I have lived in the US for 12 years now, always as a Software Programmer Consultant, on a H-1B work visa, and an hourly billing-rate salary basis. Following are three reasons why I do not have any retirement savings.
- No Employer contributions.
- Uncertainty of immigration status. I could have lost my H-1B status at any point, and any pre-tax self-sponsored Traditional 401K, Traditional IRA would then probably be subject to at least 10% penalties, beyond the adequate tax rules for withdrawal prior to the age of retirement.
- Limited earning potential. A lot of the time, pre-tax hourly bill-rates or annual salary component more or less just sufficiently match the Department of Labor income limits for immigration purposes.
I now have a pile of after-tax cash reserves, and absolutely no debts. A lot of my peers invest in real-estate with after-tax savings in our home-country, but I do not see why that'd be a good idea, considering the currency conversion rates are only going to de-value such investments over many years into the future.
Now that I have practically built my career in Software Programming in the US, I anticipate situations will change in the coming years, both in terms of earning potential, and possibly immigration. In other words, I probably have a higher risk potential now, and I would want to plan my retirement which is less than 30 years away.
- Is it worthwhile making pre-tax maxed-out self-sponsored contributions to a Traditional 401K, particularly without any Employer Contributions? How about a Traditional IRA?
- Can i have as many - a Traditional 401K, a Traditional IRA for pre-tax maxed-out contributions, and a Roth IRA for after-tax maxed-out contributions?
- Can I just move the Traditional IRA annually into my Traditional 401K?
- Is the stock-market, and Investment Accounts the only best way to plan for retirement? Is it really worth while gambling pre-tax or after-tax money away into the stock-markets in hopes of saving adequately for retirement, and then again having to pay-up taxes on capital-gains / profits?
- Suggestions for pre-tax or after-tax investments, not necessarily related to the stock-markets, such as legally documented passive investments into restaurants, bars, VC firms etc are all welcome.
TLDR; I was the retirement plan for my parents, that I have fulfilled. Now I need to plan my own retirement.
Submitted December 26, 2019 at 06:48PM by SweetStrawberry4U https://ift.tt/3769aBY
