Originally posted by: Lothar
Originally posted by: purbeast0
I too am looking to start my roth before April 15th so I can max it out for last year.
Other than my 401k I don't have any type of investments/retirement planning. I wanted to go with Vanguard however I wanted to speak to someone on the phone about it simply because I don't know TOO much about it and this is my first time ever dumping like $9k (max out last year and this year at once) into some retirement plan type deal. I also had a few questions.
1. Since the market is kind of bad now economics wise, is it still a good idea to start one of these now? I plan on doing it pretty much regardless.
2. Can I just dump any amount of $$ I want into the roth through vanguard whenever I want? Can I put $2k in january and $3k in December, and nothing between? Or do I have to put in a monthly alotment?
3. Why does everyone recommend using Vanguard/Fidelity over a local bank? My current bank offers Roth IRA's and they have a nice online banking setup.
4. Will I choose funds where my money goes into like I did when I setup my 401k? Will they have different rates of returns and are there "expected" returns on them?
Sorry for the n00b questions.
1.) Never a bad time to plan for your future.
2.) Yes, you can do that, or you can put in a monthly deposit.
3.) Few banks are good(I've only had personal experience with Bank of America which was great), but most are crap.
4.) Yes. Yes. There's no "expected" return on any type of investment.