Preparing for the new year, I came across an interesting twist on resolutions: "65 Achievable New Year's Resolutions You'll Actually Keep," a great article on the Good Housekeeping website (tinyurl.com/3b4du59a). Sixty-five is a bit much, but I love the idea of resolutions "you'll actually keep."

I'll share just a few of the 65, and yes, I could potentially see myself keeping these resolutions:

-- No. 28: Listen to novels while you work out.

-- No. 44: Play upbeat music.

-- No. 64: Make your home more fragrant.

Those should be easy, yes? But why is it that only 9% of people successfully keep their New Year's resolutions, according to Insideout Mastery (tinyurl.com/2nsk3cme)?

Since I'm a skeptic by training due to my law and money-management background -- which includes running my practice during four bear markets and five bulls -- and through experience in alternative dispute resolution as a former arbitrator and mediator for FINRA, the financial services regulator, I usually resist empty promises. That's what a New Year's resolution seems to be, a promise that may not be kept.

But, the Good Housekeeping article made me think. As authors Zee Krstic and Cameron Jenkins point out, "The key to setting good goals is making them aspirational and yet attainable at the same time -- something you want to work toward, and you can honestly see yourself achieving."

Perhaps, just perhaps, a New Year's financial resolution can be stated in such a way to be achievable -- if it touched the senses perhaps (listening to music; enjoying a pleasant fragrance)? What if the resolution were time-limited so that discipline to stay the course could be achieved? What if it eliminated the need for discipline? Would it help if it were simple enough to accomplish, not overwhelming and effortless to keep on top of?

Can achievable New Year's resolutions work with financial matters? Could the resolution be as easy as a rule against borrowing money to buy things for yourself for the month of January? Or, having an automatic 10% deduction from each paycheck put into a retirement account? Or, taking an afternoon the first Saturday of each month to talk with children about just one financial literacy lesson?

Could resolutions help allay financial stress, anxiety or insecurity?

Motley Fool Money's 2024 Financial Stress, Anxiety, and Mental Health Survey of 2,000 American adults found that 54% of respondents had financial anxiety or stress three or more days a week (tinyurl.com/mwe3h667).

Northwestern Mutual's 2024 Planning & Progress Study, released earlier this year, surveyed more than 4,500 adults ages 18 and older and reported that 33% of adults said they did not feel financially secure -- the highest level of insecurity in the study's history, which began in 2009 (tinyurl.com/4kja77ue).

Or what about those living with financial regret (78% of more than 1,000 adult Americans surveyed by Debt.com, with 21% saying the regret is "charging up too much credit card debt" -- tinyurl.com/yc3nsk2p)?

Fidelity Investments' 16th Annual New Year's Financial Resolutions Study indicated that 2025 would be the year of "living practically" (tinyurl.com/bdwc5kz4). Among the top concerns listed by the 3,008 U.S. adults ages 18 and older were unexpected expenses (38%), the effects of inflation (37%) and economic uncertainty or recession (32%).

For those who don't normally spend time and effort on organizing their financial lives, a resolution can be a start, especially if it's triggered by preventing regret. Would it help to travel forward in time in order to get perspective by looking back to today? Is there anything the time traveler would learn about taking action today to avoid regret?

Perhaps that would be a good exercise for anyone to do as the new year unfolds -- to contemplate today's actions through the lens of tomorrow's insight.

Write to me (readers@juliejason.com) if you have a story to share about financial resolutions that you are glad to have kept.

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If you set up a 529 education plan for your children or grandchildren that is no longer needed for education expenses, there is a new game in town. A law that went into effect this year permits 529 money to be rolled into a Roth IRA. That is, you can have money that you don't want to keep in the 529 transferred into a Roth IRA without triggering an income tax (or penalty) on the withdrawal from the 529. Of course, there are strings and limits.

The 529 Roth IRA rollover is new for 2024, enacted as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act (signed into law at the end of 2022 --tinyurl.com/5ehrjeyj). We haven't seen any IRS guidance as of yet, so some questions will remain unanswered until that happens. For now, the best resource is the statute itself.

The act outlines six key points when it comes to making this type of conversion:

1. The 529 account must have been opened for 15 years before the rollover can be made. (Note: The statute does not state that the 15-year period is NOT reset by a 529-to-529 rollover or a change in beneficiaries. Will the 15-year count have to start over if there is a 529-to-529 rollover or a beneficiary change?)

2. No 529 fund contributions (or the earnings for those contributions) for the past five years can be rolled over to the Roth IRA. (Note: Tracking may be an issue. "529 Plans are not required under existing law to track the information necessary to determine what portion of earnings in the account are attributable to contributions made five years or more prior to the date of distribution," states a letter sent to the IRS by the Nebraska assistant state treasurer on behalf of the College Savings Plans Network -- tinyurl.com/59yrmyxv.)

3. The rollover must be done through a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer from the 529 account to a Roth IRA that is for the designated beneficiary of the 529 account.

4. There is a maximum yearly amount that can be rolled over. For 2024, the amount is $7,000, which is the current Roth contribution limit. However, the amount is reduced if the beneficiary himself made contributions to another IRA in 2024.

5. The beneficiary is not subject to an income limitation, in contrast to a contribution an individual can make on his own into a Roth IRA. (This is different from the general rules for a Roth IRA. Under those rules, for example, a single person who has a modified adjusted gross income of $161,000 or more in 2024 cannot contribute to a Roth IRA -- tinyurl.com/txftjz2s.)

6. There is also an aggregate limit of $35,000 total that can be rolled over from the 529 to the Roth IRA.

At this time, it is unclear whether there is an earned income requirement that applies to Roth contributions. That is, if the beneficiary did not earn $7,000 in 2024, can he roll over $7,000 from the 529 to the Roth? See Fidelity's "How unused 529 assets can help with retirement planning" (tinyurl.com/36cvrcws).

As mentioned earlier, the IRS has not issued official guidance or regulations related to the new 529 option, according to an IRS spokesperson.

However, the IRS has noted on its "Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 (2024)" webpage that the rollovers "are reported on Form 5498 as Roth IRA contributions and not as rollover contributions" (tinyurl.com/2chntkj4).

If you are considering a 529 rollover, you will need a form from the trustee of your 529 account. You can see an example of a Fidelity Investments form for a 529 account transfer to an account outside the Fidelity system at tinyurl.com/3vpadh5v.

The form includes a cautionary paragraph that is worth noting: "It is your responsibility to ensure that your withdrawals comply with IRS requirements. Non-qualified withdrawals could trigger IRS fees or penalties. At the end of each tax year, Fidelity will send a 1099-Q to the IRS, and to the participant or beneficiary, reporting any withdrawals. You may want to consult a tax advisor."

For further reading, look for the upcoming 2024 IRS Publication 970; see Chapter 7. Another resource is The Tax Adviser article "A retirement savings head start: 529-to-Roth rollovers" (tinyurl.com/4wmdddca).

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Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) don't usually come up in conversations with family members or friends, and I haven't come across a reality show that incorporates QCDs into the average older person's daily life. ("Dancing With QCD Stars"?)

We've talked about them recently, but here are some additional things to think about.

In order to really understand why QCDs might be a reality in most older IRA owners' lives, consider this simple premise: Do you want to donate to charity? Do you have an IRA in the RMD (required minimum distribution) phase? Do you want to avoid paying taxes on RMDs?

If that's you, think about turning your RMD (or part of it) into a QCD and avoid paying taxes on the portion that goes to charity as a QCD. You have to want to donate to charity for the QCD to make sense. Tax savings alone won't do the trick, since you're saving taxes on the amount you give away.

If you want to do the numbers, try the AARP tax calculator at tinyurl.com/yc25wc2h.

Of course, there are rules to follow to make the donation to charity a tax-free withdrawal of IRA money:

1. You need to be age 70 1/2 or older.

2. The money that goes to charity needs to be transferred directly by the IRA custodian (not you) to the charity.

3. The money needs to be received by the charity before the end of the year.

4. The charity needs to be a "qualified" charity. (Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search Tool at tinyurl.com/497um8xp to confirm if it is.)

These are the general rules that must be followed to avoid being taxed on the IRA withdrawal, and you can find them online on the IRS website at tinyurl.com/yc2sjjv3.

There's one other rule you should be aware of -- the "first dollar rule," which is found in Treasury Regulation 1.402(c)-2, Q&A-7 (tinyurl.com/me4hw2ep). This regulation states that "if a minimum distribution is required for a calendar year, the amounts distributed during that calendar year are treated as required minimum distributions under section 401(a)(9), to the extent that the total required minimum distribution under section 401(a)(9) for the calendar year has not been satisfied."

Thus, if the first distributions from your IRA in a calendar year in which there is an RMD (currently age 73) are QCDs, they will first be used to satisfy the RMD for that calendar year. And if you don't need your RMDs, this can be a method for donating to a charity (up to $105,000 in 2024) and avoiding taxes on the RMD.

The definition of a "charity" goes beyond more well-known names like the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. For example, a college like the University of Central Florida provides information on its website for how to do a charitable distribution from an IRA, including a Letter of Intention form and the ability to search IRA custodians to request such a transfer (tinyurl.com/mrx3k845).

Another example, this time from the field of health care: The University of Kansas Health System, a nonprofit, academic medical center, provides information on how to donate using a QCD (tinyurl.com/3wz67y6u).

You can also donate through a QCD and get lifelong income back. It is known as a "split-interest entity," something I wrote about last year (if you would like a copy of that column, reach out to me at readers@juliejason.com). There are limits on the amount ($53,000 in 2024) and the frequency (you can only do one split-interest entity in a lifetime), so you'll want to explore the details and confirm that the charity of your choice offers this option.

A QCD allows you to manage your RMDs and support your charitable interests. If you are considering one for this year (30% of annual charitable giving occurs in December, according to the website Nonprofits Source -- tinyurl.com/37y37h84), be sure to take action as soon as possible so your gift will be processed by your IRA custodian before year-end. The best case for a QCD is someone who wants to benefit charity and is required to take mandatory withdrawals from his or her IRA, even small amounts.

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