How Much Do You Budget For Entertainment?

[kork13]

Yes - We looked into it yesterday and my credit union offers an IRA that I can open for $1. I have to fill out some paperwork and either fax it or mail it in but it looks like that will be where we get started! They'll also automatically draft a set amount (up to me) from my BofA account. I'll be working on getting that paperwork done before the end of the week.

Perfect. Start small and increase as your circumstances allow, but getting in the habit of saving regularly month after month will make a world of difference 10 or 20 years from now. Just be sure to check on whatever accounts the CU offers to make sure you won't be paying any ridiculous fees.

That's fine to start small with.... But please, please, please, don't just let inertia take over & leave an IRA sitting idle with a CU. They're likely going to want to put it into a savings account, CD, or possibly some higher-cost (1-2% expense ratio) mutual funds. As soon as you have enough to move the IRA to a proper investment firm ($1k-$3k+), which has a large variety of good quality investments...do it.

Also, be sure to set it up as a Roth IRA. You're young, and don't earn a huge income, so a Roth IRA will almost certainly be more advantageous for you.

[Like2Plan]

Yes - We looked into it yesterday and my credit union offers an IRA that I can open for $1. I have to fill out some paperwork and either fax it or mail it in but it looks like that will be where we get started! They'll also automatically draft a set amount (up to me) from my BofA account. I'll be working on getting that paperwork done before the end of the week.

I'm going to suggest you invest your Roth in Fidelity. They have no minimum. They have zero expense ratio index funds. You can link your account up to your BoA account. You can literally get into the equity market with one dollar. And, do it today--make it a 2019 contribution. Why? It dates the 5 year qualification period back to 2019. Now, it will probably never come up--you are saving for retirement and retirement is a long way off. But, it is something you have in your back pocket. If nothing else, you have 1 more dollar you can contribute to 2020.
Fidelity^® ZERO Large Cap Index Fund (FNILX)
Fidelity^® ZERO Total Market Index Fund (FZROX)
Fidelity^® ZERO Extended Market Index Fund (FZIPX)
Fidelity^® ZERO International Index Fund (FZILX)

https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/investing-ideas/index-funds?&imm_pid=700000001009773&immid=100611&imm_eid=ep35415530180&imm_pid=700000001009773&immid=100820&imm_eid=ep35415530180&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlduDgc6G5wIVi4rICh0u1AU6EAAYASABEgIamvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Jluke]

No sense opening with your credit union. You will probably only have the option of CDs.

fidelity as mentioned above or Schwab or Vanguard or....

[disneysteve]

I'm going to suggest you invest your Roth in Fidelity. They have no minimum.

Absolutely!!!! If you can go with Fidelity with no minimum, do that, not the CU. The CU has nothing to compete with Fidelity.

[Like2Plan]

I think Fidelity must have motto--no money is too much trouble for us to sweep up into one of our accounts. They have taken away a good many obstacles to starting an account. Their online interface is easy to navigate and you can do it from home without filling out tons of pesky paper forms. There are no minimums. No fees. And they have the zero expense ratio funds.
The zero funds were introduced in Aug 2018. There was quite a bit of skepticism about them, so folks have been monitoring them. Here is a link to a recent discussion on bogleheads comparing the performance of FZROX to some other similar funds: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/vie...0&t=295930

Fidelity also offers FSKAX (total market) which has an expense ratio of .015% (which is pretty close to zero) and no minimums.

[amastewa93]

Thank you for the information about Fidelity! We will look into that before making a decision.

[amastewa93]

Small update: we both hustled hard in January. We paid off around $1,700 in debt this month and got $1K in our EF. Looking forward to knocking out even more debt in the months to come!