[Melissa]

From my reading, I’m gathering that just a few are needed. At my age of 43, mostly stocks (2 index funds?) and maybe 10% in bonds?

Also, my husband and I both have Roths and I have a traditional IRA. Should we contribute to all equally or fully fund Roths?

[Jasmine]

When you says “Roths” I assume you mean a Roth IRA? Or are you talking about Roth 401K? The term “Roth” refers to the tax treatment of a contribution to a retirement account.

If you have a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA, remember that the IRA contribution maximum for 2023 is $6500 in total across all IRA accounts. So, you can’t contribute $6500 to a Roth IRA and $6500 to a Traditional IRA in the same tax year.

Don’t miss: I maxed out my Roth last night for 2022!

[Jule]

At 43 you want to own bonds, why?

If you had a traditional IRA, roll it into another traditional. By converting it to Roth you’d have to pay taxes. Unless you it’s a small amount, you’d want to do that in increments across multiple years so that you don’t pay unnecessary extra taxes.

If I were you I’d put it all in equities (stocks), like VTSAX, and roll it into the same type of funds you had before which would be the same amounts of you do a rollover and not a transfer.

You can’t just move money from in to you or Vice versa like that. There are IRS rules.

[Angelo]

There’s a good case for mixing a total us market index like VTI with a small cap value index like VIOV. That’s what I would use for the stock portion of my portfolio. For bonds I hold a long term treasury fund like VGLT.

Depending on your income and if you have a retirement account through work like a 401k, you might not get any tax savings from contributions to a traditional ira. In which case the Roth is a no brainer.

[Author]

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