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Florida residents who suffered financial losses from Hurricane Ian might be able to tap their retirement accounts to cover emergency expenses, a last resort more victims of natural disasters are using.

Is there a recommended strategy for taking required withdrawals from retirement savings in this horrible market? I’m a buy-and-hold investor; normally, I would just hunker down, not look at my balances, and ride out this storm. Unfortunately, the Internal Revenue Service makes me sell stocks at the worst time. Any recommendations for this unprofitable task?

When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, many individuals took advantage of a federal tax break and withdrew money from their retirement accounts. If they repay the funds—which isn’t required—by next year, they’ll get another tax break, too.

If you are younger than age 59½ and want to withdraw money from your individual retirement account, there are several exceptions that could allow you to do so without incurring the 10% early-withdrawal penalty from the IRS. One such exemption being used more often is a so-called 72(t) plan.

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Doing a reverse rollover — in which money is rolled from an IRA to a 401(k) — still makes sense for clients that want to take advantage of a “backdoor” Roth IRA conversion or delay required minimum distributions, according to Ed Slott and Ian Berger of Ed Slott and Co.

For years, fewer teenagers were looking for summer jobs, opting instead to bolster their college applications with academic programs or unpaid internships. But as the economy bounced back from the pandemic, employers were almost begging for workers and some opportunities were too good to pass up.

Using your individual retirement account to give to charity is a good thing. But tax snafus can ruin the good intentions. Traditional IRAs have long been used to make qualified charitable distributions. Eligible individuals can donate as much as $100,000 a year. Such gifts can make up part or all of the donor’s required minimum distribution, or RMD. And amounts donated to qualified charities are excluded from the donor’s taxable income for that year.

Midyear can be a good time to take a halftime break and evaluate your investments — especially this year, after nearly six straight months of stock market decline. Perhaps stock and even bond losses have exposed flaws in your portfolio. Maybe they offer the potential to adjust holdings to take advantage of new opportunities. Now also might be the time to pursue a potentially important tax strategy.

Ed Slott of IRAhelp.com is back to help Chuck answer a listener's question about setting up a tax-advantaged savings account for a newborn grandchild, and Jordan Kahn, chief investment officer of the ACM Funds -- manager of the ACM Dynamic Opportunity Fund -- makes his debut talking stocks in the Market Call.