Comments on: Investing 101: Roth IRA

By: Cyprus

Cyprus — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:17:09 +0000

"well, we all know theirs huge benefits to register a company in Cyprus, lol. My account pointed me to a few blogs on the net which i'm rather reluctant to check out as i've been so busy lately"

By: Cameron Schaefer

Cameron Schaefer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:51:01 +0000

Bob, I am unfamiliar with the Fund so my comments below are simply based on a quick glance at the fund so definitely do your own due diligence. I checked out their website and it seems like an decent idea from what I read…I like the idea of getting kids interested in investing. It looks like 1/2 of the holdings are in the S&P 500 index funds and the other half are in “kid” companies like Disney, Coke, etc. Since these are large, multinational companies I don’t think you’d be taking on too much risk.

The only thing I don’t like is the expense ratio of 1.44%. This is simply a personal preference of mine, but I refuse to pay more than 1% for a mutual fund simply because there are so many good options out there with low expense ratios from companies like Vanguard or American Funds. I’m a big fan of dollar-cost averaging into a low-cost index fund.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:56:06 +0000

What do you think about the Monetta Young Investor Fund?

By: JC

JC — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:37:15 +0000

Hey Thanks for the comments on my site.

As for Roth IRA, there’s a huge advantage: No short term capital gains tax (as long as you don’t withdraw your earnings before you’re 60 years old). I’m a long term investor, but that’s huge for traders and momentum investors.

Also for Roth IRA, you can take out money before you’re 60 years old, but only what you’ve contributed.

Like you mentioned a Roth IRA should be taught to every kid in the country. It’s seriously the best retirement account you can ever have.

For instance if you’re 20 years old and start contributing the max amount every year, with 10% gain every year; when you turn 60 years old, the account will be worth $2,000,000 tax free.

By: Lawrence Cheok | A Long Long Road

Lawrence Cheok | A Long Long Road — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:40:36 +0000

Hi Cameron,

very informative article. As I am not a USA citizen, I don’t really understand IRA and Roth IRA, but now I know better.

Thanks for sharing.

Oh, I also notice you have A Long Long Road on your blogroll. Thanks, I’m very honored. Please keep up the good work, even though your blog is new. It’ll take some time, but it’ll grow.

By: Akshay Kapur

Akshay Kapur — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 05:03:51 +0000

Great to hear that the limit’s been increased! I’ve been doing this since when I became eligible to…18? I forget. At first I felt at a loss without the extra cash, but over time I just got used to the leftover I had coming to me every month, not only after bi-weekly Roth deductions, but also 401 (k) deductions.

Even if you take interest growth out of the equation, its still money saved which starts looking like a lot of money over time. I believe there are three things you can dip into the account for; education, catastrophic coverage, and first time mortgage.

I think its absolutely wonderful that you’re getting the word out there to people about savings. If and when social security become privatized, this is the exactly the kind of dissemination of information that will be necessary for people to start making sense out of saving.

Just because the country is in debt, doesn’t mean we have to jump on the bandwagon. Great post!