How do you get $100,000,000 million in an IRA when its limited to $5,000/year contribution?

[Fresh_Start]

I guess you can live to be 20,000 years old.
or you can be Rmoney (don't you bet that a lot of the 1% are pea green with envy that they didn't figure out how to have a $100 million IRA?

[cbayer]

1. You can roll over retirement funds into a new IRA if you leave the place you are working.

So, if you had a giant retirement fund, you could roll it into a new IRA.

At least, I think that is correct.

[Fresh_Start]

4. i know but how many people have $100,000,000 to roll over....

average joe knows IRA is limited and its fun to pretend that Rmoney is a different species (lives to 20,000)

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. A lucky pick ...

where the $5K annual contribution grew at a rate of 20,000%?

{Sarcasm}

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. Via the performance of the fund's investments.

Obviously, any fund that shows that kind of rate of return on investments needs to be investigated for some serious shenanigans. I personally suspect Bernie-Madoff-level shenanigans on this one...

[PatSeg]

5. How do you run for president for two decades

and never bother to clean up your finances to make them presentable to the American people? Either very stupid or very arrogant.

[Fresh_Start]

6. arrogant of course

you don't expect the little people to question anything you do

[PatSeg]

11. He was so used to not being

held accountable, I don't think he ever thought anyone would push the issue.

[jeff47]

20. By thinking you had cleaned them up.

My theory is that he thought he had cleaned them up. But they were so incredibly dirty that he missed a few spots, which team McCain found and killed his VP nomination.

So now he doesn't want to release 'em.

[PatSeg]

23. Ah, that makes sense

And "clean" is relative. What might be acceptable to Romney could be filthy to most people.

[aquart]

24. Which gave him 3-4 years for clean up?

[jeff47]

30. Can't clean up your 1040

He could "clean up" his finances before by getting rid of some of the larger tax abuses and being a "good boy" for a few years.

But if he filed a "correction" for his 1040, that would point directly at the "bad" parts of the original 1040.

[Scootaloo]

26. Unlikely

More probably, he thought this stuff would give hi ma boost - after all, Republicans think Americans want the nation to be run "like a business" by a man with more cents than sense.

[dmallind]

7. Where does thar limitation come from?

I put more than 5k a year in mine, and my net worth wouldn't keep Romney in handkerchiefs.

[Fresh_Start]

8. IRS..

Retirement Topics - IRA Contribution Limits


For 2011 and 2012, the maximum you can contribute to all of your traditional and Roth IRAs is the smaller of:

$5,000 ($6,000 if you’re age 50 or older), or
your taxable compensation for the year.

[hobbit709]

9. You can put more than $5k/yr.

you just can't deduct more than $5K on your taxes

[Fresh_Start]

14. yes if you are 60+ can can contribution $6K/year

those are the contribution limits.
I can't deduct any of my pitiful contribution.

[librechik]

10. except she's pro choice and a proven national security fuck up

no matter how the Bushies want to pretend it's the opposite.

[Scootaloo]

27. Wrong thread, librechik :)

I think you want one on Condi?

[librechik]

29. thx, scoot--I wonder how than happened? n/t

[Kalidurga]

34. That happened to me at least once it was weird

I think I had to threads open in different tabs, but I am not even sure about that.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. What I've read on the subject (and I'm no accountant)

is that the speculation is that Romney put assets in there that were valued very low at the time and they subsequently had a wild increase in value. The low-ball evaluation may be found to be controversial and fraudulent.

[rufus dog]

13. the explanation I have seen is as follows:

He placed securities in the IRA that were valued, at the time, as equal or below the limit. The securities then became much more valuable thus he has 100 million plus.

Sure sounds like tax fraud to me.

[Fresh_Start]

15. its most likely rollover

but I think we should keep talking simple like joe plumber to make the gop voters go wth!

[aquart]

25. Did any of your assets do that? Because mine didn't.

I thought only Madoff funds looked like that.

[rufus dog]

28. Nope, because I am honest. n/t

And even if I was a cheat, I would expect the IRS would be all over my ass if I did something like Romney may have done.

[harun]

16. It isn't limited to 5K anymore. You just make good investments and it can be done.

[Fresh_Start]

18. here's the IRS publication

look for yourself

you pay fines for excess contributions.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p590/ch01.html#en_US_2011_publink1000230422

[reformist2]

17. Short answer - you can do it, if you're a crook.

[librechik]

19. either the miracle of compound interest or something shady.

My bet is on the latter.

[slackmaster]

21. You can do that in one fell swoop as a rollover from a 401k into a Rollover IRA

I have three rollover IRA accounts that were created that way from 401k plans at three different jobs.

I have slightly less than $100,000,000 million dollars, however.

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Rollover from a 457 Deferred Comp plan.

[riverbendviewgal]

31. wiki has your answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_retirement_account

Large balances
While the average and median IRA individual balance in 2008 were approximately $70,000 and $20,000, higher balances are not rare. 6.3% of individuals had total balances of $250,000 or more (about 12.5 times the median),[17] and in rare cases, individuals own IRAs with very substantial balances, in some cases $100 million or above (about 5,000 times the median individual balance).[18] This typically occurs when founders of companies place shares in their own company in an IRA, and the share value subsequently rises substantially.[18]

[Skittles]

32. the same way his kids get 20,00,000 in free stuff

THEY ARE RICH

[lastlib]

33. SEP IRAs have a $50,000 annual limit.

You can also roll 401K plans into an IRA when you leave the employer.

It still seems a little problematic to me, but that's why I'm not a hedge-fund manager....

[FreeJoe]

35. It's not that complicated

You put in money. You invest that money. Your investment increases in value. If you are really fortunate, it increases a lot.

If you think having $100mm in an IRA is bad, look at the Facebook guys that have that much or more in Roth IRAs. At least Romney will be taxed as he withdraws that money. The Roth guys earned hundreds of millions TAX FREE.

As for the $5K limit, there are a lot of ways around that. That limit is how much you can directly contribute to an IRA each year. You can also contribute $17K to a 401K pre-tax. Including your company match and after-tax contributions, and you can put up to $50K into a 401K each year. You can later roll that 401K money into an IRA. I know numerous people with $1,000,000+ IRAs from rolling 401K balances into IRAs. That's a far cry from $100,000,000. I just point it out to say that lots of people have IRAs well in excess of $5K/year of contributions.

[NNN0LHI]

36. kick