Hello SOTGC community,
Why should you start investing now? Because if you keep putting it off, you’ll have nothing later on. I am frequently approached by women in their 40’s and 50’s who have practically nothing put away for retirement. Often they had good intentions and did contribute to a 401K at work. However, when they changed jobs, instead of rolling it over into a self-directed IRA, they cashed it out, paid a penalty, and paid taxes on the income. ALL OF THEM REGRET IT NOW.
How did I become a millionaire before I turned 40? Because I contributed to both a 401K and a Roth IRA. When I made too much income to qualify for a Roth, I made contributions to a Traditional IRA. As a business owner, now I have a Sep IRA. I also lived below my means and saved a portion of every paycheck and bonus. What I couldn’t shelter from taxes through retirement vehicles, I put straight into a brokerage account. Here’s a review of TD Ameritrade which is where I recommend you open an account.
I did this and you can too. If you have money sitting in a savings account, checking account or mutual funds, you can open a Roth IRA. In fact, if your income is under a certain limit, you can contribute up to $5,500 this year. Think of a Roth IRA as a super-duper savings account. That is because the money you put in and all the investment income and compounding you generate will NEVER BE TAXED. Also, if you have an emergency and need to access those funds, you can always withdraw your contributions without penalty. (You just cannot withdraw the income you generated through investing.) TD Ameritrade makes it very easy to open up a Roth IRA. If you start this year, and next year you put in $5,500 and so on, pretty soon you’ll have a nice little nest egg.
The hard part is learning what to invest in. If you have an hour to watch this interview or a half hour to listen to a downloaded podcast while in the car, I think you will learn a lot. I’m always happy to help people start out. Feel free to ping me at theoptionslady@gmail.com or go to my website at www.theoptionslady.com.
Photo credit: summituniserv.org
