The Roth IRA began in 1998 as a way to encourage middle-class Americans to save for retirement without reducing revenue (i.e.taxes) to the federal government in the short term. Although Roth IRAs have income limits aimed at excluding higher-income people, major loopholes still allow just about anyone to stash cash now that they can withdraw tax-free in retirement. One of those loopholes is known as the “backdoor” Roth IRA contribution. Here are four signs that a backdoor Roth might be for you.

At The Financial Gym, we are often asked by current and future parents how to best save for their child’s future and education. A common vehicle for this is the 529 account, but you may have also heard of an UTMA. Let’s dive into both.

First things first: there are 51 separate 529 plans—one for each state plus the District of Columbia. 529s are also known as Qualified Tuition Programs (QTP). Each 529 has slightly different features or rules as it relates to their respective states, but their purpose is the same.

There are a few critical choices we make about our retirement accounts including how much to contribute and what to invest in. Due to the rise in popularity of Roth 401ks, you might have one other important decision: should you contribute pre-tax money to your traditional 401k, post-tax money to your Roth 401(k), or have a mix of both?

Spoiler alert: everyone’s situation is different and there may not be a clear best choice. To decide, you’ll need to make some educated guesses about your answers to the following questions.

It seems to be baby season. We’ve already had a FinGym baby this year and there is another on the way!

We often get questions from new or soon-to-be parents who want to know the best way to save for their children’s futures, so we wanted to break down a couple of the most common ways to save for college or other needs.

It’s Retirement Month at The Financial Gym, and we’re kicking off the month with a retirement guide for beginners. Since it’s a big topic, we’re breaking it down into several parts, and this is part one, where we’ll talk about how to figure out how much you have to save in the first place. A lot of the articles we see out there about retirement are, well, just not helpful. Some throw out huge numbers that sound impossible to reach without telling you how to get there.

Every year, millions of people change jobs and leave their 401(k)s behind with their former employers. This happens for many reasons. Switching jobs is a busy, stressful time for most of us, so it’s often easier to just do nothing and leave your old account where it is. Even if you want to transfer your 401(k) to a new retirement account - technically called a rollover - it can be a tedious process.

While it is important to have money in the stock market, as that is where you can really grow your net worth, it is really important to have that money working correctly for you. As you have learned in some of our other blog posts about investing, there are many different ways you can invest your money in the stock market, from stocks to bonds to real estate to commodities to cryptocurrency.