Coverdell, 529, Roth: Which to tap first for college?

 

Take into account taxes and, if you qualify, need-based aid, says Troy Onink, CEO of Stratagee.com, a college-planning firm.

Start with the 529 and Coverdell Education Savings Account: Withdrawals for eligible expenses, such as tuition and books, aren't taxed or counted as income in financial-aid calculations.

You might also tap the mutual funds to get the American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth as much as $2,500 annually. You'll have to spend up to $4,000 from sources other than the 529 or ESA; the income phaseout is $180,000 for couples and $90,000 for singles.

Related: Getting the financial aid you need

Save the Roth for last (using it only if you're already set for retirement). You can withdraw contributions tax-free; earnings used for school are taxed as income.

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Xamarin tool aims to show the ease wth which .NET apps can become mobile

As mobile device shipments overtake those of PCs, cross-platform tool developer Xamarin hopes to get more enterprises to adapt their apps for Android and iOS with the help of its .Net Mobility Scanner.

 

Xamarin’s new tool shows how much of a Windows app’s code can run on the OSes.

 

“What we have discovered over the last two years is that there are millions of lines of C# code sitting inside companies today that can already run on mobile devices through Xamarin on iOS and Android and people don’t know it,” said Nat Friedman, Xamarin CEO and co-founder. “They don’t know how easy it is for them to take their existing code and take it mobile.”

 

Xamarin develops tools that let developers create apps for Android, iOS and Mac OS X using C#. The company thought it would be useful to provide a service developers could use to scan their code and determine how much of it is ready to run on Android or iOS after using Xamarin’s development tools, according to Friedman. The .Net Mobility Scanner also tests for compatibility with Windows Phone and Windows Store, he said.

 

To use the free service, developers can head to the Mobility Scanner website, which uses Silverlight. There they select compiled .NET libraries or executable files that need to be analyzed, and the service will help identify platform-specific dependencies in the code. Future versions will provide suggestions for how to make the code more mobile-friendly.

 

The company has been surprised that the compatibility between existing .NET apps and Android and iOS has been as high as it has, Friedman said.

 

The level of compatibility with iOS and Android depends on the type of app that is scanned, but 90 percent or more is pretty common, according to Friedman. A theme that Xamarin has noticed while developing the scanner is that .NET app compatibility with Windows Phone is lower than it is with Android and iOS. That’s because Windows devices may, for example, be missing some commonly used classes, according to Friedman.

 

Developers also need to remember that apps need a new user interface suitable to the mobile screen size and to a touch interface, and that they will have to be able to run within the constraints of the device, Friedman said. Memory usage and CPU power, for example, are lower on a mobile device than on a desktop or server.

 

The scanner analyzes code in a browser, without uploading it. The only information that is transmitted is the data that appears in the final report, according to Xamarin’s Mobility Scanner site.

 

Like many companies in the Windows ecosystem, Xamarin is this week taking part in Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco, where it has a booth.

 

 

401(k) vs. Roth 401(k): Which one's right for you?

In a traditional 401(k), you contribute income pre-tax, and then pay taxes on the funds when you withdraw them during retirement. Switch to a Roth, though, and you pay the taxes upfront so you can make withdrawals tax-free during retirement.

Deciding whether a 401(k) or Roth 401(k) is best for you really comes down to your age and future earnings potential.

In a traditional 401(k), you contribute income pre-tax, and then pay taxes on the funds when you withdraw them during retirement. Switch to a Roth, though, and you pay the taxes upfront so you can make withdrawals tax-free during retirement.

At 25, your age makes you an ideal contributor to a Roth account, since your contributions will have decades to grow tax-free, said Stuart Ritter, a financial planner and vice president at T. Rowe Price Investment Services. "The Roth gives you the tax break on the earnings, no matter how big that earnings stack is," he said.

Money 101: Everything you need to know about 401(k)s

You're also likely to earn a higher income as your career progresses, which means the taxes you pay now will likely be lower than those you would pay in retirement. Switching to a Roth will inevitably mean that your current tax bill will go up, but it will also give you more spendable income in retirement.

If the tax hit you'll take now is too much, you could split your annual contributions between a traditional 401(k) and a Roth 401(k).

Money 101: Planning your retirement

But remember, federal law caps contributions at $17,500 (or $23,000 for those 50 or older), regardless of which kind of 401(k) you choose.



Younger workers (whose employers offer a Roth option and conversion) will also be able to convert their traditional 401(k) balance to a Roth 401(k) account, under a provision of the fiscal cliff deal, although the procedures are still being hammered out by the IRS and service providers.

Previous rules only allowed Roth 401(k) conversions for certain savers age 59 1/2 and older. The conversions are best for people in lower tax brackets who have extra cash on hand and can afford to pay the added tax bill.