Thanks for making me rich(er) today. Especially if I live to see the money in 30 years

I am opening an account in Vanguard but there are so many choices for funds. You say that you suggest investing in certain funds in your article but they aren’t listed anywhere. Do you have any funds that you recommend/ I’m 26 and plan on maxing this out for as long as possible so I can really ramp up my savings. Thanks!

Zecco.com. If a nineteen year old could do it in 15 minutes, you can do it too =)

I also JUST filed my taxes and am relieved to hear that I can still contribute for 2007. I had thought, the calendar says 2008, I guess I missed the window of opportunity for 2007. I’m sure people such as myself would appreciate this correction made in the article, or at least higher in the comments (I know you can do it Ramit). I tried to contact the efile company I used and went and downloaded the 1040X form before reading on.

I believe the Federal limits cover both Roth and traditional IRAs at the same time. So the traditional order would be: 401k to the company match, fully fund the Roth IRA, finish funding the 401k.

However, there are several different ideas on that. The best example I saw recently was this:

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/104486/Protecting-Your-Retirement-No-Matter-Who's-President?mod=retirement-preparation

Basically, what this says is that the traditional IRA/401k option has a lower (or is that different?) level of risk than the Roth. If you assume that the federal government with both raise taxes and continue funding its activities using the income tax, this product works very well. However, if the government decides to change the code to a flat tax or sales tax (something Republican candidates have been proposing for decades) you are out of luck when you go to withdraw funds from the Roth. Of course, Uncle Sam could make a law at any time giving himself the ability to tax money in your Roth.

I also think that your guest writer forgot to mention inflation in his article. Most people do. Listen up everyone: $1M today is worth *alot* more than $1M 40 years from now. I would really like to see someone write an article about saving with goals using today’s dollars.

Finally, a point brought up in Jim Cramer’s latest book (did I just discredit myself there?): Retirement saving is necessary, but what about saving for other things you would like to do. Like starting your own business (a topic covered often here) or taking some soft of major vacation? Perhaps saving for a reasonable down payment on a home (if that makes sense)? I rarely see anything like that in these types of articles.