I wanna max out 7K a year for the next decade, I have my TSP cooking until I turn 62. I also have my pension which should be 5-8K a month.

I got some precious metals going, and I now have some real estate even though it may never see 6 figures.

My wife has high 6 to 7 figures in real estate, but I want to spend some extra money in another avenue.

Do yall have a private Roth IRA that you would recommend? I'm a little older in life so I dont have as much time as I wish I did but I want to make things as comfortable as I can.

Van Guard

quote:

Do yall have a private Roth IRA that you would recommend?

Are you asking about a brokerage company or specific mutual fund/ETF?

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Do yall have a private Roth IRA that you would recommend?

I'm assuming you're asking about IRA brokerage recommendations here, not recommendations for specific investments within an IRA. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Vanguard and Fidelity are the two biggest and best options for IRA brokerages.

They both specialize in no cost/low fee IRA investing. Their features and offerings are 99.9% the same, with Fidelity having a slight lean towards more narrow and active individual stock investing, and Vanguard having a slight lean towards more broad and passive index fund investing. (In fact, Vanguard was founded by the guy who pioneered index fund investing.)

If you're the type of guy who likes to take deep dives into researching and investing in individual stocks, you might go with Fidelity, as their web UI, metrics, and research options are slightly better suited for that. If you're more of a passive investor looking to "set it and forget it" until retirement age with automated investments into index funds or target date funds, you might go with Vanguard, who have a few more options for in-house index funds.

But either one is capable of doing the other style as well. And they both also offer the even easier option of letting an advisor do it all for you, at the cost of a few more percentage points in fees.

So basically, it's (nearly) a wash between the two.

For what it's worth, mine's with Vanguard, because I'm more their target style of mostly-passive index fund investor within my IRA. But if I had to do that same thing with Fidelity I wouldn't bat an eye.


Keep in mind that an IRA is just a type of tax-advantaged retirement investment account, within which you must use the money you've contributed to invest in stocks/bonds/mutual funds/ETFs/etc. An IRA is not an investment in and of itself. It's like depositing it in a bank account. The money just sits there until you tell the brokerage what to do with it, i.e. buy specific stocks/funds to hold in your IRA.

I'm not trying to insult your intelligence by breaking it down Barney-style here... This is a real phenomenon, where some people diligently max out the contributions to their IRA their entire lives, but due to inexperience/misunderstanding they unwittingly never actually tell it to invest in anything, and so their money just sits there in their IRA account year after year without gaining much of anything at all. They end up retiring with their lifetime contributions, but no real return on it.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
I wanna max out 7K a year for the next decade...

I'm assuming that makes you 52 years old right now. If so, there is an additional $1k catch-up IRA contribution available to those of us 50 or older. In other words, if you're 50 or older you can fund your IRA at $8k per year.

I am 41, I'll retire at 51. My pension will get me to retirement for my other investments.

I can also work contract work if I want with my clearance at quite a salary.

I opened a Vanguard account. I'll donate 500~ a month to it and adjust accordingly.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
I opened a Vanguard account. I'll donate 500~ a month to it and adjust accordingly.

Good deal. You can set it up to automatically invest that monthly contribution into specific funds. That's what I do. The money is automatically transferred from my checking account to my Vanguard IRA account every other week, and then automatically invested in my chosen funds.


Also keep in mind that you have until Tax Day in mid-April to make 2024 contributions to your IRA. So if you have the money handy, you could contribute 2024's full $8000 now (or over the next ~3 months), and then contribute towards 2025's $8000 going forward after that.

Effectively jump-starting your IRA with $16,000 this year. $8k for 2024 and $8k for 2025.

Rogue has it right.

I have accounts with several investment firms, some retirement vehicles, some straight taxable investments. My wife has an IRA with Fidelity from an former employer, they have been very solid.

As for the traditional Wall Street brokerage firms, they will be happy to handle your IRA account. The fees you pay will not necessarily be higher unless you choose to subscribe to their advisory services. I have experience with Schwab, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs and I will not recommend any of them, but none are particularly terrible. Anybody I talk to about this subject names Morgan Stanley as the best of the best including people who work for the other brokerages.

There are also a bunch of "new kids on the block" brokerages that may have something going for them, Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, etc. Generally, I think they'd be lower cost, and maybe a little more generous (interest on uninvested cash, etc.) than the old standbys.

I have seen many brokerages offer various signing bonuses in the past couple of years. If you are moving significant funds into a new account it may be worthwhile to shop around a little. The ones I've seen pay a bonus in the area of 2-3% on the amount of "new money" they see. Not a super high rate of return, but every little bit helps.

Always remember, "the market will fluctuate," "past performance is not an indication of future results," and "always do your homework."

I’ve had a Roth IRA conversion account with Fidelity for a couple of years; many years of using Fidelity brokerage for IRAs and 401ks prior to that.
Fidelity has an excellent website for doing research on investments; I also subscribe to Morningstar for their research.

Yes, Vanguard is fine. I’d go diversified into one of the index funds.

Otto, don’t mean to get into your business, but did you patch it up with the wife? It goes without saying, that’s probably the very best financial move you could do, avoid divorce court.

I went through that 2 years ago, wouldn’t change anything but it’s kinda devastating financially.

Have all your accounts with one company if you can. We use Schwab and it works well for us. Being able to simplify is ever more important as the world gets more complex and we get older. The major brokerages are probably all similarly good.

Being able to easily and instantly move money between accounts is important.

Idk how your type of pension etc will be taxed, or if you'll be on Medicare. But with that ignorance I recommend maxing out ROTH conversions now, so you can look as poor as possible to the tax man when you retire. Two points: the only difference in the end is the difference in tax rate now vs later. IRA, 401k, and pensions are federally taxable in retirement (but maybe not in your state), and so your income may be no lower than today. IRMAA for Medicare plus taxes on Social Security can be quite high, triggered by your taxable income. Ideally you would have all ROTH so that your taxable income is zero.

It is complex, and depends on your situation. For a typical corporate employee, more ROTH is better. Government pensions etc idk.

Any major investment house such as Schwab, Vanguard, or Fidelity will meet your needs. I have my portfolio with Schwab because I found it easier and more flexible than Vanguard.

A Roth is good for three reasons: 1. if you expect your future tax rate will be greater than your current rate, 2. you will avoid the RMD hassles of a Traditional IRA, and 3. it is a better vehicle for passing your retirement accounts to your children when you and your wife pass.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
But either one is capable of doing the other style as well. And they both also offer the even easier option of letting an advisor do it all for you, at the cost of a few more percentage points in fees.

Do you mean a few more percentage points in fees, or a few more basis points in fees? I thought the low fee guys were all under 100 basis points (1%) of assets under management (AUM).

My Roth as well as all my other investment accounts are with Fidelity. Been with them a LONG time and no complaints. I like their online platform and have good experience with their advisers and call center.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
But either one is capable of doing the other style as well. And they both also offer the even easier option of letting an advisor do it all for you, at the cost of a few more percentage points in fees.

Do you mean a few more percentage points in fees, or a few more basis points in fees? I thought the low fee guys were all under 100 basis points (1%) of assets under management (AUM).

Looks like their advisory services run anywhere from 0.2%-1.5%, depending on various factors.

quote:

Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
Have all your accounts with one company if you can.

I still think there are some active Ponzi schemes out there that haven’t folded yet. Having all your eggs in one basket seems dangerous to me.

Look at vanguard… the website sucks. Straight aweful. Like a grade school kid made the website. Vanguard always screamed ponzi to me. Too big to fail, I know. If vanguard goes down, the us govt goes with it.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Look at vanguard… the website sucks. Straight aweful. Like a grade school kid made the website. Vanguard always screamed ponzi to me. Too big to fail, I know. If vanguard goes down, the us govt goes with it.

When was the last time you visited Vanguard?

Their site did used to be noticeably dated, but they revamped it several years back.

They also have a phone app, which is similarly modern.


And Vanguard is a brokerage just like any other... Other than the fact that their website used to be old-fashioned years ago, what specifically is it about Vanguard that makes you believe it's a Ponzi scheme, versus all the other basically identical investment brokerages?

Vanguard, drop it all into total us stock market index fund. No bonds in the Roth, allocate those to your tax deferred accounts.

Be aware there are SIGNIFICANT taxes on the backend. Look up RMD.

^^^ Not in a Roth.