In these hard economic times many people have had to raid their IRAs just to be able to pay their bills.

As you may or may not know, whenever you take an early distirbution from your IRA, you pay a 10% penalty on the amount of the withdrawal on your income tax.

It seems to me that making people that are trying to survive through these hard times, and in doing so are reducing their retirement monies, shouldn’t be penalized by Uncle Sam. It seems like adding insult to injury to me.

I would like to see the 10% penalty temporarily removed until the economy recovers, retroactive to include 2009 and 2010 tax returns.

What are your thoughts?

I think it sucks that credit card companies can get away with charging 30% interest if you’re late with a payment or go over your limit.

If someone is late or misses a payment, they probably are short on money. By increasing the interset rate, the credit card companies are making it almost impossible for people to ever pay off their credit card balances.