Cash News
If you’re unemployed, if your company doesn’t offer retirement contribution matches, or you’re simply someone who wants to earn more on their retirement savings, it can pay to seek out alternative savings options.
Right now, for a limited time, Robinhood (HOOD) is offering a 3% uncapped bonus for IRA transfers with Robinhood Gold, a 2% uncapped bonus for account transfers with a $10,000 margin balance, and a 1% uncapped bonus for brokerage account transfers. To take advantage of this offer, you’ll need to start your transfers by Oct. 27, 2024.
With Robinhood, you can earn a match on all new IRA contributions, IRA transfers, and 401(k) rollovers regardless of employment.
Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide
Normally, you’d only earn a 3% match on new contributions to your Robinhood IRA account with a Robinhood Gold membership or 1% without — all IRA and old 401(k) transfers earn 1% with or without a Robinhood Gold membership.
The match isn’t counted toward your annual contribution limits, and there’s no limit on the match amount you can earn.
To access Robinhood Gold’s features, there is a monthly membership fee of $5 or an annual fee of $50. But if you decide to cancel your Gold subscription after that one-year period, your match is still yours to keep.
If you withdraw money earlier than five years, you’ll still keep that match as long as your remaining IRA balance stays at or above your contribution amount that earned the IRA match plus the match amount.
An IRA, or individual retirement account, is a tax-deductible investment savings account. You can contribute pre-tax dollars directly into an IRA where it will be invested and can grow tax-deferred over time. Investments within an IRA can range from individual stocks and bonds to mutual funds and ETFs, among other options.
With an IRA match, you can grow your retirement savings at a faster rate without needing to make extra contributions yourself.
In 2024, you can contribute up to $7,000 to a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or a combination of the two. If you’re 50 or older, you can make an additional $1,000 catch-up contribution, or a total of $8,000.
Say you’re over the age of 50 and decide to max out your contributions. If you open a Robinhood IRA and contribute $8,000, a 3% match would earn you $240 — making the monthly or annual fee worth it for Gold members.
Read more: These are the traditional IRA and Roth IRA limits in 2024
Robinhood is not the only brokerage that offers an IRA match, but it is currently offering one of the highest matches on the market.
Here’s a closer look at how Robinhood stacks up against other IRA providers that match your retirement contributions:
-
Robinhood: 3% match on annual contributions with Robinhood Gold or 1% without
-
SoFi: 1% match on new IRA contributions and 401(k) rollovers up to the annual contribution limits
-
Betterment: 1% match on contributions up to the annual limit until Dec. 30, 2024
-
Acorns Later: 3% IRA match on new contributions that you make and keep in your Acorns Later retirement account for 4 years or 1% match with Acorns Silver subscription
One major perk that sets Robinhood apart is its 1% match on all IRA and old 401(k) transfers. When looking at other IRAs with matches, some of them only offer a match on new IRA contributions. However, depending on how much you have in your old retirement accounts, transferring those over to Robinhood and getting a 1% match (or 3% until Oct. 27, 2024) can give your retirement savings a significant boost because there is no limit on how much you can earn on transfers.
Ultimately, a 1% to 3% match may not seem like a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it can certainly add up over time and incentivize you to track down abandoned retirement accounts and take a more active approach to saving in order to get that match.
Read more: How to start investing in 2024: A step-by-step guide
No. The money added to your account from the IRA match is considered interest income and, therefore, doesn’t count toward your annual IRA contribution limit.
As long as you’ve held your eligible funds for at least five years, you can keep the match. If you decide to withdraw money from your account before that five-year period is up, and your IRA balance is still equal to or greater than your contribution amount plus the match amount, you can still keep your match. But, if you withdraw money from your IRA less than five years after making the transfer and it causes your balance to dip lower than your combined transfer and match amount, you could be subject to an early IRA match removal fee.
Yes. Robinhood treats the IRA match as earned interest and may be subject to taxes.
