How does a Roth IRA work?

Vandelay

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I know someone can nitpick this but I'm going to explain it in basic terms.

A Roth IRA is just like opening up an Individual Brokerage account at a Broker like E*Trade but the difference is that the money put in is pre-taxed and gains cannot be pulled out until retirement age. Any premature withdrawals will incur a tax. With that said, you still need to invest into stock, bonds, mutual funds, etc to get a return...it's not something that you just put on autopilot. You can have the investing done for you but fees vary per brokerage.

This, but furthermore the thought process is, we don't know what future tax rates will be, so you're getting the tax out the way now so you don't have to worry about being taxed in the future.

Some people believe taxes will be higher in the future.
 

NZA

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benefit is all the advantages on taxes and fees
cons are that you have to do all the work and get penalized if you touch the money too soon

people typically spread the risk over funds like index and mutual, and bonds, but people also buy companies with a long history and solid future prospects like coca cola and microsoft.

at a certain age you should probably start banking some of the money. you still leave it in the account but take it out of the market. that way if a catastrophe happens near your retirement, you wont lose everything.
 

Wildhundreds

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I know someone can nitpick this but I'm going to explain it in basic terms.

A Roth IRA is just like opening up an Individual Brokerage account at a Broker like E*Trade but the difference is that the money put in is pre-taxed and gains cannot be pulled out until retirement age. Any premature withdrawals will incur a tax. With that said, you still need to invest into stock, bonds, mutual funds, etc to get a return...it's not something that you just put on autopilot. You can have the investing done for you but fees vary per brokerage.

This is why i deal with property.. Get a tenant in, and just collect rent..

That was 20 years ago though.. I'd never advise anyone to get into that shyt now..
 

L&HH

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Random but a joint I'm talkin to is an accountant and she just texted me she's doing a couple's taxes right now. They 69 and have $4.5 million in their traditional ira, the husband has $17 million in his roth and the wife has $13 million in hers :wow:
 
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HabitualChiller

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benefit is all the advantages on taxes and fees
cons are that you have to do all the work and get penalized if you touch the money too soon

people typically spread the risk over funds like index and mutual, and bonds, but people also buy companies with a long history and solid future prospects like coca cola and microsoft.

at a certain age you should probably start banking some of the money. you still leave it in the account but take it out of the market. that way if a catastrophe happens near your retirement, you wont lose everything.
What kind of catastrophe would cause that? The economy completely crashing like in '08?
 

HabitualChiller

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Random but a joint I'm talkin to is an accountant and she just texted me she's doing a couple's taxes right now. They 69 and have $4.5 million in their traditional ira, the husband has $17 million in his roth and the wife has $13 million in hers :wow:
That's the dream:mjcry:
 

Black Panther

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Yeah no one explained the later part to me.:ohhh: So now I have to figure out what to invest in, and it's gotta be relatively safe, otherwise it's just gambling with savings.

Can't go wrong with putting a good deal of your money (not all) in FXAIX; that's Fidelity's S&P 500 index fund. No gambling required. The fund invests in whatever the top 500 best performing stock are at a given time.

Also invest in other Fidelity index funds like the small cap growth and foreign exchange funds.
 
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I know someone can nitpick this but I'm going to explain it in basic terms.

A Roth IRA is just like opening up an Individual Brokerage account at a Broker like E*Trade but the difference is that the money put in is pre-taxed and gains cannot be pulled out until retirement age. Any premature withdrawals will incur a tax. With that said, you still need to invest into stock, bonds, mutual funds, etc to get a return...it's not something that you just put on autopilot. You can have the investing done for you but fees vary per brokerage.

Mostly this ^ plus

  • "Retirement age" being 59 1/2 yrs old & had the account (1st contribution) at least 5yrs

  • If you withdraw prior to ^ that there's a 10% penalty on the total
  • There are exceptions for first time home buyers, Hardships, medical expenses, natural disasters (like Covid 19 related withdrawals last year)
  • if you're single filer you must make less than $140k in 2021 to contribute to the Roth
  • Contribution limit is 6k unless you're over 50 then it's 7k
 
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jaydolf spitler

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Got a Fidelity account set up. I put $500 in a few days ago. Didn't move at all.

So how does it work as far as growing over time? Obviously I'll keep money into it.
I have one through a service called wealthfront. It's a roboadviser so you just answer some questions about your risk tolerance and they invest it for you. I've seen some really good growth since I opened it. You can contribute 6k yearly (this can vary for different people so do ur research on your contribution limit). I bought my first house last year and withdrew money from those contributions to fund the down payment. Wife and I sold the original house in her name and made a nice little come up and then i replenished the roth the next month :win: roth ira is one of my favorite financial instruments
 
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