Needing Help Picking IRA

[Davaldez21]

Hello, just starting to start my IRA. Currently finishing in paying my student loans @ nearly 7 percent. I will have enough free income to start putting money into retirement.
Stats:
Income :145k
Age: 27, Married (wife will start working later this year, adding 30-40K)
Free Income: 2k monthly (plus 3k more if wife starts working).

I am not eligible for 401k with my job. I have heard good things about Vanguard 500 low fee IRA.

Is this a good option? What are alternatives. Thanks.

 

[travelover]

First, good for you for getting serious about investing.

Vanguard is a great place to invest due to their low fees. Since you have a long time horizon, I'd go with 100% stocks initially. You can get great diversification by simply buying a Total Stock fund, which will give you access to small and medium sized company stocks .

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0085&FundIntExt=INT

If you want to get a little more complicated, you can make a still simple but easy to manage lazy portfolio.

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios

 

[RunningBum]

Vanguard is a great place to go (as is Fidelity). S&P 500 index or ETF is also a good place to start. You aren't locked in to that, so don't lose a lot of time worrying about exactly which fund since you will be able to move money around. Getting started is what is important.

 

[Davaldez21]

Does picking Admiral vs Investor Shares really matter? (Besides diff in fees). The Admiral Shares have 10k minimum, I was interested in starting to max out IRA for me an my wife= 11k yearly currently.

 

[steelyman]

Does picking Admiral vs Investor Shares really matter? (Besides diff in fees). The Admiral Shares have 10k minimum, I was interested in starting to max out IRA for me an my wife= 11k yearly currently.

Fees do matter, but getting started matters more. It's easy to convert once you have the minimum accumulated in a particular fund. The fund company often does this "for" you. The class conversion is a non-taxable event.

 

[travelover]

Does picking Admiral vs Investor Shares really matter? (Besides diff in fees). The Admiral Shares have 10k minimum, I was interested in starting to max out IRA for me an my wife= 11k yearly currently.

Admiral and Investor are the same fund, just different fees. As noted, when you hit the Admiral minimum, you get upgraded automatically.

 

[target2019]

Does picking Admiral vs Investor Shares really matter? (Besides diff in fees). The Admiral Shares have 10k minimum, I was interested in starting to max out IRA for me an my wife= 11k yearly currently.

The IRAs are separate, so you'd have less than 10K in each account. Next year, if you add to the same mutual fund, then you would be in admiral shares.

You can go with ETF now (VOO), and enjoy the .05% expense ratio, same as the admiral fund.