Roth IRA

[Maikeru-sama]

I've devoted this weekend to researching Roth IRAs and I am looking to open up an account within the next 2 weeks. I have a good understanding of the benefits and how they work.

If anyone has any experience with Roth IRAs or have recommendation, I wouldn't mind hearing them (feel free to PM me as well).

I have been looking at Vanguard, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price and will be contacting them next week. However, I just wanted to see if there were some other players that I may want to look at as well (Banks, Credit Unions etc etc)

One question I do have is if you move your Roth IRA from one company to the next, is there a penalty?

Another is, I have read articles that state that the Government is thinking about getting rid of Roth IRAs, if that happens, what could potentially happen to the money in your Roth (forced to withdraw, convert to a T IRA etc etc).

(BTW, Haven't posted in a while, it sucks that the PZ was shutdown, the peeps in the PZ should be ashamed of themselves :laugh2: : )

 

[DIAF]

One question I do have is if you move your Roth IRA from one company to the next, is there a penalty?

There will likely be a "maintenance fee" of some sort.

Another is, I have read articles that state that the Government is thinking about getting rid of Roth IRAs, if that happens, what could potentially happen to the money in your Roth (forced to withdraw, convert to a T IRA etc etc).

If the gov't did that, they would face a furious uproar. Anyways, if it WERE to happen, you would likely just roll your money over into something else. The gov't could not FORCE you to withdraw (and thus incur a substantial tax penalty AND early withdrawal penalty).

 

[Garland powerplay]

You can open a scottrade account Roth IRA. It gives you the freedom to create whatever portfolio you want with mutual funds ,stocks , etc.. The max contribution is 5k a year. To qualify you must make under 100k. This was created for working folks. It is highly suggested by alot of people because of the tax -free savings ,withdrawals, etc..

I'm not an advisor but it seems to work pretty good. Don't make too many transactions because of the fees, penalties. Research the right portfolio and set it up.

 

[Bigdog]

Roth IRA's are very good investment due to the benefits that they provide. The max you can put in is 5,000 but that might change in 2010 where there is no max. Another fund compnay that you might want to check out is American Funds who have been consistant with the market in returns but have a very low maintanance fee. When you are looking at mutual funds, you want to make sure that the maintanance fee is low. Anything over 1% you want to stay away from. Also you want to look at the overall return, as well as the 10 and 20 year return. Hope this helps.

 

[Maikeru-sama]

Thanks for the info, it is very helpful.

 

[dback]

We started a Roth IRA with Janus a few years ago. I looked into many different companies as far as fees and initial investments go and they are very similar. We had to initially invest $500 a year and have a set amount every month put into the mutual fund every month withdrawn from our checking account. Ours has a $25 yearly maintenance fee.