Roth IRA with Fexingo: Tax-Free Retirement Accounts and Long-Term Investment Strategy

Episode 29 of Roth IRA with Fexingo digs into an overlooked risk: inflation silently eroding the real value of your annual Roth IRA contributions. Lucas and Luna explain why the $7,000 limit in 2026 buys less than it did in 2020, how the IRS's cost-of-living adjustments lag actual price increases, and what investors can do — like prioritizing early-year contributions and pairing Roth accounts with...

Episode 28 of Roth IRA with Fexingo clears up the single most misunderstood rule in retirement planning: the difference between a qualified distribution and a nonqualified withdrawal. Lucas and Luna walk through the actual IRS ordering rules — contributions come out first, then conversions, then earnings — and explain why a $10,000 first-home withdrawal might still trigger a penalty if you don't t...

Episode 27 of Roth IRA with Fexingo tackles a tricky personal finance decision: should you use a Roth IRA or a 529 plan to save for your child's college? Lucas walks through the tax mechanics of each account, the penalty rules for non-qualified withdrawals, and the impact on financial aid. Luna pushes back on the common advice to always prioritize the 529, pointing out that the Roth IRA offers fle...

Episode 26 of Roth IRA with Fexingo demystifies the mega backdoor Roth IRA strategy for high earners in 2026. Lucas and Luna explain how to contribute up to $69,000 to your Roth IRA by leveraging after-tax 401(k) contributions and in-plan Roth rollovers. They walk through the specific steps: maxing out pre-tax or Roth 401(k) contributions, then making after-tax contributions up to the total limit,...

Episode 25 of Roth IRA with Fexingo tackles a question that trips up many early-career savers: should you build a Roth IRA before you have a fully-funded emergency fund? Lucas and Luna walk through a specific scenario—a listener named Maya earning $52,000 a year with $3,000 in savings—and compare the cost of missing a year of Roth contributions against the risk of carrying credit card debt from an...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna tackle the backdoor Roth IRA strategy for high-income earners who exceed the direct contribution limits. They walk through the mechanics—making a non-deductible traditional IRA contribution and converting it to Roth—and explain the pro-rata rule that can trigger a tax surprise if you have existing pre-tax IRA balances. Using 2026 income thresholds ($150,000 for sing...

Episode 23 of Roth IRA with Fexingo challenges the conventional wisdom that a 401k should always come first. Lucas and Luna break down the math for a 25-year-old earning $50,000 in a 22% tax bracket: how a Roth IRA's lower fees, broader investment options, and penalty-free access to contributions can actually build more wealth over 40 years than a typical 401k. They walk through a side-by-side com...

Episode 22 of Roth IRA with Fexingo dives into a specific question that often trips up savers: can you take money out of a Roth IRA before retirement without a penalty? Lucas and Luna walk through the actual early withdrawal penalty exceptions, focusing on the first-time home purchase exception and the substantially equal periodic payments (SEPP) strategy. They break down the five-year rule for co...

Episode 21 of Roth IRA with Fexingo tackles a common blind spot among married couples: how to decide between funding a Roth IRA versus an inherited IRA when both spouses have separate retirement accounts. Lucas and Luna walk through a concrete case study—a couple with $250,000 in combined annual income, one spouse inheriting a traditional IRA worth $180,000, the other with a Roth IRA open for six...

If you're a US citizen living abroad and contributing to a Roth IRA, you might be wondering how foreign tax credits interact with your retirement account. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down a little-known nuance: when you hold international stocks in a Roth IRA, you lose the ability to claim foreign tax credits on those dividends. They walk through a concrete example using a hypothetical $...

Episode 19 of Roth IRA with Fexingo breaks down the spousal IRA rule — a little-known provision that lets a non-working or lower-earning spouse contribute to a Roth IRA based on the working spouse's income. Lucas and Luna walk through the 2026 income limits, the earned-income requirement trap, and a real-world example: a married couple where one partner takes a career break to raise kids. They exp...

Episode 18 of Roth IRA with Fexingo tackles a surprisingly alive topic: recharacterization. Lucas and Luna explain how the IRS rule allowing you to undo a Roth conversion or change a contribution from Roth to traditional IRA still works in 2026 — despite the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act killing it for conversions after 2017. They walk through a concrete example of a listener who accidentally contributed...

Many investors assume Roth IRA dividends are always tax-free. But when foreign stocks pay dividends subject to withholding taxes, that tax credit disappears inside a Roth IRA. Lucas and Luna walk through a real example: an investor holding a global dividend ETF inside their Roth, losing up to 15% of dividend income to unrecoverable foreign withholding. They explain the mechanics of foreign tax cre...

Episode 16 of Roth IRA with Fexingo dives into the Roth IRA conversion ladder — a strategy that lets early retirees access their 401(k) funds penalty-free before age 59½. Lucas and Luna walk through the mechanics using a concrete example: a 40-year-old with $500,000 in a traditional 401(k) wanting to retire at 45. They explain the five-year waiting rule, the tax impact of rolling over $40,000 per...

Episode 15 of Roth IRA with Fexingo explores a counterintuitive risk: even though Roth IRA withdrawals are tax-free, they can push you into a higher tax bracket by increasing your adjusted gross income. Lucas and Luna explain how the IRS calculates taxable income, Medicare premiums, and the net investment income tax — all of which depend on your total income, not just your taxable distributions. T...

Episode 14 of Roth IRA with Fexingo: Tax-Free Retirement Accounts and Long-Term Investment Strategy. Hosts Lucas and Luna compare a Roth IRA to a plain taxable brokerage account for a high-earner who maxes out their 401k and cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA. They model a concrete scenario: $7,000 per year invested for 30 years in a taxable account using low-turnover ETFs versus doing a bac...

Lucas and Luna unpack the Roth IRA five-year rule and the maze of early withdrawal penalty exceptions. They walk through the three main buckets—contributions, conversions, and earnings—and explain when you can tap each tax-free. Using the example of a 30-year-old who converts $50,000 to a Roth IRA today, they show exactly which dollars are accessible immediately and which are locked up until age 5...

Episode 12 of Roth IRA with Fexingo dives into the Roth IRA's often-overlooked impact on Medicare premiums. Lucas and Luna explore how tax-free Roth withdrawals can help retirees avoid the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) surcharges triggered by high Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). Using a concrete example of a retiree named Carol, they show how a $20,000 Roth conversion cou...

Lucas and Luna explore a tricky corner of Roth IRA strategy: how U.S. citizens living abroad can use foreign tax credits to offset the tax on a Roth conversion. They walk through the case of an American engineer in Germany who converted $50,000 from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2025—and how foreign tax credits saved her nearly $6,000. The episode covers the Form 1116 mechanics, the sourcing...

In this episode of Roth IRA with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna break down the critical differences between spousal and non-spousal inheritance of Roth IRAs. They explain why a spouse can treat the account as their own, deferring RMDs indefinitely, while non-spouses must empty the account within 10 years under the SECURE Act. Using a real-world example of a $200,000 inherited Roth IRA, they illustrate th...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna tackle a nuanced but high-impact Roth IRA strategy: holding international stocks in a taxable account instead of your Roth to preserve the foreign tax credit. They walk through the math using a $10,000 investment in a developed-markets ETF like VXUS, showing how putting it in the wrong account can cost you roughly 0.2 percent per year in lost tax credits — a drag th...

Episode 8 of Roth IRA with Fexingo zooms in on a hidden lever for tax-free wealth: dividends inside your Roth IRA. Lucas and Luna walk through how a $6,000 annual contribution can compound into over $1 million tax-free by age 65—if you let dividends reinvest without ever paying tax on them. They contrast this with a taxable brokerage account where dividends get clipped every year by the IRS, using...

Episode 7 of Roth IRA with Fexingo tackles a surprising rule most savers overlook: you can withdraw your contributions anytime tax-free and penalty-free, but the earnings have strict rules. Lucas and Luna walk through the five-year rule for first-time homebuyers, the 10% penalty exceptions for education and medical expenses, and the trickiest part — the ordering rules that determine whether your w...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a creative strategy: parents funding a Roth IRA for their minor children using earned income from summer jobs, babysitting, or lawn mowing. They walk through the IRS rules — the child must have earned income at least equal to the contribution — and explain how a custodial Roth IRA works. They cite IRS Publication 590-A and use a concrete example: a 16-year-o...

Episode 5 of Roth IRA with Fexingo focuses on a surprising strategy: opening Roth IRAs for your teenage or young adult children. Lucas and Luna discuss how earned income from a summer job or part-time gig qualifies, the power of starting at age 16 versus 25, and the real dollar impact over 50 years. They walk through the IRS rules on custodial accounts, the 'kiddie tax' trap to avoid, and how even...