On 2009-01-14 01:11:16 -0500, joeu2004 <joeu2004[at]hotmail.com> said:

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I'm the OP. All my contributions are conversion contributions, as I
haven't worked for the last 20 years (age = 75). So this was valuable
information to me. Thank you very much! And thanks to all who have
contributed to this chain of posts (I know "chain" is the wrong word,
but I cannot think of the right word. That's one of the things that
happens when age = 75).


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
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On Jan 14, 12:11*am, joeu2004 <joeu2...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

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If you are over 59.5, you can pull out contributions without penalty,
but not earnings.

--
Ron

Errata ....

On Jan 11, 2:31*pm, joeu2004 <joeu2...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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I took my own suggested, since the OP didn't. And ....


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Wrong. So ....


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That's a moot question. The 5-year clock for all Roth
IRA contributions collectively (except conversion
contributions) starts from the beginning of the year
in which the first contribution is made to any Roth IRA.

However, each conversion contribution has its own
5-year clock.

So would this be a good reason to open even
a tiny Roth, when the income ceiling is lifted
only for 2010, to get the clock started, should
finances change in the future?

On Jan 11, 2:15*am, Gary <gary...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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That would be interesting since the Roth IRA was "born on
January 1, 1998", according to fairmark.com.

But I think your question is: suppose you open one Roth
IRA more than 5 years ago and another Roth IRA less than
5 years ago. Namely ....

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That might depend on the relationship between the two Roth
IRAs. Did you roll over distributions from the first Roth IRA
into the second?

Generally, I believe the 5-year clock is on a per-account basis.

So generally (caveat: there are a lot of conditions), you could
withdraw from the earlier Roth IRA without penatly, but not from
the later one. (If conditions are such that you need to worry
about penalties in the first place. Refer to IRS Pub 590.)

However, there are special conditions that apply to Roth IRA
contributions due to conversions from a Trad IRA. Generally,
each conversion has its own 5-year clock.

So it seems reasonable to wonder if rolled over Roth IRA
distributions are affected by the 5-year clock associated
with the original Roth IRA or the destination Roth IRA. I don't
believe IRS Pub 590 mentions if/how the 5-year clock is
affected by Roth IRA rollovers.

I think this question would be better posted to the
misc.taxes.moderated newsgroup.

On Jan 11, 4:15*am, Gary <gary...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
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The answer is "it depends." :-)

The lengthy explanation starts on page 65 of IRS Publication 590:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf.

Dave

Say I opened my first Roth IRA with Fidelity in 1995.

I opened a second Roth IRA with Vanguard in 2005.

When can I start taking distributions from the Vanguard Roth without penalty?