Have you ever wondered, "when is the Federal Government going to do something for me"??

Well, that day has come! On December 23, 2008, Congress passed, and President Bush signed into law, some changes to the rules that tell you when you have to take money out of your IRA as well as how much you have to take out.

As you probably know, if you are over 70 1/2, the government expects you to take money out of your retirement accounts every year. They call these distributions "required minimum distributions." As you get older, the government expects you to take a larger and larger percentage of your account balance out until, eventually, you've taken it all out!

Now that we're all on the same page, here's what has changed for this year. If you were normally required by IRS regulation to take money out of a retirement account in 2009,

-- you don't have to!! --

That's right, you don't have to take any money out of a retirement account in 2009 unless you WANT to. So, if you don't need the income (and don't want to have to pay the taxes), you might want to consider not taking any money out and, instead, using money outside of the retirement account to fund your income needs in 2009

If you are not sure whether this rule change applies to you or if you just have some questions that you would like answered regarding your financial situation, click here to request that we contact you (or just give us a call at the office, 707-578-5800 x301).