When was the last time someone ever forced you to take money out of your savings account to use for yourself? That may sound crazy, but that’s exactly what the IRS does eventually with your 401k and other retirement accounts. Commonly known as a “reverse holdup”, a 401k RMD (which stands for “reverse minimum distribution”) is when the government requires you to start making withdraws from your 401k account, typically starting at age 70-1/2. The reason they want you do this is simple: They want to start collecting the taxes on the money you’ve been sheltering from them all these years. Remember that with a traditional 401k you avoided … [Read more...]