My husband and I contribute to a Roth IRA.
Ask the Readers: Have You Ever Heard of IRAs or Roth IRAs?
Photo: iStockPhoto
Congratulations to KelR1, Alissa A, and Peg Mooers for winning this week's contest!
Jeff Rose at Good Financial Cents is starting a movement: The Roth IRA Movement! Many people have never heard of an IRA or a Roth IRA, nor have they begun planning for retirement. Getting educated about saving for retirement is one of the most financially savvy things anyone can do. It is important to start saving for retirement today because without proper planning and saving, your dreams of retirement will never become a reality.
Have you heard of an IRA or a Roth IRA? Are you procrastinating on your retirement planning or are you already taking steps to ensure you will be able to retire?
Tell us if you have heard of an IRA or a Roth IRA and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
Win 1 of 3 $20 Amazon Gift Cards
We're doing three giveaways — one for random comments, one for random Facebook "Likes", and another one for random tweets.
Mandatory Entry:
- Post your answer in the comments below
For extra entries (1 per action):
- Go to our Facebook page, "Like" us, and leave a comment on this article telling us you did, or
- Tweet your answer. You have to be a follower of our @wisebread account. Include both "@wisebread" and "#WBAsk" in your tweet so we'll see it and count it. Leave a link to your tweet (click the timestamp for the individual URL) in a separate comment.
If you're inspired to write a whole blog post OR you have a photo on flickr to share, please link to it in the comments or tweet it.
Giveaway Rules:
- Contest ends Monday, April 2nd at 11:59 pm Pacific. Winners will be announced after April 2nd on the original post. Winners will also be contacted via email.
- You can enter all three drawings — once by leaving a comment, once by liking our Facebook update, and once by tweeting.
- This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered, or associated with Facebook.
- You must be 18 and US resident to enter. Void where prohibited.
Good Luck!
I've heard of both, but I don't have either yet. I'm paying off my non-student-loan debt first - I should be able to start an IRA of one sort or another in 2013.
I have both an IRA and ROTH IRA.
I have been taking steps towards retirement since I got my post-college job.
I become vested with my organization next week and am excited to have my contributions matched! I have an app that shows me how much I've accrued so I feel like I 1) have a safety net and 2) am encouraged to make my money work for me.
I have heard of both Roth IRAs and standard IRAs. I really should be putting my retirement money in to one, but right now I am focused on debt elimination and saving for a wedding.
I've heard of IRAs and other retirement planning accounts, but I only have a 401k that I've been contributing to for a few years now.
Although I've heard of IRA and Roth IRA, I've never really looked at them. I do contribute (the minimum) to my 401(k) at work but that is the extent of my retirement planning. Living paycheck to paycheck (or not as the case may be) isn't conducive to planning ahead or saving.
I learned about Roth IRAs from my parents, who are self-educated students of personal finance. They recommend the STAR fund from Vanguard to start out since I had very little money to invest (as I am still paying my law loans). It's $1000 to start. The added benefit is that Vanguard has a solid track record of performance and is a great way to learn how Roth IRAs work and to learn the magic of compounding! After you set aside an initial emergency fund of $1000, once you can save another $1000, I highly recommend you invest it a Roth IRA. Once the government catches on and realizes how beneficial it is to us, they will begin to curtail it, I am afraid. Now is the time to ROTH your investment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Roth IRAs are the best. The only problem is the income caps . regulating savings after taxes seems a little too big brotherish.
Roth IRAs are the best pretax investment deal out there. Get in early in your working life and make as much as you can. Hey they say one in four people in our generation will live to be 100. Tessa Best
roth IRAs are the best. the incomes limits are ridiculously low, and the government should not regulate after tax savings, but with the tax advantages if you can yous should.
I heard of Roth IRAs a few years ago, and finally opened my own a year ago. I finally landed a long-term job and quit moving around the country, so I could start to focus on long-term saving and financial security. A Roth IRA made so much sense for its tax advantages.
Yes! My Dad helped me start my Roth IRA when I got a job at age 15. I have been saving for retirement ever since!
Yes, I have heard of both an IRA and a Roth IRA. I have a Roth IRA and my wife has an IRA. They're a great complement to our 401K and other investments.
I've heard of IRA's, but unfortunately, I am unemployed and don't have any extra money to contribute to one at the moment.
Of course I have, had a traditional IRA for 20some years and took advantage in 2009 of converting partial to ROTH. Soon I will be using them...
We just opened ours, and moved as much of our savings into them as we could. It feels good to watch them slowly grow. We found an investment company that matches our values, and takes ethics into account when investing in companies. So we just put into into an agressive mutual fund, as we can stand to lose money every once in a while, since we are in this for the long term.
Yes I have! For now, paying off debt and getting matching with my 401k... but will be doing a Roth conversion and maxing it out after that!
I started a Roth IRA a few years after going freelance and fund it fully. Wish I'd started it sooner, but there was a lot going on back then.
This year my goal is to put some money into my daughter's Roth IRA.
I first learned about IRA's (both types) during my last year in grad school in the mid nineties. I started contributing shortly after that.
Yes I've heard of them, we actually have both. My husband and I each have a seperate and joint eotj IRA. We also have seperate tradition IRAs that we have used to rollover previous 401ks.
I have extensively researched starting a Roth IRA. After graduating from college last year, I started at job in August where I currently make about 11,000 a year (it also helps pay off my student loans) My financial state being what it is, I have been entirely focused on building up an emergency fund with the little extra money I have each month. I hope to start an IRA next summer once I have moved on from this job and into a higher salaried position.
My husband and I both have a Roth IRA. It just seems easier to pay taxes now rather than in the future....who knows when the government might change or raise them.
Yes. Since forever, thanks to my Dad. Been contributing since forever too, thanks to having a job and a Dad who taught me these things.
A Roth IRA certainly wasn't a standard option when I started my retirement savings 4 years ago. However, when a different company bought out the one I worked for, I had to make a choice about my old 401(k). I decided to open a Roth IRA with ING. It's nice to know that all of my eggs aren't in one basket.
I have a Roth IRA. It helps to plan for retirement for tax diversification purposes. Tax rates have to go up. I can pay the taxes now when they are lower and not later when they increase.
I have had a Roth IRA for many years, since I worked in the brokerage industry for nearly a decade. Having money to fund it is another question!
Yes, I've heard of an IRA and a Roth IRA. I don't have one but I do have a 401K since that's all my job offers but I'll have to roll my 401k into a Roth if I ever leave my job :)
I know about both the IRA and Roth IRA but haven't contributed to either as I had a retirement plan through work. Am now retired.
I heard about them when I went to the bank to open a checking account. When the guy there said that he would need to refer to me to some other guy to open something like that, I said I'd probably need to. But not right now. I looked it up and had Khan Academy explain it to me.
My husband and I know of Roth IRAs but we don't yet make enough after student loan payments to save enough to justify the cost per transaction. :-(
Yes, I've heard of both the IRA and Roth IRA. I have several IRA accounts and retirement can't get here soon enough.
When I was in college I took a personal finance class, where we were encouraged to put $1,000 a year into a Roth IRA starting when we graduated (at around age 22). Unfortunately, I didn't have a job that paid full-time wages until nearly 30, but at that point I started the $1,000 Roth IRA savings plan.
I know that both are retirement accounts. We do not have them. My husband is one of the few people left with a defined pension plan(railroad). As his spouse I am entitled to a half pension when he retires.
I've heard of them, I don't have one. I'm still drowning under student loan debt, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to retire.
