Hi,
I made a rather large Roth IRA redemption in 2021. About $220,000, of which around $70,000 were original contributions.
I remember reading about the CARES Act and its provisions for COVID-19 related use of funds, and how it ended at end of Dec 2020. Not sure if anything has changed.
So here are my details, and am wondering, what would you pros do in my case?
1. I was living in Montenegro at the time of the withdrawal (May 2021). Montenegro was on the list of world's worst countries regarding COVID-19 (usually in top 3 worst countries). My wife and I were planning to get into tourism business there, but that plan collapsed. Also, I was trying to launch some music related endeavors (live playing, production, etc). But COVID-19 quite radically changed music prospects there.
2. We decided to move to Moscow, Russia. My wife is Russian, also I have 9 year old biological son there. In Sept 2020 I received court decision establishing my parental rights (since mother resisted my efforts to establish relation with my son). From February 2021 to date, the mother has used COVID-19 as a reason to not let me see my son (often claiming my son was sick, etc, she was sick, etc, etc). I would fly to Moscow for naught, since the mother wouldn't let me see him, so wasting tons of money on travel. So the situation with my son was also a reason to move, which like the economic situation in Montenegro, also has a COVID-19 aspect.
3. In July 2021 we moved into apartment, about average in terms of cost per square meter. The mortgage and ownership documentation is in wife's name. My wife has a US ITIN. Roth IRA redemption funded the down payment and moving costs, as well as living expenses for first several months. Bank required at least 30% down payment, and to keep monthly mortgage doable, down payment was actually around 50%.
4. Rental market is Moscow is atrocious. Purchasing a home is the status quo in Moscow. Hence a home purchase as opposed to rental. We live 500 meters from my son. Was impossible to rent a sufficient apartment that close to my son. And any rental would have been prohibitively expensive, since rental per sq meter in Moscow is far higher compared to purchase.
5. I caught COVID-19 just in December, spent week at treatment center here, and have post-COVID health problems that will also be taking up time/money to address.
So... what to do? I currently am not earning income. My Roth IRA balance is now quite low, and my other assets are low as well (brokerage account). I am living off military retirement, in parallel trying to get music instruction related endeavors off the ground here in Moscow. In Russia, at least with our bank, you don't see home equity assets. So from our home ownership there is no equity available as credit. Wife is currently working part time, not much of a paycheck, and school problems with her son currently precludes full time work. In parallel, dealing with court in foreseeable future, to try and get partial custody of my son. Not cheap... Over next 5 years or so, I don't expect to have much cash flow, since I expect legal expenses for a couple years. As it is now, we are pretty much living month to month, not really saving anything. Prior to moving here, I sold my car for around $5000, thinking I could use that to make some sort of tax payment. So the max amount I will be able to pay this year is around $7000, assuming I set aside another couple thousand.
Curious what sort of advice anyone has.
thanks
