This text is from All About IRA's:

"An Individual Retirement Account is a personal retirement savings plan available to everyone under age 70 1/2 who receives taxable compensation during the year."

I'm not employed, so I can't open an IRA - right?

What about a rollover IRA?

I have about 5k in a pension plan with a former employer. They wrote me and asked me to either cash out my plan or roll it over into my own IRA. What can I do?

Thank,

Kayla

Greetings, Kayla, and welcome. You wrote:

<<"An Individual Retirement Account is a personal retirement savings plan available to everyone under age 70 1/2 who receives taxable compensation during the year."

I'm not employed, so I can't open an IRA - right?

What about a rollover IRA?

I have about 5k in a pension plan with a former employer. They wrote me and asked me to either cash out my plan or roll it over into my own IRA. What can I do?>>

You cannot make annual contributions of up to $2K unless you have earned income from a job. However, you may make rollover contributions at any time from other qualified plans like a pension or 401k. Therefore, you may transfer your pension money to an IRA. You just can't contribute to an IRA out of your pocket unless the money you use to do so came from a job.

Regards..Pixy

<<<<You cannot make annual contributions of up to $2K unless you have earned income from a job. However, you may make rollover contributions at any time from other qualified plans like a pension or 401k. Therefore, you may transfer your pension money to an IRA. You just can't contribute to an IRA out of your pocket unless the money you use to do so came from a job.>>>>

I dislike quibbling with TMFPixy, but an important (IMO) caveat was omitted from his first sentence (and the last sentence, too).

"You cannot make annual contributions of up to $2K unless you have earned income from a job, unless you are married to a spouse who has earned income that qualfies for contribution to a spousal IRA.

Just my $0.02. Regards, JAFO

JAFO sez:

<<I dislike quibbling with TMFPixy, but an important (IMO) caveat was omitted from his first sentence (and the last sentence, too).

"You cannot make annual contributions of up to $2K unless you have earned income from a job, unless you are married to a spouse who has earned income that qualfies for contribution to a spousal IRA.

LOL. Good catch. Quibble any time you want to for the sake of complete accuracy.

Regards..Pixy