7 Smart Ways to Invest Extra Money

Why don’t presidents get access to UFO information? Is the mafia really that violent? Could we have domesticate it a T-Rex welcome to curious state where offbeat questions lead to unforgettable answers.

This is such a great, terrible, Mind blowing question.

I’m Doug Frazier in this is curious state catch the first two episodes on March 29th. With new episodes released weekly subscribe on apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

Hello friends. And thanks for joining me this week. My name is Laura Adams and I’m a personal finance expert. Who’s been hosting the money girl podcast since 2008. I’m also the author of several books, including my most recent title, which was an Amazon number one new release called money smart solopreneur, a personal finance system for freelancers entrepreneurs and side hustlers. So if you are building a business or you’re thinking about ways to earn more income from a side, I would love for you to grab a copy it’s available as a paperback ebook or audiobook. And if you’re on the socials, be sure to connect with me on Twitter at Laura Adams or on Instagram at Laura D. Adams. There’s a D in the middle of the Instagram handle. And Laura D adams.com is my personal site. When you can use my contact page and learn more about my work books and money courses, my mission here is to help you get the knowledge and motivation to prioritize your finances, build wealth, and have a lot more financial security with less stress.

Every show is created to help you come away with some practical tips and advice to make better money decisions and take your financial life to the next level. So I’m thrilled that you’re here and I would love for you to subscribe to the show if you’re not already be sure to also give it a rating and review that always helps new listeners find us and understand what the show is all about. That’s a really quick, easy way that you can give back to the show if you are enjoying it. And as always can leave a message for me, 24 7 on our voicemail line, that’s set up just for you. It’s 3 0 2 3 6 4 0 3 0 8. And you can also email me using my [email protected] And if you wanna read a companion blog post for the show, they are always published in the, at quick and dirty tips.com. This show is inspired by a terrific question from Jessica a in Texas, she says I’m a long time listener and huge fan of your podcast.

My husband and I are in our early thirties and have set ourselves up well financially, we have about $60,000 in cash in a 0.4% quote, high yield savings account. We think it could be doing more for us, but we’re not sure where to begin. Our only debt is our mortgage and we pay extra toward the principle. Each month, we have a 12 month emergency fund max out our workplace retirement accounts, and both max out our Roth IRAs every year. We’re not eligible for HSAs, but contribute to a 5 29 savings plan for our infant. Is there some way to invest our extra money that would earn a higher return? Should we open up a brokerage account? And if so, what types of investments should we buy? We’re not well versed in non-tax advantage accounts and would appreciate any resources you could recommend for becoming more educated investors.

Thanks so much for your great question, Jessica, you get a virtual high five for accomplishing so, so much in your financial life at such young age, you’re in an enviable position and are certainly asking the right questions, you know, and as far as where to go to become an educated investor, I mean, there really isn’t one place. I think you’re listening to this podcast, which is a, you know, a great resource. There are many other great financial podcast out there as well, and that, you know, you might want to look at, um, but I hope that this show will help you move in the right direction. Once you’ve covered the basics with your finances, like funding, your emergency savings and investing regularly, and you’ve still got money left over, you have some excellent options for growing that money. So when this podcast will cover what to do when your income increases, or you receive a cash windfall and end up with extra money like Jessica.

So if you are fortunate enough to have some extra money, I recommend first taking a holistic view of your financial life and reviewing your goals before you make any significant money decisions. It’s always wise to consider what you genuinely want to accomplish with the money. For instance, should you create more security by increasing certain insurance coverages, open a college plan for your kids, buy a home or start a business only, you know, the answers to these questions. But the trick is to identify them first and really understand your priorities. In addition, as your life changes, you may need more or less savings in the bank. You may need to update your emergency documents or even create a new estate plan. As your income increases. The trick building wealth is resisting. What I call lifestyle creep or spending more. If you earn more and can maintain or even decrease your expenses, you’ll reach any financial goal.

You dream about a whole lot faster. So let’s go through seven wise ways to make your extra money grow. Number one, max out a Roth IRA. I always recommend maxing out tax advantage accounts first, and then putting money into taxable accounts. So Jessica and her husband are very smart to be maxing out their Roth IRAs every year. They’ve definitely checked that box. It’s especially wise to do this when you’re also contributing to a workplace retirement plan, such as a 401k or a 4 0 3 B, unlike with a traditional IRA. There’s no restriction on the tax break. You get for participating in both retirement accounts when you earn over an annual limit. And I’ll explain more about that in a moment. So what you need to remember is that no matter how much you contribute to a retirement plan at work, you can always max out an IRA in the same year for 2022, you can contribute up to $6,000 or up to 7,000.

If you’re over age 50, how there are annual income limits to qualify for a Roth IRA that don’t apply to a traditional IRA or any other type of retirement account. Also note that while your Roth IRA contributions are not tax deductible, they give you tax free income when you take distributions after age 50 and a half. So, you know, it’s just a really smart account to, to be using for 2022. If you file taxes as a single you’re ineligible for a Roth IRA, when you’re modified adjusted income or magi for short reaches, $144,000. Now, if you’re married and file taxes jointly, neither of you can contribute to a Roth IRA when your household match eye reaches $214,000. So if your income is below these annual limits, you can either fully fund or partially fund a Roth IRA and fully fund a workplace retirement plan in the same year, giving you terrific X benefits to enjoy now and in the future.

All right, the second way to invest your money is to max out a self-employed retirement account. Jessica didn’t mention if she or her husband have other income sources such as earnings from self-employment. When you do have business income, there are even more to acts advantaged ways to save for retirement. In addition to an IRA, even if you already max out a workplace retirement plan, one of my favorite self-employed retirement accounts is a simplified employee pension plan known as a SEP IRA. It allows you to make tax deductible contributions up to 20% of your net self-employment income. And for 2022, your total contribution can be up to $61,000. However, you can’t contribute more to a step IRA than you earn from the business. I have a step IRA because it’s just a super easy account to open and maintain. It’s an excellent option for anyone who has a day job and makes full or part-time money on the side.

All right. So if you’ve done the Roth IRA, you’ve done a self-employment retirement account. The third way to invest extra money is to max out a health savings account or HSA. This is my next favorite tax advantaged account to put your extra money. Uh, however, you do have to be enrolled in an HSA eligible high deductible health plan to qualify. You can purchase that health insurance through a group plan at work or on your own as an individual. Now, Jeff, a convention that she is not qualified for an HSA, which might be because she’s ensuring an infant when you’ve got kids or even chronic illnesses that require frequent doctor visits and medical care. You typically save money with a health plan that has a lower deductible, but if you do have an HSA, they offer even more tax benefits than retirement accounts. There are no restrictions on your income.

Your contributions are tax deductible and the investment growth in the account is tax deferred. So those distributions that you take out to pay for medical expenses are entirely tax free. As long as those healthcare expenses are qualified, and there is a wide variety of qualified expenses, including medical, dental, vision chiropractic, acupuncture, prescriptions, and many over the counter medicines and products for 2022, you or anyone else such as a family member, or even your employer can contribute up to three tha thousand $650 to your HSA. When you’ve got a self only health plan, or it’s double that amount. It’s $7,300 when you’ve got a family plan. Plus if you’re over age 55, you can contribute an additional $1,000 to an HSA. When you’ve got either type of health plan, either a plan for yourself or a family plan. The good thing about HSA funds is that they roll over from year to year with no penalty. There’s just no spending deadline. And if you’ve got a balance after age 65, you can even spend those funds on non-medical expenses before age 65. If you do, if you spend HSA funds on non-qualified expenses, you’ve gotta pay taxes plus an additional hefty 20% penalty. But if you spend them after age 65, you do still have to pay income tax on those distributions. You just get to avoid that 20% penalty.

All right, the fourth way invest extra money is to fund a 5 29 college savings plan. And again, Jessica is right on the money here. She mentioned that she is contributing to a 5 29 college plan for her child. If you wanna pay for education expenses, like tuition books, computer equipment, internet, and room and board for yourself, or a family member, a 5 29 comes with some nice tax breaks. Plus you can even use up to $10,000 per year of a 5 29 plan for education expenses for younger kids. It could either be for public school or private school for kids in kindergarten through high school. So, you know, it’s a, it’s a really great plan to contribute. And once a student is out of high school, you can use a 5 29 for any college university graduate school or vocational school without an annual limit. As long as the institution is eligible to participate in federal student aid programs, while your contributions to a 5 29 are not tax deductible upfront, your account’s interest earnings and the investment growth is never taxed.

If you use the funds for qualified expenses, and there are no restrictions on your annual income to participate in a 5 29 plan. So they’re basically available to, to anyone and most states offer at least 1 5 29 option, however, the fees and benefits of each plan Varys. So it’s really wise to compare plans. The good says that you don’t have to be a resident of a state to enroll in that state’s plan. For example, you could live in Florida, participate in a California 5 29 plan and use the funds to pay for a school in Michigan. So there’s a lot of flexibility. There also note that some states that have an income tax offer residents, a tax deduction, or even a tax credit when you choose an in-state 5 29 plan. So depending on where you live, that could add up to significant savings compared to enrolling in an out-of-state plan, the only downside of contributing to a 5 29 plan is that spending it on anything besides qualified at education expenses comes with a penalty on the earnings portion of the distribution.

You do have to pay income tax and an additional 10% penalty on any amounts you take out that were not previously taxed. And again, that’s just the earnings portion in the account. Now there are some exceptions such as if a student, a scholarship, and you don’t need the 5 29 plan anymore, or if they become disabled or die. So, you know, you wanna look into these plans and really compare your options because there are a lot of choices and, and they’re gonna come with very different benefits that you wanna just, you know, make sure that they are the benefits that you need for you and your family. All right, the fifth way to invest extra money is to make after tax retirement contributions. As I previously mentioned, no matter how much you contribute to a workplace retirement plan, like a 401k, you can also max out a traditional or a Roth IRA in the same year for 2020, you can co you’d up to 6,000 or 7,000.

If you’re over age 50, however, be aware that if you or a spouse participate in a retirement plan at work, the tax deduction that you receive for traditional IRA contributions may be reduced or eliminated depending on your income. That’s because you’re putting those contributions in on a pre-tax basis. And the government is kind of limiting your upfront tax benefit while it might seem pointless to make non deductible or after tax contributions to a retire account, such as a traditional IRA or a traditional 401k, they still offer excellent benefits. So this is something I think a lot of folks overlook what happens is even if those are non deductible contributions, meaning, you know, you’ve gotta pay tax on them in the current year, your investment earnings still grow tax deferred. So you’re, you typically avoid paying tax on the account growth until you take withdrawals after age 59.

So that’s a pretty good benefit. So if you’re like Jessica and you maxed out a retirement account at work and you maxed out an IRA and you’ve still got more to invest, consider making non deductible Contra be to your 401k or 4 0 3 B as long as your retirement plan allows it. And most do, you can use it to shelter more of your income up to an annual limit from taxation on your investment growth for 2022, the total amount of deductible and non deductible contributions, you can make an employer sponsored. Retirement plan is $61,000 or 67,500. If you’re over age 50, all right, moving on to the sixth way to invest your extra money is to invest through a brokerage account. So once you’ve exhausted all your tax advantage ways to invest extra money, then you’re gonna have to look at taxable options such as a brokerage account or another investment platform.

And I mentioned, uh, some real estate investing platforms in a recent podcast. So that’s an example of what I’m talking about. The investment firm you choose should depend on the types of investments you wanna purchase such as mutual funds exchange, traded funds, real estate funds, cryptocurrency, or precious metals. Now, when you’ve got dividends or capital gains in a brokerage account or any regular investing platform, you do have to report the income on your tax return for the year. The brokerage will send you the appropriate tax forms in January for the prior year, so that you know, the types and amounts of income that you either earned or lost the tax rate that you’re going to have to pay depends on how long you owned an investment and your taxable income. When you profit from an asset you own for less than a year, it’s called a short term capital gain.

And in that case, you pay the same tax rate as you do for your regular wages or salary known as your ordinary income. And depending on your tax bracket, that’s gonna range from 10% up to 37% for the highest amount of your income. Now, your tax on assets that you own for longer than a year are called long term capital gains and capital gains range from zero to 20%, depending on your income. So the average investor is gonna be right in the middle. They’re paying 15% on capital gains while paying tax on investment growth and a brokerage isn’t ideal. The upside is that you can take withdrawals anytime you want, without a penalty. And as far as choosing investments, as Jessica asked about, you know, I would really stick with mainstream type of investments, like a growth mutual fund, or, you know, a stock mutual fund or a balanced exchange traded fund.

You’re gonna have a menu of options to choose from, and you just really wanna keep it diversified. And I will also say that in many cases, when you enroll in a brokerage account, you get access to free guidance, free help from a financial advisor. And if you speak with them, they can help you decide how to allocate your funds. So I would take them up on that. And even if it does cost a small amount to speak with a representative, talking with them will really help you because they can take a look at everything that you own and make sure that the money you put in the brokerage is helping you diversify your portfolio further. All right, the seventh and last way to invest extra money is to purchase annuities. An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company, and they promise to pay you a particular amount of income.

And these products can be pretty complicated because there are many, many different types of annuities sold by insurance companies, banks, and financial advisors, think of an annuity as an insurance or a guarantee that you’ll have a future income stream. And you purchase one either with a lump sum of money or, or you can even pay premiums over time. And then the insurance company invest your money for you. Then they typically pay you over a set period, and it could even be for as long as you live so that you never run out of money in retirement. Unlike with most tax advantaged accounts, like a 401k IRA or HSA a don’t have an annual contribution limit. So that means you can put in as much as you wish. That’s pretty much the major upside of using an annuity. While the funds you contribute are not tax deductible, your investment earnings do grow tax deferred.

And when you take distributions, the earnings portion of your withdrawal will be taxable. Annuities may be a good option after you’ve maxed out all other tax advantaged accounts, like a retirement account at work, one or more IRAs and HSA, if you’re eligible and you’re approaching retirement. So I would say over age 50, so Jessica, the annuity option may not be right for you. I would, um, use the six options that I mentioned here and really for you, it it’s going to be, I think either, uh, making non deductible retirement contributions or opening up an account with a taxable brokerage annuities really are, I think, best reserved for those who are approaching retirement. So again, Jessica, thank you so much for your great question. I hope this has been helpful. Uh, before we go, I would love to invite you to join my free private Facebook group called dominate your dollars, which is an amazing group of people who are asking questions, helping other people in the group and reaching ambitious financial goals. You can search for the group on Facebook and, uh, go ahead and request membership. You can also visit Laura D adams.com where you’ll find my contact page and more about me, my books and online courses. That’s all for now. I’ll talk to you next week until then here’s to living a richer life. Money girl is a quick and dirty tips podcast. It’s audio engineered by Steve Ricky bur with editing by Adam Cecil. Our assistant manager is Emily Miller and our marketing and publicity assistant is Devina Tomlin.