save for retirement

Got the info about moving my money to a new investment place. Also downloaded the conversion form to convert from IRA to Roth IRA, as well as sending out an inquiry to someone if that’s even the smart thing to do…

But I’m getting closer. I need to call the place that currently holds my money to see what their fees and minimum contributions are…that will help me decide if it’s really worth moving firms or not.

I’ve wanted to start a Vanguard Roth IRA for awhile, but they require a $3,000 minimum. Looking at my old job IRA balance, I’ve lost so much money this year, the tax burden to roll over from IRA to Roth IRA is the lowest now as it’s ever going to be, and then I will have the $3,000 minimum. I’m hoping to call Vanguard on Tuesday and find out what I have to do…if I have to roll it over as an IRA and then to a Roth IRA, or if one paperwork can move it from the other company as well as convert it. I also want to find out what the contribution process is…if I can make automatic monthly deposits or if they require a minimum, etc.

It’s 2 1/2 days, which seems like an awful long time. I haven’t gone the last few years because we’ve had issues with office coverage, but I think I should be able to go this year. I honestly have no idea where to start other than my job’s retirement account and match…

this seems quite overwhelming. I don’t want to be stupid about this, but I also don’t want to scrimp on the life I have now. Is it worth saving more for retirement if I can’t pay for school in cash? If we can’t move out of the shoebox we live in? When either one of us could be hit by a truck tomorrow? Shouldn’t I rely a bit on faith?

I have no desire to learn about retirement for 2.5 days. But every internet calculator starts out with, “how much would you like to have saved at retirement?” WELL HOW THE HELL WOULD I KNOW THAT?

I’m very frustrated.

I did read this weekend that right now is a good time to roll over traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs, because the market is down so far and your tax burden may be significantly less…so I’m going to research that in the next few weeks, hopefully. If I can roll my IRA (leftover from an old job) into a Roth IRA, I’ll at least have investments that are both pretax and post tax.

And of course, we’ve got to get something set up for my husband, too.

we really need another retirement acct, as my husband is self employed and thus not contributing to a company plan like I am. I found out that ING has a roth IRA that only requires $250 to start, so I’m going to try and set at least one up for him in the next month and perhaps one for me as well.

Looks like my paperwork went through…they are not matching yet, but I think they automatically will once I become eligible in the next few months.

To consider this done, I still need to :

Research rolling over my IRA (though I may use part of it for school)
Research if my husband will/should open a Roth (as we only have one retirement plan, mine, to contribute to at this point)

I enrolled in my work plan finally. It’s only $70 each check; I don’t know what I was waiting for.

I found out I can roll my IRA over to my government retirement plan. So the plan is

1) see if I can withdraw $1000 from my IRA for my school expense this year (supposedly, I can)
2) start a ROTH IRA
3) roll the IRA over
4) continue contributions to plan at work

When all those are done, so is this goal.

I think I just found out that my IRA stuff isn’t tax deductible the way I thought it was tax deductible, and if it’s not, well, I need the tax deduction or the cash more than just money in the IRA. I also read I could maybe pull it out without a penalty for education, in some circumstances…lots more research to do than I wanted to do.

They changed the minimum contribution amount per month, and now it’s a little higher than I can afford :(

The good news is that means I have more immediate cash for KIVA.org. The bad news is that this goal will sit on my list longer than I want it to…

I will try to get paperwork set up for my TSP here at work and brainstorm how to set aside the money to contribute to my IRA.

just not for the match. But I might see if I can start contributing now, so the moment the match works, I already have something going in. I just need to run a few paycheck calculators to see if I can afford it :|