NASE News

MyRA Launches

On Wednesday, November 4, 2015, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced the launch of MyRA, a retirement savings tools for American workers who don’t have access to a retirement plan (401k, pension, etc) through work or haven’t taken advantage of retirement plan previously.

MyRA has been a long standing initiative that the President has promoted to encourage all Americans to save for retirement. The plans are free and contributions amounts are determined by the individual, making it easy to save. You can set up the plan to deduct automatically from your paycheck via direct deposit, link to your checking and/or savings account, or direct any part of your federal tax return to your account.

The NASE does not endorse MyRA but believes that it is important for our members to save for retirement and MyRA is one of the many tools that can be used by the self-employed to save, including Roth IRA accounts.

With the launch of MyRA comes heightened awareness as to the lack of savings by individuals for retirement, two recent studies highlight the issue, “the 2015 Federal Reserve Report demonstrated that 31% of people who are still working said they have no retirement savings or pension at all. Employees who are close to retirement age average only $12,000 in savings, according to a 2013 report by the National Institute on Retirement Savings.”