calculator, to see if are able to convert it to a roth ira or a roth 401k. not only can you be converting at a lower amount so that you will be paying lower taxes, but that can grow tax free forever more. and if you go through the calculator, it's very simple takes only about 5 minutes, and you see that you qualify for the roth conversion, that is a huge, huge potential tax savings. also, instead of buy and hold, i want you to consider my top gun strategy, you're going to love this, its so simple, you are going to take the best performing sectors inside the 401k, you're going to look at it every month or every quarter, i give you a different choice depending on where you're at, and you take the top one and you cycle it. no taxes when you do cycling in your ira or your 401k, and you stay with the top gun strategy; i think you're going to love it during volatile times, it's amazing diane. diane: well even during stable times, ken, you identify because people have the tools through this platinum package. what sectors are hot? ken: yes. diane: if

a nondeductible ira or a roth ira. and this is a financial planning decision that you need to make.ou need to sit down with a professional adviser so for re example if you were my client one of the things that i would do for you is i would say, here's your deductible ira amount. this is how much you would reduce your current tax. but please remember that when you withdraw this money later on, it is going to be taxable. so if you as an individual -- and i'm not expressing my own opinion or the opinions of c-span -- but if you believe that tax rates are going to be higher later, then maybe you don't want to do the deductible irera now and pay your taxes later. you may want to pay your tax right now and put that money in a roth ira where there is no tax later on. host: carol, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: my question is this. a lot of these multinational corporations and a few of the, some of the local corporations, national corporations, as of lately what i've been gathering from a lot of the news media and c-span and so forth is they refuse to pay tax an

beyond that since you are already living on what your making, i would make two roth ira contributionsyear. the reason i would put the money in a roth as opposed to a traditional ira is you can get at those contributions if you need the money. try to keep it in there to allow it to grow. it gives you flexibility just in case. >> we're proud of you. our next question says we were able to short sale our home and have worked since then to pay off debt and save a down payment. we were told it would be two years before we could even approach a lender. is there anything we can do now to get ready? explain the short sale. >> a lot of people are in this situation. they had a foreclosure on the home and it was due to a short sale. they were under water on the mortgage. they weren't able to pay it and now the situation is will they be able to get a new loan in two years. really, the law says three years for an fha loan for a freddie mac or fannie mae loan up to four years. they will probably not be able to do it in less than two years. they can try with a private lender but the rate will go up.

we also have $10,000 between a money market, roth ira and savings.to take the 7 out of that 10 and pay that off? >> garrett has a great question, especially given his medical condition. >> garrett, first of all, congratulations paying down that debt as well as you can. do not touch your savings. you said it. i think you answered that question, you said you have health concerns. i can sense from what you're telling me that you feel sometimes that money is a tight situation. you feel broke sometimes. that savings is for you for an emergency. but here's some tips. go back to your credit card statements. there is new disclosure now that the credit cards companies to have tell you exactly what you need to do, pay every month to be out of debt in that card in three years' time or less. that may be more aggressive than what you're used to. three years is tangible. see what you can do. the closer you can pay off that debt in three years, i think that's going to be your solution. do not touch your savings because you may need that. that's for you. you deserve

but retirement accounts, when you withdraw money from them -- because i'm assuming this is not a roth iranal ira or a 401-k, you will owe income taxes on the money. listen to me carefully. you have to stand in your truth and here is the truth of this matter. $700,000 in a retirement account, you will be lucky if you get 4% on that. that's $28,000 a year before taxes. after taxes, maybe $18,000 or $20,000 a year. that's going to give you $1800 a month of income to live on. you can't do that. you're 60. average age of your life expectancy could be 20, 25 years. i'm so sorry to break this news to you, but, no, you do not have enough money to retire at 60. you need to wait as i said yesterday, in my opinion, until you're 67, hopefully 70 when you can get full advantage of your social security. >> margaret, i don't know if that was the advice you wanted but i thank you for the call. i hope it helps. >> thank you. >> we have a lot more people, suze. will you come back tomorrow and gert.ot t vouernk got y ou y ch.>mu ynkcher v. we're back after this. about wa. but sometimes i wonder... what's le