Retirement and Roth IRA

Savology: Roth IRA performance and Your Retirement

Looking at a Roth IRA performance can help you choose where to put your retirement money. When you look at the different ways you can choose to set money aside for retirement, a Roth IRA seems like a good alternative. Anyone who is not yet 70 1/2 and has an income, can start an individual retirement account (IRA). Roth IRAs have no age limit. When looking to start an IRA, you want to educate yourself about where you are investing your retirement funds. It is important to do a comparison evaluation of the expenses and fees associated with your IRA. It is also vital to see how one investment in a Roth IRA performance measures up to another investment company.

There are primarily two kinds of individual retirement accounts. Traditional and Roth. Your choice of IRAs largely depends on how much money you make and what tax bracket you expect to be in when you retire. This is based on your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your tax return filed. If your AGI is lower than $169,000 married couple filing jointly or $116, 000 filing single, you would be considered to be in the high tax bracket when you retire. A Roth IRA would be your best bet. Roth IRAs contributions are not able to be deducted, however, when you take the money out when you retire, it will be tax free.

Traditional IRAs work well for those people who want to deduct their contributions now and pay income tax on the money when they withdraw it. Both IRAs have a contribution limit of $5,000 per year, or $6,000 per year if you are older than 50 years.

Before you invest in a Roth IRA you want to research as extensively as you can, the different choices you have. Roth IRA performance is not equal with every investment fund. When you look at the Roth IRA companies you may see a large variation in Roth IRA performance results. The difference could significantly affect how much you can retire with. Mostly, there three different kindsof Roth IRA investments. There are mutual funds, stock, and options. 

If you are looking to deal with stocks in your Roth IRA, in addition to looking at Roth IRA performance, you want to be aware of the commissions fees and transaction costs so that they do not erode your ROI (return on investment). 

You can look on the internet for Roth IRA companies. Here is a short list of well known investment companies who specialize in IRAs:

• Scottrade
• Fidelity
• Vanguard
• Tradeking
• E trade
• Options House
• Sharebuilder

There are many many others, this is just a little list to get you started in your research.
You can find online brokerage companies, as well as brokerage houses, and banks that can offer you the things you are looking for in a Roth IRA. Ideally, you want an investment broker who offers a variety and a selection of investment tools. This will give you more ability to diversify your portfolio. Don’t diversify too much though.

When you invest, you want to make sure you have an “asset allocation plan”, according to Fidelity Investments. This strategy will consider your age, investment experience and risk tolerance. Safe investments aren’t always the best investments.

It pays to do the research you need to be sure you get the lowest fees to manage the account as well as the best possible Roth IRA performance results.