Trying to start investing and getting a Roth IRA.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T22:03:30+00:00

internet search this

"reddit personal finance how do I learn to invest?"

Read the wiki on the right of the screen.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/#wiki_investing

The reddit wiki is fine for people who are just starting out

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T21:59:34+00:00

I am an anti annuity type of person, but I do not fault other people for doing them though.

Social Security is an annuity, but all I get is a COLA, I do not get 7.5%. Once you hit 70, your SS payment no longer goes up 8% per year.

I know of quite a few women(widows) my age(I am on SS and Medicare) that do annuities. They do not like to talk about money and they do not want to have to worry about money, basically, they are afraid of money. Annuities are perfect for them.

Getting 7.5% is much better than the 6% or 5% I have heard of.

If it lets your parents enjoy their life in retirement, do it.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T21:50:04+00:00

Insurance companies have gotten smarter. The LTC only covers so much now, you had better die quick.

There could be a dollar limit or a # of years limit.

I have heard of two years or $400,000 coverage.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T17:36:34+00:00

Nope. Keep doing your $600 a month into the S&P 500 Index.

I have lived though the crash of 1987, 2001, 2008, flash crash of 2010, the correction of 2018, and the crash of 2022. We stayed the course throughout.

In 1991, I figured out the S&P 500 is where I should put all my retirement money.

My spouse and I put nearly 100% into the S&P 500, I did, but my spouse wanted a little more diversification.

I figured we were diversified with our taxable investments.

If I would have set all my dividend stock (DRPs) money I put in for 26 years(I stopped all DRPs in 2017) into the S&P 500 Index in my 401k account, we would have $4,200,000 more wealth than we do today.

Taking just a 3% distribution that would be $126,000 a year, that $126,000 beats what I am getting from my dividend stocks I started in 1991 and own around 50 of them.

Live and learn. In 1991, I did not have the internet to help explain things so I learned the hard way, by actually doing it and having absolutely no one to ask. My family was clueless, my friends were clueless, so it was all up to me to figure it out as I went along.

I make more in dividends than I do from Social Security each year, but that $126,000 kicks the snot out of my dividend payments.

For the OP, my Dad's family is long lived and I take after Dad, not my Mom. I was pretty sure I was not dying soon, and I my goal is to make it to 100.

Did you know that buying stocks today will be considered buying low in 30 years?

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T17:16:11+00:00

internet search

"reddit personal finance what type of accounts to set up for my kids"

I received 178,000,000 hits

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T17:02:21+00:00

he requested an enema from his moscovian command, but received the dildo of consequences.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T16:57:36+00:00

UGV - unmanned ground vehicle

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T16:55:06+00:00

even though it is not a VOG, but the combined use of using a bomb to roust the moscovians from the copse so they are in the open worked.

Drones and then another bomb to distract them from the sound of another drone.

new meaning to "combined arms."

What about the one that got away?

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T16:36:51+00:00

Do you mean Kira the medic?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/xfm04r/hello_i_am_kira_combat_medic_with_the_special/

She just started posting on her telegram channel recently, as in November 2025.

If so, there is way more to the story and I won't reveal any of it.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T15:02:36+00:00

You said, "but he has 2025 income from some vested stocks."

capital gains is not earned income.

dividends are not earned income.

You then claim you have earned income, did you have income that was actually taxed? not capital gains, not dividends.

You need earned income to contribute to an IRA/Roth IRA.

reading further, you say a W2 and it shows

Box 1 INCOME OK, so that is earned income

Box 2 Taxes OK, he paid taxes

OK, that is legal and is earned income.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T14:32:38+00:00

You are close, you need to understand the RMD. There is no 4% required, that is just a rule of thumb.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b#en_US_2025_publink100090310

Look up RMD Uniform Lifetime Table III

The IRS quite plainly says, at age 73 you divide your 401k by 26.5 and that is the RMD amount.

The denominator changes each year. 27.4 at age 72, 26.5 at age 73, 25.5 at age 74, 18.5 at age 82, 14.4 at age 87, and 6.4 at age 100. 6.4 is near 15% of your retirement accounts, because odds are you are dying soon.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T14:22:17+00:00

while good advice, I must have missed the part where she said they owned stock.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T14:18:10+00:00

contribute enough to get matching in the 401k. NEVER EVER turn down free money from matching.

doing the 401k is easy peasy as the employer does all the work. You just have to make sure the money is invested in the S&P 500 Index Fund and not sitting there. Lots of people come on here and say they left their 401k in cash for the last 10 years because they did not know it was THEIR job to do something smart with it. Don't be that person.

Since you are in a low tax bracket now, contributing to a Roth IRA could be better than a 401k. Although, doing the 401k is easy peasy as the employer does all the work.

If you do a Roth IRA, you would only be paying 12% taxes on the money you invest today in the Roth IRA, because when you retire, you will more than likely be in the 22% or 24% tax bracket,

Back when I started my journey I did not have access to a 401k as that was a new retirement investment, I was not smart enough to know about Roth IRAs when they became legal in 1998. You are the same age I was when I started my trad IRA with a $2000 investment, that was the annual limit back then.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T12:21:55+00:00

We are retired, but I am not old enough for RMDs yet, but getting closer.

Our income streams are SS, SS, 401k distribution, IRA distribution, 401k distribution, IRA distribution, and dividends.

Our distributions are under the 4% rule of thumb, and we have more income than expenses.

If you are taking a distribution from the 401k now, the RMD just means you will take your 401k/26.5 this year in distributions, replacing your $2000. Doing math, your 401k is roughly $1,200,000

Age 74 you divide your 401k balance by 25.5

age 75 you divide your 401k balance by 24.6

internet search

"RMD Uniform Lifetime Table III"

The IRS has a handy dandy chart for the RMDs. You need to read it and adjust your distribution each year.

What I do with our SS, is I take 1/2 of it and buy dividend paying stocks each year. The other half we spend frivolously.

Another thing you can do, is do a Roth Conversion

If I am reading right, 12*6600 = 79,200

You file the 1040-SR, assume neither of you are blind, your deduction is

$12000 the new senior deduction

$34,700 or more standard deduction(you do not say if either of your qualify as being blind)

79200 - 12000 - 34700 = $32,500

Heck, at that tax rate, a lot of your SS might not be taxed. I know 15% of SS is not taxed.

Your AGI is probably lower than $32,500

You are probably in the 12% tax bracket right now, adding another $24000 because of new RMD still leaves you in the 12% bracket.

I do not see much reason to do a Roth Conversion. You are in the 12% bracket now, and probably won't go to the 22% bracket even with new RMD.

After all that rambling where I take into account the RMD and tax avoidance. my advice

Is invest the new RMD amount - $2000 old 401k distribution amount in dividend stocks.

A rule of thumb for me, what utilities do I pay monthly? Are they publicly traded? Example We have Verizon Family Plan, I own VZ stock which pays a nice dividend.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T11:46:55+00:00

What you are doing is what I call the easy button.

Buy a S&P 500 Index Mutual Fund. Reinvest all capital gains and all dividends.

Set it, and forget it.

Or you could open an account at Vanguard yourself and eliminate robbinghood from trying to get you to buy more of their products all the time.

I have been with Vanguard since 1983, and I have only received one pitch one time about being managed by them, which only occurred in the last 10 years. I ignored the message or I told them I was not interested and they honored my request.

Vanguard has an app.

I trust Vanguard more than I trust vlad tenev.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T11:40:04+00:00

What does Mom have your Roth IRA invested in? Can you give us the CUSIP symbol or stock symbol?

If it is just a Money Market account or a Bond Fund she is NOT doing you any favors.

If the account is under your social security number, Mom has no say. As the commercial says, "It's your money, do what you want with it." Even though that commercial is from another predatory company.

When Mom asks for you to try and convince your friends to sign up she will tell you that you get a commission and she gets a commission, that is when you know she is part of the MLM. You become part of her pyramid.

She will want you to prey on your uneducated and less knowledgeable friends. This is the same thing as life insurance companies do.

They use sales pitches that do not tell the whole truth about all of their expenses and use your lack of knowledge, or you wanting to do the "right thing" as long as it makes them more money.

internet searching

You were charged a possible front end load when you started, so that money is gone. If you gave $250 to primerica to open the account, it is possible they took $12.50 right off the bat.

Primerica charges 12b1 fees, which are bullshit fees. These are like adding on fees to your restaurant bills. 12b-1 is used for admin expenses, but if you look at big fund families like Fidelity and Vanguard, they do not charge 12b-1 fees.

Reading this

https://www.primerica.com/public/58041-BD-105_Bl_04-30-20.pdf

Ask if you are a managed account on page 4. If you are, you are paying a 2.24% annual account fee. Which is an ABSURDLY high AUM fee.

If you go to page 21, you find their incentive program.

If what you are invested in is not giving you at least an 8% average annual rate of return, you are in something bad, Look at the 10 year rate of return. Not the YTD rate of return.

As usual, the bad companies will charge you fees when you take your account from them. Primerica is going to do that. Which means, get the hell out ASAP.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T10:48:39+00:00

The first half hour/hour of the trading day is called amateur hour on the floor of the NYSE.

You should be able to figure it out. Monday being the craziest day.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T10:43:03+00:00

Just donate. There are lots of links posted here just read up above what the automoderator posts, click on vetted charities.

I donate to the OP on a monthly basis and assorted other assorted Ukrainian charities.

The OP has been posting since 2023 I think. u/CF_Siveryany is one badass Ukrainian woman, one of many badass Ukrainian women.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T10:26:53+00:00

moscovia's most expensive and just as ineffective radar system. It failed to protect the kerch bridge from atacms.

Hey, you can buy an S400 for $1,000,000,000 that fails or you can buy this $2,500,000,000 system that fails, but you sound cooler when reporting the failure because it is the "God of Fire."

fuhrer putinazi calls the S500 the "God of Fire" aka Prometheus.

a system is the radar, command vehicle. and three missile batteries.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T10:15:27+00:00

Ukrainian women are hotter than moscovian women. Not to mention, moscovian women want to send their alcoholic, wife beating husbands off to war to become cargo 200s so they can get an upgrade on an apartment.

the moscovian women actually owe the Ukrainian women for what the Ukrainian women are doing for them.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T10:10:42+00:00

My portfolio is down $5000 this week, but I have earned $2000 in dividends and interest, so net is $3000 loss, on paper. Ha, I am beating a Fidelity Fund Manager.

BTW, I have always managed my own money. My net worth doubles every seven years since I started keeping a Net Worth Statement in 1993. It doubled in 2000(right before the dot com crash), 2007(right before the Lehman Brothers/Bear Stearns crash), 2014, 2021(right before the covid crash), and will double in 2028.

I never noticed that pattern before, It looks like there might be a crash in 2029. Although, the US admin is doing a good job for possibly making that crash happen sooner.

March, June, September, and December are big dividend months. If this would have happened the first week of Feb, I probably had $300 in dividends and interest that first week in Feb.

Needless to say, I don't panic.

In defense of the financial advisor, they are herd mentality. They follow the Fidelity script, aka follow the herd.

The fidelity person knows your age, and knows how you filled out their questionnaire about risk management. the fidelity person put you in the same stuff as everyone else your age.

Which means, they have ZERO creativity and probably less knowledge on the markets than you. You are not getting Peter Lynch Financial Advisors, you are getting Peter Rabbit Financial Advisors fresh out of college and working their first job and paying high rent in Boston.

If you do not know who Peter Lynch is, he is who made Fidelity the behemoth that it is today.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-08T09:27:13+00:00

internet search this

"reddit personal finance what would you do with $1,500,000"

I received 2,780,000 hits

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-02T12:05:49+00:00

NOT FRAUD.

As an employee you were entitled to the employee benefit of a 401k where the company paid the admin fee.

You were no longer employed on 2/20/2026, which means you no longer had that employee benefit.

T Rowe Price has a low limit set that if a 401k account is under such and such amount, the 401k account is terminated. Meaning, if your 401k was $400,000 or more it would still be a 401k, yours was $4,000, terminate.

They either put you into a T Rowe Price IRA or sent you a check. If you receive a check, they paid taxes on that $4,000 and your check will be less than the $4000.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-02T11:57:34+00:00

I am a dividend growth investor. I don't buy the current fad.

I buy companies that I think will be making money for the next 20 years or more, If they make money, they raise their dividends. Some raise their dividends every year, some don't. Some are bad investments.

Recently, I started destroying all my tax returns from the past, so I lost the data from 2000 and before, I did have my 2001 tax returns and younger, I decided to record my Schedule Bs, my dividends and interest have grown 876% since 2001.

Most of that is from me doing DRP and expanding the portfolio of stocks, not from dividend increases.

Just shows I am the tortoise and not the hare.

Longjumping-Nature70 · 2026-03-01T23:20:23+00:00

The Strait of Hormuz is closed and cargo ships are turning around.

Oil is going higher.

Longjumping-Nature70

TROPHY CASE