myRA Retirement Plan

A myRA, sometimes called a myRA retirement plan or myRA retirement account, is a simple new retirement plan provided by the U.S. Treasury Department. The myRA retirement plan is designed for individuals who don’t have access to a retirement savings plan at their job or wish to have another option to save. You can open a free account and set up automatic contributions at https://myRA.gov. There are no fees associated with the myRA retirement account and the account will not lose value. The funds earn interest at the same rate as the Government Securities fund available to federal employees.

The myRA Savings Calculators are useful tools that can help you achieve your savings goals. These can be found at MyRA.gov.

A myRA is a Roth IRA. You can contribute as little as a few dollars a month or as much as $5,500 per year ($6,500 for ages 50 and over). Plus, you can withdraw your contributions at any time without paying tax or penalty. As with any Roth IRA, nonqualified distributions will result in a 10% penalty assessed on the part of the distribution that represents earnings and the earnings will be taxable. For more information about qualified distributions, see the Early Withdrawal Penalties tax tip.

Note that myRA is a starter account for retirement savings. Once the myRA account balance reaches $15,000, your account will be rolled over to a private-sector Roth IRA.