Occasionally, some of my readers send me great questions on personal finance topics, and I enjoy answering them. Sometimes they’re easy, and sometimes they’re hard. The great thing about questions is that everybody benefits, because nobody knows everything.

I recently got a great question from one of my readers about Roth IRAs, so I thought it’d be good to share.

Hi, my question concerning the Roth IRA is that let’s say for 2007 I had a job and so was able to invest 3000 dollars into my Roth IRA account in the form of stocks. Now 2008 hits, and I’m out of a job and withdraw 50% of the stocks. Later on, however, I change my mind and decide I want to put the money I withdrew back into the account. Am I able to do that if I don’t hold a job since I don’t have an income for that year?

It all depends on the timing.

You can contribute to a Roth IRA for a specific tax year starting on January 1st of that year, and the contribution deadline is your tax filing deadline (in general April 15 of the following year). You can’t make contributions after that date even if you file for an income tax extension.

So in the scenario described above, if you change your mind before April 15, 2008, then you’re fine. You could put the money back into your Roth by specifying that the contribution is for the 2007 tax year. After April 15, 2008, you wouldn’t be able to put that money back in unless you made some income in 2008.

Have a question? Ask it in the comments or send it to me, and I’ll use it in future mailbags.