I am reaching old age.

[dianaca4]

Wow. I just finished watching V For Vendetta, and it was amazing! Whenever I see a movie that forceful it makes it abslutely ridiculous that I actually sit through shit like The Break Up (which I watched last weekend

Comments

[anemone]

You can always extend your tax-filing deadline, something I learned from S, who once filed three years at once.

Having read A Random Walk Down Wall Street, I'm a believer is low-expense funds. The two inexpensive companies to use to set up an IRA are TIAA-CREF and Vanguard. TIAA-CREF has lower minimums but slightly higher expenses than Vanguard. Vanguard is virtually unbeatable on expense ratio.

(Mutual funds typically charge a fee, called the expense ratio, for keeping your money in the funds. Some charge 2% of your assets, 1% is reasonably common, Vanguards S&P 500 is around 0.17%. Some mutual funds also have a load, which means that some percent your initial investment goes to the broker, and the rest goes to the fund. They have more ways of charging loads, but I'd steer clear of any funds with loads.)

As for funds, one thing they do these days is create "target-retirement funds". You pick the year you want to retire in, and the funds keep the right mix of stocks and bonds for that year as times change. If you do this, you just need the one fund.

[dianaca4]

Thanks for all the info!

Huh, I was thinking of purchasing a Vanguard index fund (since that is what Suze Orman recommends in The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke, but I was under the impression that I could set up an IRA anywhere and then buy funds I want. So, I started to set up an account with the MIT Credit Union, and was going to buy some funds to put in that account. Is that not possible, or not recommended? Will Vanguard charge me extra if I don't keep their fund in a Vanguard account?

[anemone]

Will Vanguard charge me extra if I don't keep their fund in a Vanguard account?

You can buy Vanguard funds from anywhere, and so far as I know, Vanguard doesn't charge you extra for it, but the third party generally will charge you. I don't particularly know about the MIT credit union, but Schwab, for example, will. It's reasonably small fee, about $25 per transaction, but still a annoying. Most places I've seen charge similar fees. Paying that might be worth it to keep all your money in one place, though you can also buy outside funds via Vanguard (for a fee). (Also, while my credit union offers IRAs, it doesn't offer the sort where you can put money in mutual funds.)

Note on Vanguard: You'll pay an extra fee if your account is small. There are, if I recall correctly and my data is accurate, two fees. One is $10 for any IRA account under $5000. You can pay this with money outside your IRA. The second fee applies to some index funds as is $10 for any account worth less than $10,000. This second fee comes out of your account. This didn't stop me from using Vanguard when my accounts while my accounts were small, but it's worth knowing.

[dianaca4]

Okay, I definitely think I'll want to keep all of my money in one place, just for reasons of less hassle. I'll look into what the MITCU charges and then make a decision...Vanguard definitely sounds like a good choice. Thanks!