Investment Rate of Return on IRA's? Need answers?

Question

what decides the investment rate of return on a ira and typically what pecentage does it hover around. I am very new to this. in thirty years will it be closer to 5% or 11%, what is it right now.

Answer 1

IRA's dont have rates of returns because they are not investments. They are just "containers," a tax-deferred (regular IRA) or tax free (ROTH IRA) way to hold investments like mutual funds, stocks, cd's, bonds, money market accounts, etc. Stocks (like the 500 stocks in the S&P index) and stock mutual funds, in general, have in the past a rate of return around 11% to 12%. I believe last year (2006) the S&P 500 gained around 15%.