Retirement IRA ??'sss?

Question

if i set up a IRA(retirement account) am i committed to putting money into it every week? or can i put money in it whenever i want? i am lookign into a rothIRA is that i good idea for me? i just turned 19 currently going to college... making around 30K a year right now... i want to start saving now? should i open up more than one account?

Answer 1

You can contribute whatever you want up to the annual maximum.  You must have the earned income to do so, however.

Answer 2

You can put money in it whenever you want. Some sort of automatic payment plan is probably the best, but you can combine the two: Set a low automatic deduction, then put in extra when you want.

A retirement plan is an excellent idea at your age; the compounding will do wonders. A very good idea.

There's no reason to open up more than one account. In fact, most retirement plans have some sort of minimum to open, some sort of minimum per fund (if you go with mutual funds), and so on. While those minimums may not be particularly large, opening up multiple accounts wouldn't help.

I'd suggest you look at Fidelity (http://www.Fidelity.com) and Vanguard (http://www.Vanguard.com). Both are excellent. Fidelity has an incredibly wide range of funds you can invest in, and you could also invest in stocks. Vanguard has a good range of funds, and is known for very low expenses. (There are other good ones out there, too.)

So, start now. Use some sort of automatic deposit program, supplemented as appropriate. Investigate Fidelity and Vanguard.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

If your 19... then a Roth is perfect.  You are only allowed to put in  a max of 5k for the 2008 year.  You can put just what you want to put up to 5k, if you can  put 200 a month, then that will be perfect.  You are not committed, so don't worry about that.  Best Idea is do what I did, go to a TD Ameritrade branch.  They will give you a ETF, (which is like a pot of all different stuff, like bonds, stocks, and money markets)  And you'll be done!