New here. TIAA CREF & Books

[rerod]

Hi all.

I have been lurking around here a while and I like what I see. Honest unbiased opinions and information. I think..

My first question. I have a retirement plan with my employer through TIAA CREF. I want to start a Roth IRA. Should I start if with TIAA CREF? Or a company like Vanguard or fidelity? And when should I start it? My wife also wants to start one.

Basic questions. But we have no idea.

Second. I want to order:

Personal Finance For Dummies, 5th edition
& Investing For Dummies, 4th Edition

Can anyone recommend any better entry level books about investing and Finance? Which books are the easiest to understand?

[sweeps]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Welcome.

Not a big fan of TIAA CREF here. My wife had a retirement plan with them. The performance of the investments wasn't that great, the customer service wasn't that great either, and pulling out the money and transferring it to Vanguard was like pulling teeth.

Book suggestions here and here.

[rerod]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Unfortunately dont have a choice. The university of Iowa doubles the money I invest though.

Im looking for a book which explains the basics of investing. Not how to get out of dept or save. I dont have a college education so I need something very basic. Terminology, Definitions, how to read performance charts and how to pick.

[meaghanchan]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing is a great book I learned a lot from. It won't show you how to pick stocks, though- rather, it'll show you why you shouldn't. It generally advocates investing in low-cost, no-load mutual funds. It will teach you a lot about the way stocks and bonds work, and I found it explains the basics of investing very clearly.

[kristinecfp]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

I want to start a Roth IRA. Should I start if with TIAA CREF? Or a company like Vanguard or fidelity? And when should I start it? My wife also wants to start one.

If you're wanting to invest in mutual funds, then Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and other no-load, low cost mutual funds are all good choices.

If you want to invest in stocks, you should consider discount brokerage companies. Scottrade and Sharebuilder are good examples, but there are many out there.

For books, you might also check out Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor by John Bogle.

Good luck...

[kv968]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Not a book, but here's an excellent website classroom from Morningstar that will take you all through stocks, bonds, funds and portfolio management:

http://www.morningstar.com/Cover/Classroom.html

[CraigThor]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Unfortunately dont have a choice. The university of Iowa doubles the money I invest though.

Im looking for a book which explains the basics of investing. Not how to get out of dept or save. I dont have a college education so I need something very basic. Terminology, Definitions, how to read performance charts and how to pick.

Well I just recently started a ROTH IRA through T. Rowe Price with their asset builder program and their customer service is excellent and extremely helpful with helping me select the right choices. Oh, yeah in in the Marion/ C.R. area here. Good lluck with your decisions.

Craig

[Ima saver]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

I think the wealthy barber by David Chilton is an extremely easy book to read and it explains a lot about how to save.

[Aleta]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

I am reading The Wealthy Barber now and almost 1/2 way through it. It holds your interest and is an easy read.

[rerod]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Thanks.
First things first. I need to get the Roth IRA started for both of us. I will contact T. Rowe Price CraigThor. Then I will read the dummies investment book and move on from there.

I feel we done pretty good since we are home owners dont owe anything. But my savings accout wont even keep up with inflation. I need to invest. But Im not sure about the next few years.. Maybe another house might be the thing to look for here in a few years when they hit rock bottom.

Thanks again..

[TBH]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Not a big fan of TIAA CREF here. .....snip...... The performance of the investments wasn't that great, the customer service wasn't that great either, and pulling out the money and transferring it to Vanguard was like pulling teeth.

This matches up with my TIAA experience pretty well. Sounds like the original poster is headed in the right direction. Contribute to TIAA CREF just enough to get the employer match, and put everything else in a low-cost brokerage firm. I have been happy with Fidelity, but I hear great things about Vanguard and T. Rowe also. Before you jump into one, look at the account features of each one and also see which website you find easiest to navigate. But I think any of those 3 will serve you well.

For basic beginning investing, make sure you buy a no-load mutual fund. As a new investor I bought individual stocks (bad idea for a small first-time investor) and I bought some high-cost mutual funds. Look at the costs associated with each mutual fund you're thinking of before you buy in. A basic investing book will help you figure out what the heck I'm talking about.

Also, you sound plenty smart and savvy, college education or no. Don't be too humble. You sound like you're doing great.

[rerod]

Re: New here. TIAA CREF & Books

Thanks for the confidence booster Claire.

My employer actually triples my money. Meaning I contribute 33.3% and the U of I contributes 66.6%. Do you still feel I should back off to the minimum?

kv968: Thanks for the morningstar.com link. Can this type of service be trusted if I subscribe? Iv always been told.."trust no one" But I have to trust my TIAA CREF and T. Rowe Price advisors for the time being I guess.