Financial Advice...Should i change anything???

Question

im 24 and married. We have a house in tampa with about 100k equity. We indulge in stock and funds...about 10k in that. I recently opened a iowa 529 plan for my dughter,in which i rolled over some i savings bonds into...about 12k in that, 50 monthly. We just bought a investment property this week...boy its hard to find renters. And the military just told me that im movng to colorado springs in two months...good luck trying to sell my home. Should i concern myself with opening an IRA...gosh 591/2 thats far away. But i do want long term investments just not that long.

Answer 1

You should think about retirement before before opening a 529 plan. Does your employer offer a 401K? If so, contribute what you can to that (contribute the max your employer will match - that's free money!).

Yeah - retirement is a long way away...which means if you start now, you won't need to put as much away each month/year in order to retire a millionaire at 55. Try the 40 year calculator here
http://moneyandfreedom.org/resources-worksheetsanddownloads.html

Other than that, no one can give you any good advice without knowing your full financial situation (how much you & your wife make, & what your expenses are). You sound like you are doing very well for your age. You should see a financial adviser.

Answer 2

I don't know your Adjusted Gross Income, but I think you maybe able to qualify to open a Roth IRA. If you are married and filing jointly and your AGI is above $160,000, you do not qualify for a Roth IRA. If you are married, but filing separately, and the spouse lives with you, you do not qualify for a Roth IRA if your AGI is above $10,000. So, if you are below these limits, you can open a Roth IRA.

Here are some the features of a Roth IRA:
1) You can withdraw your contributions anytime and you won't owe income tax or pay penalties.
2) Your investments grow tax-deferred.
3) All withdrawals after age 59 1/2 is tax-free!

On the negative side:
1) If you withdraw the earnings before age 59 1/2, you pay a 10% penalty (unless you use it for a qualifying expense like buying your first home, or paying for higher education)
2) If you withdraw the earnings during the first 5 years of opening your first Roth IRA, you pay income tax.
3) None of your contributions are tax-deductible.

I personally have a Roth IRA and I opened it when I was 23 years old. That was couple years ago. I have three awesome mutual funds from Legg Mason Partners. I have LMP Aggressive Growth, LMP Fundamental Value, and LMP Appreciation Fund. I invest on a monthly basis and the average rate of return on my portfolio is currently 22.1%. I don't know how it will do in the future, but its off to a good start.

Answer 3

First of all, thank you for serving our country. Now, an IRA is going to be a concern. On military pay, will it put you in a bind? The $50 for your first child is okay. The houses, is see two, while you can, seek out good agents, (10%) a month fee. If you go away from them it really is hard to manage. At 24, if you put in several thousand in an IRA in her name, then one in your name, and let it go for a while, that would be okay. If you never added to it, you would be extremely surprised how big it will grow in forty years, with compound interest.Good luck.

Answer 4

I just hope you don't have ALL of your money in stocks and bonds. What if it crashes?

Make sure you can afford all of this first.


I made a terrible mistake 6 years ago. I had $11,000 saved at 21 years old going on 22 the following month. On the day of December 30, 2000 before I turned in 22 in January of 2001, I spent all of my money on a car, I was flat broke just like that. I couldn't afford it.

I should've spent no more than $4,000 total on everything and kept the other $7,000 saved up for my future.

Take care. If you mess up, you're feel terrible beyond belief. I know I did after that day of 12/30/00 when I was 21.

Answer 5

you could do a lot poorer than to read Robert Kiyosaki's discussion of his "A, B, and C" plans for investment.

Fortunately, you can do this free at the public library. [I can not recall which of his books has this in it.]

***
Lacking a plan that focuses on your probable future needs and desires means that you'll end up at a randomly chosen location. It sounds like the military may already have you traveling. They have a history of requiring you to move at odd moments and on little notice.

All of which suggests a business opportunity. There must be other military families like you who own real estate near their current base. After they move, those properties will need managing. If you like that sort of thing, that manager could be you until you're moved (again) -- at which time you sell the business to another interested military family, put your properties into it, and start over in your new location.

Answer 6

possibly no longer for you from the way you're saying you reside now. if you have not lived alongside with one yet another in the previous they were given married, it is going to substitute. It did for me and that i have no lawsuits