Thursday, June 23, 2011

money school: what is a roth ira?


a roth ira's (individual retirement account) main advantage is that instead of giving a tax break upfront, you won't get taxed on the money once you begin to withdraw it during retirement. this is awesome because the money will already be taxed and once it starts growing interest and you're ready to use that money it is all yours. roth iras make a great supplement to a 401k.

most accounts will not allow you to contribute more than $5000 a year if you are under 50, that's around $417 a month. your annual income must exceed $5000 in order to contribute that much. (here's hoping, right?)

a roth ira may contain investments in the following:

real estate (gonna pass on this right now)
mutual funds
stocks and bonds
securities
certificates of deposit
notes

we will go through each of these types of investments and what they mean in the next few weeks. for now... set up that roth ira! each day that goes by that you aren't saving costs you big time in the long run. any great experiences or recommendations when it comes to roth iras?

4 comments:

K said...

Thanks for the advice. My parents didn't tell me these things, so I have to find them on the internet. I just set mine up.

My bf has mentioned to me before that we should have all of our CC debt paid off before saving because the interest in savings isn't as much as interest on the cards. But I feel like we could be paying off the CC forever... and then wind up with nothing saved. Thoughts?

Anonymous said...

VanGuard has really good reviews on Roths.
I'm with Fidelity now- but after reviewing myself I'm looking to switch soon.

L0\/3
(R)eed Elliott
A.k.A Husband to Nicole

Lesley said...

k-
i do think that it is important to pay off the cc debt first, because otherwise you're throwing away tons of money paying interest. try save ramsey's book total money makeover. he explains it in detail! good luck and you're taking the right steps.:)

reed-
a man comment! hooray. i have heard great things about vanguard, so we'll probably be going there as well. thanks!

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