Roth IRA

[Lithium381]

I want to open an IRA account, and was curious to know if there are different rates offered by different establishments, or if they were more or less similar? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Digobick]

If possible, shop around and find someone you can trust. Every company gives you different funds to choose from; some make more money than others.

I just opened up an Edward Jones Roth IRA, because they had several good choices to choose from. My agent also took a look at my company's 401k choices (for free) to help me maximize both investments.

 

[alrocky]

Some may charge a low balance fee and or an annual maintenance fee. Scottrade may be worth a look if you're considering an online broker. If you wish to purchase mutual funds for your ROTH IRA, I'd suggest T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, or Vanguard. Stay away from LOAD funds and funds with high expense ratios. A broad based index fund (like a total stock market fund) or a Target Retirement fund may be the way to go for you.

 

[edro]

INGDirect has RothIRAs. I am saving for a house, and that is one of the early withdrawal usages that doesn't get hit with a fee.
I opened it 2 years ago and it has done very well. (~%30 increase over 2 years) I opened it because I had money in ING and it was simple to transfer funds from savings to an IRA. Now I wish I would have put my entire savings in it instead of the small amount I did.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Hands up if you thought this was about the terrorist group.

*Raises hand.* 🙁

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Originally posted by: alrocky
Some may charge a low balance fee and or an annual maintenance fee. Scottrade may be worth a look if you're considering an online broker. If you wish to purchase mutual funds for your ROTH IRA, I'd suggest T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, or Vanguard. Stay away from LOAD funds and funds with high expense ratios. A broad based index fund (like a total stock market fund) or a Target Retirement fund may be the way to go for you.

Another vote for Fidelity and Vanguard.

 

[Torghn]

Vangaurd, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price.

 

[Cable God]

Another vote for Fidelity

 

[bennylong]

I'm using Vanguard. But they charge $10 for funds with balance less than $5k. I think T Rowe does the same

 

[alrocky]

One cool thing about R. Rowe Price is that once you log in you can enter your mutual fund portfolio and get a Morningstar 'Portfolio X-Ray' for free - something that'll cost you if you did the same at Morningstar's site.

Investment Planning & Tools
Tools & Calculators
Investment Tools
Portfolio Manager

 

[Legend]

By rates I guess you mean fees. Vanguard is usually cheapest. If you meant returns, you better not look at past performance because it's not a solid indicator. I'm a fan of contrarian investing (buy low sell high...suprising some people aren't) with Modern Portfolio theory. Don't let anyone tell you they can invest money better if you pay them more. Go with index funds.

Generally with returns in the next 40 years, expect 10% for small cap value, 9% for large cap value, 8% for large cap growth, etc you can look that up but that's not definite either. You can boost the returns through MPT and rebalancing while reducing risk. If done right, you should expect 12-4% in the long run.

Since it's taxed sheltered, it's more suitable for certain asset classes than others. Like small cap because there's more trading there's more taxes. But because it's tax sheltered, you're immune. If anything is not in a tax shelter, put it in something like a large cap index fund.

You need to know what kind of portfolio you want to compose. I'd recommend mostly index funds or low cost mutual funds from places like Vanguard. Then rebalance according to portfolio theory.

If you want to take it conservatively, you may want to start with a balanced mutual fund. Wellington is best because it's value, but they've just upped the minimum contribution to 10,000, so you're second best choice is STAR, which is large cap blend with a minimum of 1,000.