I opened my Roth IRA account, put in the , but nothing grows in the past 6 months. Do I actually need to / to get a higher return? I only get like 66 bucks more on type of the max contribution. What’s going on?

 

  • Michaels' M 7:01 am on August 17, 2010

    For a smaller investor, mutual funds and exchange traded funds are a great way to diversify your money. You want to look for funds that have a low expense ratio. And your goal is to beat the index (the S&P is the usual standard) returns not to just match them. Look for funds that have lots of fund managers with years of experience. You could also split the money into 3 funds and build a foundation; global, domestic and income. That way no matter where the fun is happening you are participating.

  • Rocky S 7:01 am on August 17, 2010

    It takes time it will grow this i a long term investment. Mutual funds move slow keep adding to them.

  • random_market_investor 7:01 am on August 17, 2010

    Yes you need to purchase Mutual funds, ETFs, Stocks, or Bonds inside that fund to make it grow. Chances are your broker has simply put the money in a Money Market Account which will get very low interest rates.

    I recommend you start with indexed Mutual Funds (or ETFs depending how often you intend to contribute to this account). And depending on your age you may want to consider some bonds too.

    See the links below to help with choose Funds and diversifying your assests.

  • vegas_iwish 7:01 am on August 17, 2010

    You do not open an IRA in a bank as MUST buy stocks & or Mutual Funds. Etfs like EFA & Closed end funds like ADX & PEO will give you a chance at success in retirement investing

  • Io 7:01 am on August 17, 2010

    You need to make sure you max out your Roth IRA every year. Mutual funds are great. Just make sure you get into a well-known one first. Then roll over your profits every quarter back into the fund to build it up.