How do you buy Roth IRA?

Do you just open an investment account and buy a Roth IRA fund?

If you already have an investment account, you can probably open a separate account there. At Vanguard for instance, it's just a different account number.

If you don't, just give a company like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Schwab a call and see what their minimum investments are. Probably for a couple thousand they'd be happy to set you up. Just invest in an S&P 500 fund and leave it until you're 59.5. Then cruise the world for a couple years. :-)

Good luck,

Doug

Choose a sponsor - like a mutual fund company, or a bank with a CD, and ask for an application.

I'd recommend a top-notch mutual fund.

A Roth Individual Retirement Account (Roth IRA) is an IRA that allows your investment earnings to grow tax-free.1 Anyone with a Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) of under $110,000 (or $160,000 for married joint filers) can open a Roth IRA. The way it works is that you make after-tax contributions of up to $3,000 a year to your Roth IRA.*

In turn, you will not have to pay any IRS penalties or income taxes on the investment earnings at the time of withdrawal as long as the money has been in your IRA and funded for at least five years and you meet one of the following conditions:

You are 59 1/2 or older


The money is used for a first time home purchase (up to $10,000 lifetime limit)


The withdrawal is due to death or disability

Another great feature of the Roth IRA is that withdrawal of earnings will be IRS penalty-free, but not tax-free, when used for higher education expenses even if made within the first five years. A final benefit of the Roth IRA is, unlike a Traditional IRA, you do not have to start making withdrawals when you turn 70 1/2.




Go to any US bank or brokerage house, in person or online, find new accounts and request or download forms for Roth IRA. Fill them out and return with you initial deposit. That should get you started.

Yes, you can do it that way. Your IRA can be invested many ways. First you should decide what kind of product you want to invest your retirement money in. That should depend on your age also. If your young you can invest in something more aggressive like certain mutual funds, because you'll be investing long term. If you're closer to retirement age you'll want a more conservative fixed rate (or at least less risky) product like certificates of deposit.

You set up the account as a Roth IRA at a bank or other financial service firm like Fidelity or a stock broker. A certificate of deposit at a bank is the easiest, but would probably not have as good a return rate as you would get somewhere else.

go to schwab.com and click accounts, and open an an account. It will walk you through everything including what you should purchase withing your ira.