Investing, how do you invest for retirement on a limited income?

how do i get a roth going , and are mutual funds a good way to go cd's??? please help if you can

Hard to say.....first, we need to know how near retirement you are and how limited we are talking here. If you have a long time until retirement and very limited money ($50 to $100 a month) I would have to say use a money market account until you get about $1000 to $1500 saved, then start a Roth IRA at Sharebuilder.com. They are very low cost. Invest your money in several diversified ETFs (Exchange traded funds) and then continue to contribute and invest it in those ETFs until you have around $2500 in an ETF. At that point, dump the ETF and move the money into a mutual fund. Contribute and invest monthly. Use the source as a guide.

how about a situation like this!
only have $ 150 to save in each month...!
saving in bank = $500
that all that i ever own!

here is the plan regular saving up 37 years!
saving & investing in unit trust (with portential return 12% per year even more)!
first investment $ 500
each month additional invest $ 150

saving + return 12% = total $$$

after 5 years 11,435 + 1,372 = 12,807

after 10 years 31,587 + 3,790 = 35,377

after 20 years 129,692 + 15,563 = 145,255

end of 37 years 978,461 + 117,415 = 1,095,876

Ops! You have become a millionaire................to retire!
Only work for the person who save regularly to investing in unit trust with no excuses to achaive this goal!
Good Luck!
want to know another way...
contact me ercino9638@yahoo.com.sg

Most people in fact do have limited incomes. If you have earned income (ie wages) you can open a Roth IRA account with a mutual fund or a stock broker. You can save up to $4000 annually into one. The really big advantage of a Roth IRA account is that all the money earned in the account is tax free until congress changes the law. Roth IRA accounts are really easy to open. Most mutual funds and internet stock brokers allow you to down load the forms, fill them out, and mail them in. Many allow you to open the account on line without even having to fill out and mail in any forms.

If your income is very limited, you will have to prepare a budget to determine the amount you can reasonably afford to save. By reasonably I mean you determine what your absolute monthly expenses are which do not include such niceties as cell phones, movies, eating out, cable tv, and SUV payments. They do include rent, utilities, taxes, food, and inexpensive clothing. You then determine the amount remaining and subtract a certain amount for an emergency fund. Enough to live on for 6 weeks. The remainder can be saved for retirment.

Most mutual funds require about a $2500 minimum to open an account. Not all but most. American Funds is an exception requiring only $250. They do however have a front end load on the class A shares of 5.75%. The class C shares do not have a load but have much higher expense ratios. You are much better off with the class A shares.

Here is a link to their site.

http://www.americanfunds.com/default-hom...

They have some really excellent mutual funds to choose from so do not be too scared away by the load.

A couple of mutual fund companies with excellent no load funds are T Rowe Price and Fidelity. Both have the $2500 minimum I believe.

Here are their links.

http://mutualfunds.troweprice.com/?rfpgi...

https://www.fidelity.com/

Also as a previous responder mentioned EFT index funds are also excellent investment vehicles and can be purchased through a stock broker such as Scottrade.

CDs do not in my opinion make good long term investments. They are ok for keeping an amount of ready cash in case of an emergency but that is about it. And they are ok for a small portion of your Roth IRA account about 10 to 20%. But for long term investing you are much better off with equity investments--stock based mutual funds or index funds. Equity investments over the long term average about 8 to 10% annual return. CDs about 4 to 5%. Sometimes even much less.

As muncie birder mentioned, T. Rowe Price (www.troweprice.com) has excellent mutual funds. Their usual minimum investment is $2500, but if you can afford $50 each and every month to be electronically taken out of your bank account (at least until you meet their usual $2500 minimum) you can invest in their mutual funds. (PS I happen to like their Target Retirement funds).