tfranklin: "One item that hasn't been mentioned yet, is tax issues at retirement.

Income from IRA's are taxed at the regular income tax rate of 15%,20%, 28%, etc. depending on how much you withdraw every year.

If you invest in stocks and hold them for more than five years, the capital gains tax rate drops to 10%."

This is not entirely accurate, and two concepts have been mixed together.

First, tfranklin is correct when he writes "Income from IRA's are taxed at the regular income tax rate of 15%, 20%, 28%, etc. depending on how much you withdraw every year," - the normal income tax rates, like all other income, assuming that we are discussing traditional IRAs and not Roth IRAs.

If you invest invest in stocks and hold them for more than one year plus 1 day, then the gains (but not any dividends) are taxed at long-term capital gains rates, 10% (if otherwise in the 15% bracket, at least until it is full) or 20%.

There is now a super long-term capital gains rate for gains from capital assets held more than 5 years -- if the LTCG rate would have been 20%, the super LTCG rate will be 18%, if the LTCG rate would have been 10%, the super LTCG rate will be 8% (IIRC, possibly 9%) --- but only until 15% bracket is full.

Hope this helps. I suspect that TMFTaxes has an article somewhere int eh archives, and the resident pros on the Tax board could expound more if need be.

Regards, JAFO