Guards Regular Mma
What should I do for retirement at this time?
Hi,
I am turning 29 this year. My job does not offer 401k and I was thinking of putting $4000 in an IRA before doing my taxes this year, so it would be for 2007.
I am not sure if I should open an IRA or Roth IRA or keep adding to my regular MMA that is only earning 2+%.
Being that I know literally nothing about IRAs, I don't feel comfortable paying a monthly fee either.
I am looking for where I should invest money. I have a military ID-Coast Guard-so I have military credit unions that I can consider as well as I hear their rates are a little better.
I know this is a lot of information, but if you can give me your advice on all of the issues I've raised, I would really appreciate it.
If I left out any info, please ask me and I will respond by adding on to my question, then you can edit your answer. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!
Here is a great site that describes both the IRA and ROTH IRA:
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/accounttypes/retirement?Entry=Homeoffer02
Here is a quick summary:
In either one, you can contribute up to $5,000/year.
Both should be used as a retirement account (ie don't take the money out before you retire).
The IRA is tax deductible. So if you earn $50,000 and put $5,000 in the IRA... you pay taxes as if you only earned $45,000. But when you take the money out you will pay taxes on it all.
The ROTH is not tax deductible, but all the money is completely tax free when you take it out.
I recommend the ROTH to most people (it will likely be slightly better) but I won't go into the mathy reasons why.
You can put money into either the IRA or the ROTH for 2007 up until April 15. If you decide on the ROTH, you can go on and file your taxes right now (since the ROTH doesn't show up on your tax return). Even if you decide on the IRA, you can file taxes now and claim the IRA on your taxes... you just have to make 100% certain you put the money into the IRA by April 15. This is completely legal and legit as long as you put the money in the IRA that you claim by April 15. The biggest advantage to doing either option by April 15 is that you can still invest another $5,000 for the 2008 tax year.
Vanguard (the link above) is the best place to invest for an IRA or ROTH IRA. They have the lowest fees, their funds get great ratings, and they are very customer oriented. Vanguard will never charge you a monthly fee. And only certain funds (not likely the ones you will want) have any buying/selling fees. The only fee you'll likely pay with them is the maintenance fee of about 0.4%/year (varies depending on the fund) ... that is $4 per $1,000 invested. This is WAY below the normal fees in the mutual fund industry. And this fee comes directly out of your returns, you never write a check or anything.
I recommend using their "Target Retirement 2045" fund. This fund starts in stock funds that have a higher expected return but are somewhat risky... and will automatically put more of your money into bonds as you get older so that it gets safer... This keeps you from losing alot of money right before you need to withdraw some of it.
You should get rid of you MMA. There are online banks that are just as flexible (probably more flexible) and offer a better interest rate than 2%. Here is one at 4%:
http://wamu.atdmt-host.com/WhooHoo/index.html?appType=FC&AffiliateID=googlesearch&CreativeID=whoohoo
You can find others by doing a google search for "savings account". Shop around and find one you like... move your MMA money there. If the MMA/savings account is your emergency fund (I do suggest having one of these), you'll want enough in there so you could potentially live off of it for 3 months if you had to. Anything savings beyond that amount of money should go towards retirement.
I hope that helps. Best of luck in your investment ventures!