[Fern]

A Roth IRA is only the vehicle you use to make your investment. The actual investment could be something as simple as a bank CD, a mutual fund, an annuity or stocks. It depends on your tolerance for risk. A good bet would a stock oriented mutual fund with a well-known, no load fund family such as T rowe Price, Fidelity or Vanguard. (Be careful with Fideltiy as not all their funds are no load.) Index funds are fine if you want a broad stock basket of large cap stocks.