Roth IRA??

[dodukes]

I was wondering if the finance savvy people on the budget board could point me to a good place to open one of these. I no longer work for some place that sponsors any kind of retirement package for me so it is up to me to save. I am thinking roth cuz i intend to be making a heck of a lot more oin the future..lol. I already have a 401k thru my previous company but have decided o keep it there as it is a great plan and i get great return % each year. I'd like to know a little more about opehning a roth, so any of you guys have one, do you recommend the place you have it at, i guess just wanted a little more info from some of the people out there who have one.

 

[HeatherC]

We have ours through TROWE Price and have been happy with its performance. The one I am in is the Retirement 2000 something (forge the actual year) ....it invests heavily in stocks at first and then as you near retirement it switches to more conservative investments like bonds. TROWE Price has always been rated very good for their retirement funds.

HTH

Heather

 

[NY Disney fan]

I'm a Vanguard girl! www.vanguard.com

 

[dodukes]

Are there fees associated with these , are they high? I guess I should go look first but I never see anything about fees on those sites. I will look at both of these.

 

[DVC Sadie]

Amercan Funds have worked out great for us in the last 20 years.

 

[In Luv with Disney]

Amercan Funds have worked out great for us in the last 20 years.

We have American Funds and Dodge and Cox!

 

[DVC Sadie]

We have American Funds and Dodge and Cox!

I guess I should have said that AFs have out performed our Fidelity and Vanguard accounts.

Now if I could just figure out what to do in the next year.

 

[dodukes]

well so far I have looked at both and it seems like vanguard is out. I do not have $3000 to open one with. T rowe price is $1000 or the $50 automatic plan, that seems alittle more in the budget for now til things start looking better.

edited to add fidelity is out for now too as they want $200 per month. wow this is more difficult than I thought.

 

[runwad]

well so far I have looked at both and it seems like vanguard is out. I do not have $3000 to open one with. T rowe price is $1000 or the $50 automatic plan, that seems alittle more in the budget for now til things start looking better.

edited to add fidelity is out for now too as they want $200 per month. wow this is more difficult than I thought.

I have Vanguard and am in the 500 stock index fund. I thought if you did an automatic buy every month you could do it and not have the 3k at first? Maybe they changed since I got mine????

 

[dodukes]

I have Vanguard and am in the 500 stock index fund. I thought if you did an automatic buy every month you could do it and not have the 3k at first? Maybe they changed since I got mine????

I didnt see that maybe i missed fine print. On the other websites it was very clearly stated next to the minimums, i'll have to go back and look closer.

 

[lisaross]

up one last month. I opened one at Fidelity - i'm doing the Target Date one - contributing 200 monthly.

 

[DiznEeyore]

We have ours through TROWE Price and have been happy with its performance. The one I am in is the Retirement 2000 something (forge the actual year) ....it invests heavily in stocks at first and then as you near retirement it switches to more conservative investments like bonds. TROWE Price has always been rated very good for their retirement funds.

Same here -- we have one of the targeted Retirement Roths. We do the automated investing each month, and we've been very pleased with its performance.

 

[amyy]

I am looking into opening a very, very small one. My local bank turned out to be the best place.

 

[swea_pea1]

I work at a brokerage firm, so I have my Roth IRA through them. Typically, a brokerage firm won't set a minimum to open or keep the account, but the annual fees are pretty steep if you don't have enough. At my firm, you need $250,000 to have the fee waived, otherwise it's $50/year (I'm an employee so I get it free).

You may want to look at ING Direct Securities, which has a pretty low minimum balance for existing account holders and an annual fee of only $10. I have no experience with these funds, so I can't help you there. But if you're looking for something where you can invest in mutual funds with low balances, this might do the trick. There's a pretty lengthy FAQ to help you here:

http://home.ingdirect.com/faqs/faqs.asp?s=OrangeInvestmentAccount

A Roth is a good choice. I hope you find the right one.

 

[littleteapot]

I work at a brokerage firm, so I have my Roth IRA through them. Typically, a brokerage firm won't set a minimum to open or keep the account, but the annual fees are pretty steep if you don't have enough. At my firm, you need $250,000 to have the fee waived, otherwise it's $50/year (I'm an employee so I get it free).

A Roth is a good choice. I hope you find the right one.

Wow at $4,000 max a year in a Roth, it'll take a long time to get to $250,000. Do you just have to have $250,000 total in all your investments to get the fee waived?

 

[jenr812]

Just subbing for the info

 

[leight]

TRowe is pretty cost effective-$50 a month autocontributions waives the
$1k minimum and the annual fee is $10 per mutual fund below $5k. So if you contribute to only one fund it builds faster and costs less. Their expense ratios are not as low as Vanguard-no one is!- but for the small/new investor its a great way to get started and build up your investments.

 

[pearlieq]

We also have our Roths in T Rowe Price targeted funds. I originally looked at Vanguard because their fees were lower, but their targeted funds were just much too conservative. I understand they've since corrected this issue.

 

[dodukes]

thanks so far so all info, i have looked at ing now as well. i think so far i have liked trowe price the best, i filled out a form to get the info packet by mail. I agree i think the best thing for me to do is invest in one fund till i get a little up there and then choose seom other ones. So i gte this corect its $10 PER fund right? so i i choose all 3 cap sizes..lol..its $30 per year? is that how its priced? am i understandign this correctly. and i used the cap funds as an example, i understand it could be any fund.

 

[Sammybeau's Mom]

Just a thought....Consumer Reports has done a couple of articles comparing fund performance in the different fund type over years. I would hit the Library and read that one....the last piece they did was a few months ago.