Savings Vehicles and the Taxation of Individual Investors

Abstract

This article is the first in a series of four, dedicated to the study of the broad issue of asset allocation. It is divided into two distinct sections. First the author introduces the overall study, discusses its general purpose and methodology, and reviews his overall broad conclusions. Second, he presents “Savings Vehicles,” a stand-alone article that focuses specifically on the issue of savings vehicles, asking how one should select a vehicle for the retirement portion of a household's savings. The article first describes features of the five major savings vehicles in the U.S.: a personal or taxable account, a nondeductible pension, and a Roth IRA. It then presents the after-tax ending-wealth model for each vehicle and compares and contrasts the ending-wealth models.