White Coat Investor Podcast

Should you raid your Roth IRA to pay off your student loans? No, I think raiding your Roth IRA for any reason is a bad decision. You only get so much Roth space in your life. Raiding the Roth IRA for anything except retirement is not a good idea because that money is compounding tax-free for years, and the longer you let it do that, the more valuable that benefit becomes. But the Roth IRA has other benefits too. It is great for estate planning. Even with the recent changes in the estate tax laws, you can still stretch a Roth IRA for 10 years after you die. So basically it can double in value before anyone has to take anything out of it. Plus you can name a beneficiary for it, so rather than having to wait for it to go through a will and go through probate and become public, it just goes straight to the beneficiary. It is also very good in almost every state for asset protection. Money in retirement accounts is generally not touchable in the event of an above policy limits judgment that isn't reduced on appeal