My wife, a former courter reporter, from time to time receives income from transcriping the proceedings she reported. She is obligated to prepare transcripts on request. Her Keogh Plan at Schwab was been rolled over to an IRA several years ago. This year her income is a little under $1,000. Can she put any part of this money into a deferred compensation plan? If so, what type of plan and how much?

Although we are both retired, neither of us has drawn from our from our IRAs.

As long as she has what the IRS calls "modified adjusted gross income," she can probavly contribute to an IRA or Roth. Probably up to $1000 if that's her modified adjusted gross income under the IRS definition. It's all explained in IRS Publication 590. That's available here:

http://www.irs.gov/forms_pubs/index.html