Saturday, July 24, 2004
IRA Investing for Novices: the 80% Solution
Now, I'm a soldier at heart, so unlike certain international terrorist organizations in 2001 I'm going to make my intel specific enough to be "actionable."
If you're a flat-out novice investor, just starting out, I encourage you to claim your free 'low-income retirement credit' money by taking the following steps:
1.) Go to the TIAA-CREF website and open a Roth IRA for you and your spouse, if any. Contribute as much as you can without risking disaster if your car breaks down or something else unexpected happens. I'd start with the Equity Index Fund.
OR
Go to the Vanguard website, and select either the Total Stock Market Index or Vanguard 500. If you're over 40 or so, try the Vanguard Asset Allocation, which balances your holdings between stocks and bonds, and so is a bit less volatile.
I chose the above funds because they're middle-of-the road funds which are free to get into (no sales charges to commissioned agents) and as index funds they're very inexpensive to own relative to other funds.
OR
Go to the Fidelity Funds site, and click on "Freedom Funds." Pick the one with the year closest to the year you expect to retire. If you don't want to worry about fundpicking at all, these are great "fire-and-forget" funds. They're managed to take some risks to make some money now, but they'll become less risky as you get closer to retirement age. This is the way to go if you just want your fund to make money for you on autopilot.
If you want a little extra help, check out USAA. They offer a variety of decent funds, some excellent auto and property and casualty insurance programs, and a variety of financial and relocation services for military families. They also have financial planners on staff to help get you started.
Then: Educate yourself. Do it now. Don't rely on scammers and sharks to do it for you.
Splash, out
Jason
Comments:
Post a Comment
If you're a flat-out novice investor, just starting out, I encourage you to claim your free 'low-income retirement credit' money by taking the following steps:
1.) Go to the TIAA-CREF website and open a Roth IRA for you and your spouse, if any. Contribute as much as you can without risking disaster if your car breaks down or something else unexpected happens. I'd start with the Equity Index Fund.
OR
Go to the Vanguard website, and select either the Total Stock Market Index or Vanguard 500. If you're over 40 or so, try the Vanguard Asset Allocation, which balances your holdings between stocks and bonds, and so is a bit less volatile.
I chose the above funds because they're middle-of-the road funds which are free to get into (no sales charges to commissioned agents) and as index funds they're very inexpensive to own relative to other funds.
OR
Go to the Fidelity Funds site, and click on "Freedom Funds." Pick the one with the year closest to the year you expect to retire. If you don't want to worry about fundpicking at all, these are great "fire-and-forget" funds. They're managed to take some risks to make some money now, but they'll become less risky as you get closer to retirement age. This is the way to go if you just want your fund to make money for you on autopilot.
If you want a little extra help, check out USAA. They offer a variety of decent funds, some excellent auto and property and casualty insurance programs, and a variety of financial and relocation services for military families. They also have financial planners on staff to help get you started.
Then: Educate yourself. Do it now. Don't rely on scammers and sharks to do it for you.
Splash, out
Jason
