RothIRA

I assume since you said you are not loaded you haven't invested a large amount of money.

Since you are young and the money is invested for retirement I would invest the money mostly in equities.

If you have 3K, I would transfer the money to Vanguard into a target retirement fund. This is a fund of fund, that provides complete diversification. It is a good way to build up an investment portfolio. Check out there website for more info.

If you have less than 3K, other fund companies, such a T Rowe Price, have target retirement funds with lower min. investments.

I like vanguard because the Target Retirement fund is invested in index funds, causing the fund to have very low expenses. Expenses are a key factor in long term performance of mutual funds.

Transfer to Scottrade. And invest in high risk mutual funds. Why high risk? You are young, you shouldn't give a damn about this money yet.

I have $4000 on my Roth right now (maxed out last year), now I don't have any money this year because I am moving to London and I quit my part time job. But even if I had more money to invest I would keep on putting it into high risk mutual funds.

Look at the morning star, and pick their high risk 4 stars funds. I was at 4454 recently (4353 now ;)) But yeah : Scottrade + high risk mutual funds, and as you grow old you can diversify.

Roth is good place to keep it, invest in hi-risk, hi-reward places while you still can. International ETFs, emerging market funds, etc, all good places to start. Not sure which broker is best, but Scottrade has pretty low fees for the most part.

i put mine in the vanguard total stock market index

you won't be able to access your ROTH money for a while without penalty.

I like a variety of high-high risk mutual funds, mostly international or small/medium cap. As my hedge, I use a 25% allocation to the S&P 500... it's a decent indicator of the market.

I believe this works well for the 20's age group, using bond funds is pointless, even at the 5% mark. I feel the 25% S&P allocation hedges one's risk to the downside to some extent and the upside is obviously huge when dealing with international, small cap, medium cap, etc. type funds.

bump

bump

bump, this is a great topic worthy of further discussion.

c'mon guys, bizump.

Currently have money piled up in a Scottrade RothIRA account. At $7 a trade i think its well worth it. I have less than $5000 in it. Allocation is more towards speculative plays and high risk mutual funds.

While I am graduating this year and don't have much experience, I will tell you what I plan to do.

Make max donations to roth and other tax deferred investment vehicles while income low enough. Max out what your companies will match. Take advantage of the programs many companies have to buy stock at a discount, or buy a share at face with a few included call options. Make sure to keep track of vesting schedules when planning exit options. Set up an automatic deduction from your salary to be put into some mutual funds, as well as some into a scottrade account to have fun with.

You can save thousands by thinking tax sensitively and just plain being smart.

Also, use any health savings account tax deferred savings as well.

I believe the limit is $2750.