19 yrs old and want to open a retirement savings?

Question

I cant open one with my job until I'm 21, and I'm not to sure about the other methods. Any advice please?

Answer 1

1. If your employer doesn't match your 401(k) contribution, it may not be worth putting money into it, period. I will explain below. By the way, the person that said to put your money into a savings account and then transfer it into your 401(k) doesn't know what he is talking about. You can only contribute to your 401(k) through your paycheck.

2. You should open an IRA whether you end up contributing to your 401(k) or not. One reason is because you want to start saving for retirement ASAP! Second reason is when/if you leave an employer with a 401(k), you will want roll your money from the 401(k) into an IRA because you never want to leave money in an old employers 401(k). Reason: you tend to get less investment options within a 401(k) plan and your assets can get frozen. One example: When Enron crumbled, all of the 401(k) accounts were frozen and no one could move their money for a period of time. The problem is that if you worked at Enron and one of the mutual funds you were invested in started to lose a bunch of money, you had to keep your money in it wether you liked it or not because your investments were frozen, resulting in a big loss to you. We don't want that.

Now, there are two types of IRAs: "Roth" and "Traditional".
Roth IRAs are usually best for someone who is young but you can't roll your 401(k) money into a Roth IRA in the future without getting taxed and you don't want that. I will not get into the reason that a Roth IRA is better for younger people because it will take a lot of time and I will probibly just confuse you anyway.

So anyway, here is what I suggest:

Senario 1.
If your employer does match your 401(k) contribution, open a "Traditional IRA". invest in it for now and then invest in the 401(k) when you turn 21. You will then be able to roll your 401(k) into the Traditional IRA down the road, tax-free.

Senario 2.
If your employer does NOT match your contribution: Don't worry about investing in your 401(k) (unless they start to contribute down the road), open a ROTH IRA and start investing ASAP.

For now, go to a company like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch etc. to set up your IRA account after you find out the low-down on your employers contribution. Down the road you may want to go to an "Independent" Financial Advisor because they tend to have more investment options. I hope this helped, I am sorry for giving you so much info....GOOD LUCK!

Answer 2

A Roth IRA would be a good way to go, but be sure you've got other cash saved for emergencies. The worst thing you can do is to get into the habit of raiding your IRA, I see far far too much of that at my work.

A Roth IRA isn't an investment, so much as a wrapper for an investment. Your bank probably has a savings account you can open as a Roth if your talking about very small $ amounts. Which you can use to start gathering funds in until its large enough to move elsewhere.

If your talking say in the $1,000.00 range you can start looking at opening a Roth IRA at a mutual fund company, you could probably be pretty aggressive with this if your not going to touch it until retirement. It might be more voliatile than the market, and you might even been down dramatically, but in the long run the market tends to reward the extra risk you'd be taking. (Might be fun to plop a $1,000.00 somewhere and never touch it or add to that one fund so you can see how it compounds over the years.)

If your talking the full $4,000.00 contribution for 2007, and are fairly sure your going to be able to keep doing so you could open a brokerage account and invest in individual stocks and slowly build your portfolio. You'll have to pay for advice, or you could learn on your own and invest through a online broker.

But the mutual funds will probably do fine for you, when your ready to invest you could look up the Morningstar Reports at your local library and then contact the company of the one you want to start with. Ask for a prospectus and a Roth IRA application.

Answer 3

Wow at 19 you are thinking about ure retirement i am impressed but u should just make a regular savings account and put extra money there and by time it is time for you to retire that savings account should have at least 50 grand and when u turn 21 check out a 401 k that will help too

Answer 4

Listen to Chris' advice, it's right on the money. A Roth IRA is definitely the way to go. Put in $4000 for 2007 and then $5000 for 2008, and put in the annual maximum contribution. Go to this website to see how this will make you lots of moolah over the long run:
http://www.dinkytown.net/java/RothIRA.html

Invest in the most aggressive mutual fund you can - I would go for three or four different Vanguard mutual funds - the kind with NO loads and very low transaction fees. You will find that you can set yourself up GOOD if you start at age 21, much better than if you start in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now. You're very intelligent to start at your young age - good luck to you!

Answer 5

since your job probably has a 401k or siome rules such as the 21 years thing but try a individual retirement account aka IRA at a bank like Bank of America or wells fargo. It's just like a savings account but u earn interest from the bank, thats what i did in 1947

Answer 6

Put the money in a savings account, then when you open the retirement account, transfer it. That way it can draw intrest, it may not be a lot, but its more than what you started with.

Answer 7

Just start a separate savings account. This generation may not be able to retire till we are in our 80's. Save that money, you won't regret it!

Answer 8

Yes Here it is; Invest in feminine hygiene products, I did this years ago and it has ave. for me a return of over 15% a year in two of the safest company's in the U.S., Kimberly Clark and Scott Paper.

Buy your self some stock, keep it and reinvest it with in the same company. both make toilet paper, baby diapers and female hygiene products, all of which this world will not do with out again.

Answer 9

Talk to a banker. They can give you good advice about options for making your money work for you. DO IT! The earlier you start saving makes a HUGE difference. Don't wait. IT jsut gives you that many more years for your money to make more money.

Answer 10

Just start a separate savings account. Like at ING.