Barbara A. Friedberg Dec. 18, 2024 Whether you are just starting out or midway into your career,
Whether you are just starting out or midway into your career, understanding how to open the best IRA account and fund it will propel you onto the path to true financial security. Anyone with earned income who meets the eligibility requirements can open an individual retirement account (IRA). Money within the IRA account grows tax-free.
We’ll take you step by step through the process of how to open a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA. You’ll discover the IRA requirements, how much it costs to open an IRA, and how long it takes. Finally, you’ll learn where to open an IRA and whether to choose a Roth or traditional IRA account.
Firstly, you’ll explore which financial firm is best for you. Then, you’ll determine whether it’s better to open a Roth or traditional IRA account.
Step 1: Choose an online broker. Choosing an online broker depends upon whether you want to select your own investments or desire a digital investment platform that considers your preferences and makes the final investment decision for you.
With an online broker like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or Merrill Edge, you can pick and choose from a menu of investment assets. Although there will be customer service representatives available to help with setup and questions, if you open an IRA at an online broker, you’ll be responsible for selecting the investments for your Roth, traditional, or rollover IRA. That will involve picking stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). If you are confident in your ability to pick your own investments, or if you are committed to learning the investing basics, then consider opening your IRA with an online broker.
Step 2: Decide where to open an IRA. When deciding where to open an IRA, investigate annual IRA management fees, investment minimums, available investments, customer service options, and customer reviews. After making your selection, you’ll gather the information needed to open the account.
Step 3: Choose an IRA account type to invest in. Next, choose the type of IRA that best fits your tax and financial situation. Understand that Roth and traditional IRAs have eligibility limits, depending on your income and whether you have a workplace retirement account. Both the Roth and traditional IRA have their own characteristics. We’ll cover two individual IRAs and two workplace IRAs for self-employed individuals.
Types of IRA Accounts
Step 4: Open an account. Opening an IRA account involves proving that you are who you say you are by providing personal documentation to support your identity. You’ll need personal and financial information to open an account. Every website has an online option to “open an account” which you can select. Then you’ll be asked a series of demographic and financial questions. Below, we discuss the documents that you’ll need to open the IRA account online or in person.
Step 5: Fund your account. To fund the account, you’ll link an existing financial account with the newly opened IRA. On your bank's website, navigate to the external transfer vertical. Input the requested information about the newly opened IRA.
After leaving an employer, many individuals prefer to roll retirement contributions from a 401(k) or 403(b) plan into an IRA. Or you might want to roll over an IRA from one custodian to another. As long as you perform a trustee-to-trustee rollover, you won’t owe any taxes. Each financial institution has its own process for completing an IRA rollover, so it’s best to call customer service at your existing retirement plan and request rollover instructions.
If you withdraw the funds via check or transfer into an existing bank account, you have 60 days to reinvest the money into the IRA, without paying taxes. If you don’t contribute the funds to the IRA within 60 days, you might owe taxes and/or penalties.
When funding your IRA with money from an existing bank or brokerage account, visit the transfer section of your financial institution's website. Select the “external transfer” option and provide information about the IRA account when requested. You’ll have the option to make a one-time transfer to fund the IRA account or to set up regular auto-transfers from the funding account into the IRA.
Individuals are limited in the amount they can contribute to an IRA, and certain income levels determine who can open an IRA.
Here are the IRA contribution limits for 2024:
Under 50: $7,000
Over 50: $8,000
The SECURE ACT (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act) of 2019 was signed into law on December 20, 2019. The legislation removed the former rule that you had to be under the age of 70½ in order to contribute to a traditional IRA. Under the SECURE Act, anyone, regardless of age, can contribute to a traditional IRA as long as they have earned income.
The information you need to open an IRA account is similar to opening a taxable brokerage account. Although the process is similar across platforms, each IRA custodian may have a distinct process for opening an IRA online.
Detailed personal information is required to open an IRA online or in person, to prove that you are who you claim to be. Before you open the IRA, compile all of the required documentation. You’ll need to consider how you’ll fund the IRA as well as the beneficiary of the account.
After opening the IRA, provide your banking information to the IRA custodian. This will facilitate cash transfers from your financial institution into the IRA account. You’ll also need to set up external or internal transfers at your bank to fund the IRA account. It’s easy to access your banking information from a blank check and your online bank statement. After opening the IRA account, you may want to set up an automatic transfer from your bank into the IRA account.
To fund the account, you’ll need the following banking information:
Consider if an IRA is right for you by reviewing the pros and cons.
An individual retirement account, or IRA, allows individuals with earned income to save and invest for retirement. While in the IRA account, your money is invested for retirement and grows tax-free or tax-deferred. There are three types of IRAs: Traditional, Roth, and rollover.
The three types of IRAs, traditional, Roth, and rollover, all work similarly. If you have employment income, you transfer a portion of that income, up to the IRA contribution limit, into your account. Once the money is in the account, you determine how to invest it. You can choose individual stocks, bonds, and/or funds. The money will grow tax-free or tax-deferred until you withdraw it, at which time you might owe income taxes. Traditional IRAs are invested with pre-tax dollars, and thus you’ll owe taxes on the withdrawal. Roth IRAs are invested with after-tax dollars and can be withdrawn tax-free.
You’re eligible to withdraw your funds penalty-free at age 59½ or later. In most cases, if you withdraw the money before that age, you’ll be liable for a 10% penalty plus income taxes, although there are a few exceptions to this rule. You can withdraw your principal Roth IRA contribution at any time after a five-year holding period.
Here are the rules for how much you need to open an IRA:
If you have earned income, then the minimum amount you need is determined by where you open your account. You can’t exceed the maximum amount set by the IRS, or determined by your earned income.
The best IRA to open requires some projections. If you believe that your future tax rate in retirement will be lower than your current tax rate, then you might prefer a traditional IRA. With a traditional IRA, you don’t pay income tax on the money you contribute to the IRA until it is withdrawn in retirement. At age 73, you’re required to begin the required minimum distributions (RMD) from the IRA.
The Roth IRA decision is a bit more complicated. If you are in a low-ish tax bracket now and prefer to pay income taxes now, rather than in retirement, then a Roth IRA might be the best. With the Roth, you pay tax only once, when the money is earned and before investing in the account. Then your Roth IRA contribution grows tax-free and can be withdrawn tax-free as well. Unlike the traditional IRA, you are not required to withdraw money from the Roth in retirement.
Ideally, if you’re seeking a healthy sum in retirement, you’ll invest the maximum amount in the IRA annually. If you’re under the age of 50, that’s $583.33 per month, which equates to $7,000 per year. Those over the age of 50 can invest $666.67 per month or $8,000 per year.
If you can’t swing the maximum, then invest as much as you can afford. You can always increase your IRA contributions later.
The risks of IRAs include:
The concept of asset allocation can inform the best types of investments for traditional and Roth IRAs. Taxable bonds, bond ETFs, REITs, and tax-inefficient investments with relatively high current tax obligations might be best for a traditional IRA. Consider fast-growing stocks and growth stock funds for your Roth account, as you’ll eliminate a big capital gains tax bill when you sell the equities.
There’s no limit on the number of IRA accounts you may have. However, the total of all annual IRA contributions cannot exceed the entire $7,000 maximum contribution level (or $8,000 for those over age 50). Just because you can have multiple IRA accounts doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to have more than two—a traditional and a Roth IRA. The more investment accounts you have, the more difficult it is to manage and keep track of your financial assets.
The best place to open an IRA is a personal decision. Most major brokerage accounts offer a full range of investments, strong customer service, and low or no annual management fees. Robinhood offers a match for IRA contributions, which might be enticing for some.
If you have an existing banking or brokerage account, you might prefer to open an IRA at the same financial firm and maintain all accounts under one roof.
Posted: to Wealth Management News on Thu, Dec 19, 2024
Updated: Thu, Dec 19, 2024