their
situation to death." (or something like that).
I realized I'l trying to over-analyze everything as well ( a curse of
being a little Type-A. Ok. If you look up Type-A in the dictionary...
there is a photo of me). LOL
So. We decided that we would buy your software. Our only remaining
angst over the decision is the costs to upgrade (if something changes in
the future (legislation/IRS rules) on how taxes are treated). $150 for
existing customers seems a bit much... esp. if you are upgrading annually.
Wondering if there is any fudge-room on that? (Realizing you may not
have the authority to give package deals... :-) )
I have a few more products to evaluate over the weekend but DOUBT very
much that they will even compare to yours... but have to go thru that
process anyway (you know why)...
Thank you so much for putting up with all my questions. I'm sure I will
have more, but I promise to go thru the extensive HELP section before
bugging you.
I do have one nagging concern. For every scenario I've run, it ALWAYS
benefits us to pull the Roth (tax free) money out last... yet your
reason for taking Roth's out first was that it lowered tax obligations.
Maybe it is lowering tax obligations in the early years... but the
"needs" in early years are less (due to inflation in later years) and it
seems that allowing your tax-free accounts to grow as long as possible
would be an advantage. And the numbers seem to support that.
Granted, I'm not 100% sure I'm understanding HOW those Roth withdrawels
are treated when you do a lump sum cash infusion at say, age 85. I'm
assuming if you say not taxed... and put them in the tax-free bucket,
that it is no different than if they were pulled out earlier in the
ballgame.
So... still scratching my head as to why the developers chose to pull
out Roth's first. There may be a scenario I'm not considering where it
is an advantage to do that. So if you can answer this question, I'd
love it!! I totally understand using Roth's a little each year if you
need to pull out cash for unexpected incidentals or a car purchase or
something -- and don't want to tip you into the next tax bracket (or
trigger reduction? of social security benefits or some other effect that
I'm unaware of.)
Have a great weekend --
Been a long winter and I cannot wait til spring. Be glad you live in
Georgia! :-)
Deb