IRAs

Investing For Your Retirement with an IRA

IRAs can help you meet your retirement goals. Making a concerted effort to save for your retirement is critical in helping to ensure financial security for yourself and your family, and the IRA - an Individual Retirement Account or Arrangement - is one of the easiest, most convenient ways to start.

MetLife offers many IRA strategies and products that can be used to fund your IRA. Here is an overview:

Traditional IRAs: A traditional IRA allows your retirement savings to grow tax deferred, meaning you won't pay any taxes on earnings until you withdraw your money. Anyone under age 70½ with earned income may contribute up to the allowable limit annually (or 100% of earned income, whichever is less) to a traditional IRA. The allowable limit for 2008 is $4,000 and $5000 for those over age 50.

For many investors, those contributions may also be tax deductible depending on the amount of the investor's income.

If a married couple files a joint tax return, each spouse may contribute up to the annual allowable limit.

Roth IRAs: If your traditional IRA contributions are not tax deductible, you might consider contributing to a Roth IRA instead. You can never deduct contributions to a Roth IRA.

The Roth IRA was introduced in 1998, and, since then, many investors have opened Roth IRAs or converted traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs. With a Roth IRA, your assets can grow tax-free, meaning you'll never have to pay federal income taxes on your earnings, provided certain requirements are met prior to receiving the distribution. Depending on your situation, tax free growth could possibly result in a larger retirement nest egg than a comparable investment in a traditional IRA.

Rollover Opportunities: If you plan to retire or change jobs in the near future, you may face a number of difficult decisions. Among the most important is, what to do with the money you've saved through your employer's retirement plan and how this decision will impact your retirement planning. As you prepare to make this decision, your next steps should include understanding the distribution options available to you, their tax implications, and how each could impact your savings and goals, both today and in the future.

The Stretch IRA Strategy: You have worked hard your entire life to accumulate your assets, fulfill your retirement dreams and provide protection for your loved ones. As you move through your financial lifecycle, it is important to examine your current situation and plan accordingly for future events that could impact your retirement strategy, your IRA assets or your beneficiaries. The Stretch IRA strategy is a planning strategy that can help preserve your IRA and other tax-qualified assets for your beneficiaries. The Stretch IRA strategy focuses on passing IRA assets to your loved ones - when you don't need these assets currently to meet your retirement income needs- by accessing only the minimum amounts required under the tax law.