IRA Help

Kendraish

 I am retirement fund stupid. We have an emergency fund, TSP, and I know we need to open an IRA, but I am a bit confused.  Are their different kinds? Should I go through our bank (BofA) or USAA? I do know we need/should max it out every year, retirement is now at the top of our to do list, so I need someone to break it down for me dummy style.

BLT20051

I can't tell you the how/why but I can tell you what I did. I have a Roth IRA through USAA, I have $100/mo automatically taken from our checking and put into the roth. I don't max my contributions but I put enough in that our budget can handle it. Sometimes I'll go in and manually add more. I know I have to claim it on our taxes but USAA sends me the form with all the info I need for tax purposes. HTH a little bit.

Kendraish

 That did help, this is exactly what I was thinking of doing.  Thanks

BLT20051

YW. When I set mine up, I called USAA and they were super helpful in explaining everything and getting it ready to go. I like it mostly because I can get on USAA and add or reduce my contributions whenever I need to.

shan87

There are a TON of options with IRAs and Investiments. I was transfered over to one at USAA while I was doing bank stuff. The person I got was awesome, he was able to look at all our balances (accounts) and was able to make recs based on our budget. He was also able to break down the different IRA's and put them on a scale from safest- to ones that have some risk. He asked me what I was comfortable with and then we went from there. Most of the time they will recommend a higher risk the younger you are (logic being you have time to recoup any looses). Based on my personal experience I would stick with USAA, they are less pushy and more informative. When I felt pressure I said no thank you, or I wasn't comfortable with that and he dropped it right away.

 

Audette

You could also go with a company like Vanguard, or Fidelity for your IRAs.  Likely, a Roth IRA is a better option at this point, assuming your income is not so high that you hit the limit on being able to have Roth IRA's - the money put into a Roth is contributed after taxes have been removed, but the earnings within the Roth are non-taxable.

However, we like USAA, and do most of our banking with them.  It was incredibly easy to set up our Roth IRA's with them.  We did it all online, but you can call them up and talk to them about it, too.  DH and I each picked the funds we wanted to use, and we sometimes tease each other about the earnings (or lack thereof - it's been a tough couple of years in the market) in each other's IRAs.

kyrgyzstan

Ours are with USAA. Mine is a target date fund, H's is in a very aggressive fund (science and tech) because he will presumably have his pension. If his retirement situation were to change, we'd alter his to a more moderate risk fund. I really, really suggest maxing both your Roths out. 2011 was our first year doing so, but I'm so glad we did. The more you put in now, the better. We're happy to scrimp now in order to max them out. 

Vanguard is also a great option. They manage other monies of mine, and they're all my family has used. They're very easy. 

Amaristella

I'm retirement fund stupid as well. For simplicity sake mine is through my bank. Before I got it though my mom said to shop around for the best interest rate. Apparently most banks have rate sheets they can show you or quote you over the phone.

booyey

You should post on the Money board, but here is basically what you need to know:

For the vast majority of people, the best thing would be to max out a Roth IRA (this is after-tax money that then grows completely tax free so when you take it out at retirement you pay NO taxes whatsoever, so an awesome deal.)  For an average person with little understanding of the market, the S&P 500 is a good fund to invest in.  It gives you a little piece of the 500 largest companies in the US in every share you buy, so if one company tanks you still are good on 499.  These are huge companies like GE, Citi, etc.

If, after maxing out both you and your husband's Roth IRA you still have money to invest, then invest in the TSP. This is a pre-tax investment, so you don't pay tax on it now, but when you withdraw it at retirement you will not only pay taxes on your investment, but on the earnings. (You avoid the taxes on earnings with a Roth IRA, so that's why it is usually better unless you plan on having no taxes due during retirement anyway.) 

I recommend USAA, I've been with Vanguard and several others and USAA has the best customer service, IMO. 

If you still have more money, there are more options, but this should get you started. :-)