Dear Liz: I inherited my mother’s Roth IRA when she died in 2015 and have been taking yearly required minimum distributions based on my age. My spouse is my primary beneficiary on this inherited Roth IRA. What happens if I pass away before she does? Can she just roll it over into her existing Roth IRA, as is generally permitted for spousal IRA inheritance? Or are there additional limits imposed because it becomes a “doubly inherited” Roth IRA?

Answer: The SECURE Act largely eliminated the so-called stretch IRA that allowed non-spouse beneficiaries to take distributions over their lifetimes. IRAs inherited on or after Jan. 1, 2020, must typically be drained within 10 years.

That likely would be the case for your wife. Special rules allow a spouse to treat an inherited IRA as their own, but only when they inherit from the original IRA owner, says Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

There are a few exceptions. Your wife may be able to spread the distributions over her lifetime if she is disabled or chronically ill, for example.

If that’s not the case, she’s back to draining the account within 10 years. Many inherited IRAs require annual distributions. Since this is a Roth IRA, however, the original owner would not have been required to start distributions. Therefore, the spouse of the inherited Roth IRA beneficiary does not have a requirement to distribute annually over the 10-year period but may wait until the end of the 10-year period to do the full distribution, Luscombe says.

Dear Liz: I am in my late 50s, married and woefully unprepared financially for my later years. I was a stay-at-home mom for many years. I now work almost full time but my employer has no 401(k) or profit sharing or really any benefits at all. I just started putting $8,000 (the catch-up amount) into my Roth IRA. What else can I do now to make up for lost time?

Answer: You can’t really make up for the decades of compounded returns you missed by not investing earlier. But you can make some smart decisions now for a more comfortable retirement.

Your most important decision likely will be how you and your spouse claim Social Security. Your spouse almost certainly should wait to claim until age 70 to maximize their lifetime benefit and to lock in the highest possible survivor benefit. If you outlive your spouse, this benefit could comprise the bulk of your income. Consider reading “Get What’s Yours,” a book about Social Security claiming strategies by Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Philip Moeller. Just make sure to get the updated version that was published in 2016, since earlier versions refer to strategies that Congress eliminated.

Delaying retirement is another powerful way to compensate for a late start, since you’ll have more years to work and save. Consider finding an employer who will help you secure your future by providing a 401(k) with a generous match. You’ll be able to contribute substantially more to a workplace retirement plan than you would to a Roth.

You and your spouse should consider hiring a fee-only financial planner to review your situation and offer customized advice.

Dear Liz: You recently responded to an elderly couple who planned to move into assisted living, but were concerned about capital gains taxes on the sale of their home. You suggested an installment sale or renting out the home as possible options. While not for everyone, another possibility is a home loan or a reverse mortgage to cash out tax free.

Answer: Reverse mortgages have to be repaid if the borrowers die, sell or permanently move out of their homes. If one of the spouses planned to stay in the home, a reverse mortgage might work, but not if both plan to move to assisted living.

A home equity loan or home equity line of credit might be options if the couple have good credit, sufficient income to make the payments and a cooperative lender. A tax pro or a fee-only financial planner could help them assess their options.

Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner®, is a personal finance columnist. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the “Contact” form at asklizweston.com.

Tariffs are up. Tariffs are down. Shipping is frozen. Shipping is back on.

In the past several weeks, Chinese imports to the U.S. have been on a seesaw, leaving Americans uncertain how tariffs will affect their lives.

It’s impossible to say what tariffs will do to the price or availability of any particular item, although even the Trump administration’s current level of 30 percent tariffs — on top of previous levies — will certainly make many things more expensive.

But thanks to detailed trade data, we know what Americans buy from China, and how much of it, and thus what might be most sensitive to future swings in trade status.

Here are several ways of understanding what’s on those container ships, based on 2024 data from the U.S. International Trade Commission.

First, the products where the greatest share of our imports are Chinese imports:

This list is the simplest way to think about which Chinese goods the U.S. relies on most. But percentages aren’t everything. Americans buy so much from China that even goods with smaller imported shares from there could still be significantly affected by tariffs.

This list skews slightly toward more expensive goods that the average American purchases infrequently, particularly electronics. But the International Trade Commission also tracks how many of each good the U.S. imports.

In that list, you can see Americans’ well-documented reliance on China for plastic products.

Many of America’s major imports from China are consumer goods: things you buy for yourself, like clothes, housewares or entertainment. Drill down into those categories and specific products stand out.

For example, American wardrobes are somewhat dependent on China: about a fifth of U.S. clothing imports. But a majority of neckties and gloves and pantyhose are imported from China.

The U.S. is more reliant on China for things made with polyester and nylon (like pantyhose) than for those made with cotton.

Athletes, especially racket-sport players, are also dependent on China:

There are also consumer-goods categories whose “Made in China” status may not be as well known. For example, the U.S. gets a lot of its imported string instruments — such as violins and cellos — from China.

The Japanese company Yamaha manufactures some of its instruments in China, including trumpets and drums.

The U.S. also relies on China for many of its vitamins …

… and eels. (China has a robust eel farming industry.)

Then there are the goods that the U.S. imports primarily to put inside other things, like car parts.

The U.S. relies heavily on Chinese imports to build electric vehicles in particular: Some 70 percent of its imported lithium-ion batteries are from China.

Even batteries made in the U.S. often rely on raw materials from China, particularly graphite. (China tightened its export controls on graphite at the end of last year, so this year’s numbers could end up looking very different.)

Mr. Trump’s newest tariffs are not the only levies imposed on Chinese goods, and there’s a complicated interplay of which tariffs apply to which products. Some goods that a lot of Americans buy received exemptions from the latest tariffs (though perhaps not future ones), including one item the U.S. imports almost exclusively from China: children’s books.

That’s a window into what Americans buy from China. But for some imports, the U.S. doesn’t rely on China. It’s a list that includes large vehicles, precious metals and tomatoes, all of which America imports largely from other countries.

It’s also worth noting what America exports to China. Though the U.S. sends fewer goods to China than it receives, these could still be affected in a trade war. (China has been instituting its own exemptions, which are broader than those of the U.S.)

To let you take a closer look at what America does and doesn’t import from China, we’ve included a searchable list below of all goods for which the U.S. imported at least $20 million (from any country) in 2024, excluding America’s major exports.