Topic Guide
What Is Ira?
Ira is a subject covered in depth across 1 podcast episode in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Ira
Parent plus loan
A federal student loan program that allows parents to borrow money to help pay for their child's undergraduate education. This episode highlights how these loans can become a significant financial burden on parents, even into their retirement years, especially if the student cannot contribute to repayment, creating a challenging ethical and financial dilemma for the parent.
Intense debt repayment focus
This concept, implied by Dave Ramsey's advice, involves temporarily halting other financial goals (like retirement investing) to direct all available resources and income towards rapidly eliminating a specific debt. The episode illustrates this as a strategy to gain traction when trying to balance multiple financial objectives results in slow progress on all fronts.
What Experts Say About Ira
- 1.Pat, 68, is burdened by a $40,000 Parent PLUS student loan debt taken out for her daughter.
- 2.Her entire retirement savings amount to only $37,000 held in an IRA.
- 3.Pat's daughter, a stay-at-home mom, is currently unable to contribute to the loan repayment.
- 4.Pat's take-home pay is $3,400, which includes a 25% contribution to her IRA aimed at "making up for lost time."
- 5.Dave Ramsey identifies that trying to invest heavily while carrying significant debt often leads to slow progress on both fronts.
- 6.Ramsey advises Pat to pause all retirement investing to focus intensely on paying off the Parent PLUS loan.