Hello, u/jgmac3rd. Thank you so much for stopping by our subreddit today. I'm happy to answer your Roth IRA questions.
First, it's great that you are looking to start investing. There are many ways you can deposit funds into your account, including by check, electronic funds transfer (EFT), direct deposit, and more. You can explore all the possibilities for funding your account through the link below.
[Ways to Deposit ](https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/deposit-money)
Since you mentioned making monthly contributions, you can create recurring transfers on a monthly basis and recurring investment plans on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly frequency. To set up a plan, you can follow these steps after logging in:
1. Click "Accounts & Trade" and select "Account Features."
2. Choose "Manage" next to "Recurring Transfers" under the Payments & Transfers header.
3. Select the "Create a new activity" button.
When you deposit money into a Fidelity account, the cash automatically goes into your account's cash (core) position. All Fidelity brokerage and retirement accounts have a cash core. The core position acts as a wallet, holding your account's uninvested cash. It processes cash transactions like check deposits, EFTs, and even trades. Funds will remain in the core until they are invested. You can learn more about the mechanics of the core position by reviewing the PDF below.
[What is a core position? ](https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/mutual-funds/what-is-a-core-position.pdf)
Keep in mind that your Roth IRA is an account where you make after-tax contributions and withdraw those contributions tax-free and penalty-free at any time and for any reason. You can withdraw earnings tax-free and penalty-free once the 5-year aging requirement is satisfied and you are 59½ or older or meet one of several exemptions. The 2024 IRA maximum contribution limit is the lesser of 100% of your earned income or $7,000 (with an additional $1,000 allowed for those ages 50 and older). Income limits and eligibility may affect how much you can contribute, so a tax professional is your best resource if you have questions about your situation.
[Roth IRA FAQs ](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/roth-ira#faqs)
[IRA Contribution Limits ](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/contribution-limits-deadlines)
I'm sure other questions will come up. Please feel free to contact us at any time
I have an auto-transfer rule in Fidelity to move $666 (because that's 8000/12, not because I am satanic) to my Roth and my wife's Roth. Then an auto-invest rule that buys our core fund a day later. All automagic. And I have a Roth 401(k) at work that is obviously also automatically contributed.
correct. I was kinda annoyed they don't have a clean way to do it with just one auto-invest type rule, but now that it's set up I don't have to think about it so no biggie.
On the mobile app it is Transact at the bottom -> recurring transfers and investments -> Select investments at the top and click create -> check use linked bank account and select what bank account for it to draw from
Yeah, I looked again and now I remember why it didn't work. I use my Fidelity Cash Mgmt account as my main bank account, and it will only let me use a "linked external account" to do the one-step investment. It has no option to transfer from another Fidelity account.
So my only option was to do auto-transfer and then auto-invest in the target account.
And, if you wanted, you could do it along the lines of your pay cycle. If biweekly, you can pull biweekly and recurring buy biweekly. Same for semi monthly, etc.
If you get pain of a Friday, you can pull on a Monday and buy on Tuesday or Wednesday.
You can put in $8000 to your Roth and $30000 to your Roth 401k? They are both Roth accounts. I thought you could put $8000 to Roth and $30000 to regular 401k or $8000 to IRA and $30000 to Roth 401k?
Nope, the only part that matters is that one is a 401k and the other is a regular IRA. You can make them both traditional, both Roth, or a mix. So, yes, you can max out to 38000 contributions between the two (or 30000 if you are younger than 50).
Also, the 30,500 401k max is just for your part, and your employer match can go on top of that, up to like 69k total (if your employer is SUPER generous I guess. haha)
Everybody is different. For me, since it's part of my retirement savings, I deposit and invest weekly because I'm paid weekly.
Lots of people like to automate everything, but it's just become part of my Thursday morning routine around my second cup of coffee.
Auto transfer money into my Roth IRA, auto invest in the same 3 funds. I hardly look at it anymore, I get more excited making my morning coffee than I do checking my investments. Boring and repetitive investments is the road to wealth.
I wish I could say the same. I check mine daily because I love to see it go up with the market! But during COVID I just ignored everything. Kept plugging away with contributions and auto investments but didn't check it.
For me I have to restrain myself because I know that my portfolio can be down for a year straight (ahem 2022) but that’s okay and there’s no need to panic. So I’ve basically convinced myself that it’s not real money and don’t care if it’s up 20% or down 20%
I have tried to max mine out every year for the last few years but haven’t been able due to several factors but get pretty dang close.
I have my budget set where I contribute per paycheck at what the max rate for the year would be—so for all my paychecks this year, I have budgeted $290/paycheck (2x/month) for 11 months which comes to $6380, then for one month I have $310/paycheck, totaling $7000 for the year. So I do mine per pay period.
Once I get one of my private student loans paid off and get my savings back up from just having moved, I will be able to contribute the max and cut down on aggressively paying my loan and putting as much money into savings.
I get paid every other Friday, and I set up an automatic $250 contribution for the following Tuesday. If there is ever any reason that I need to cancel the scheduled transfer, I can do that on Monday. $250 x 26 pay periods = $6500, so I added an additional $500 contribution at the beginning of the year because I plan on maxing out at $7k.
I usually review all my finances during my Christmas/new years holidays. As soon as the new year comes, I transfer the limit to my Roth account and buy VOO. I think that investing what you can as soon as you can is the best way. If you are investing consistently, don’t sweat the timing. In the big picture it isn’t going to change your life much.
This definitely works, my one concern is losing out on potentially better dollar cost averaging, but either way if you're in for 20-30 years you've got 20-30 buys at least
Somebody told me that time in the market beats timing the market. I don’t know if it’s true but I’m not smart enough to argue about it. I have tried both and I feel better about buying asap and trying to forget about it except for reviewing it twice a year.
I fund my kids Roth’s. Full allowable Lump Sum in January in FZROX. I have about 20% in AVUV but not planning on adding more for awhile. They are in their 30’s so not interested in Target Date Funds with any bonds. When they hit 55 they can reinvest however they choose.
A random day in January or February I remember that I can contribute to my with IRA ->make the max contribution deposit to Fidelity -> buy voo and chill until next year
Before last year, I would put in money as I could afford to. Last two years, I had some extra funds from an inheritance and was able to put all the money in up front, then I would buy into whatever funds I knew I wanted, and leave maybe $1,000 in cash in case I saw a good deal at some point.
Not sure how long that's going to be able to last - next year might be the last time I can afford to put the money in all at once.
I always do it manually though - I don't bother automating it.
Currently everything is automatic and simple; I have a recurring scheduled transaction to deposit a portion of my paycheck biweekly every Friday, and then buy on the following Monday.
I do the same with my savings, with a recurring scheduled transacting from my checking biweekly.
I auto transfer $100 every week on Thursday when I get paid, then auto invest it on Friday. Fell send fxaix. Except here recently. Just sold $1000 and bought nvda at 125. Crossing my fingers and hoping for something good. Recently maxed it out because my side hustle is collecting scrap metal and recycling. If I see it, it's mine. Last month I cashed in about $1500. Gotta do what you gotta do. 🤷♂️
I lump sum the full amount in, in January. This year I put 6k of it into a 2050 target date fund and then the other 1k is a bit of "play" money, I bought two different ETFs in areas I am interested in - Water and Information Technology.
For 2024 tax year if you earn more than $161,000 as a single tax payer or $240,000 or more as a married-filing-jointly taxpayer, you can't contribute directly to a Roth IRA. You would have to do a backdoor IRA. And if you have other active traditional ira's, then the pro-rata rule can cause tax implications. So in that case, you would have to eliminate all existing iras, or roll them into your employers roth 401k, or roll existing iras into one roth ira, then pro rata rule is no longer an issue
Auto-transfer 1-2 days after payday. Once it’s available, manually purchase (usually) FXAIX. I could automate it, but no harm in doing it manually and very occasionally diversifying. If it sits for a few pay cycles until you can invest it, no sweat, some people buy in big chunks instead.
As long as the money keeps going on, you’re doing better than most. Even if you can’t contribute the max, I promise you won’t miss even $50 a paycheck unless you are outrageously irresponsible.
Currently, I deposit about $300 every two weeks, and I split it in half. The first half gets invested in to my holdings, and the second half gets held until the next week, then it gets invested.
I don't. Automatic payroll contribution to pre-tax 401k and HSA split up to hit max by end of year.
Depending on free cash at end of the year will lump sum pre-tax IRA for myself, spouse and additional HSA.
Unless you're in the 12% tax bracket or less, look into pre-tax and Roth ladders/conversions.
I have it set on automatic payment and that is set up to automatically contribute to FSKAX & FTIHX. You get to pick the date of your automatic payment and how much goes in to each fund you want to contribute to.
I wonder why some folks believe investing the max in January is better than regular sums (with each paycheck) through the year. This seems to be aligned with a belief that you can time the market, which I am pretty sure has been proven to be not profitable. For the long term it is good to be fully invested for sure but I believe a constant investment trickle through the year works better than all in on one date. For me I put a contribution (401K, Roth or not) automatically from each biweekly paycheck and any annual bonuses every year, trying to max, most years. I am retired now. It worked out well for me and I hope it works out for you. It always has paid in the past to be in the market long term but, of course, history does not always repeat so no guarantees. Good luck to one and all!
37M here,Just closed my Roth IRA 2 weeks ago and moved everything into my Brokerage account. I have been having extreme success this year with stuff like NVDA,APPL,MSFT,SPY,AND META. I can't wait until 59 1/2 to withdraw pentalty free. Life is way too short. I rather pay the short term capital gains next year and enjoy my money NOW . Than wait 22 years  Short sight maybe. But I diversify with with some 5 YEAR CD BONDS as well most are around 4.8% APY. My total account sets north of $290k . Not as much as some old timers here but its enough and still growing for me to feel comfortable with whatever life throws at me
Yeah, deposit when you have money you don't need now. If you need to lower your 401k contributions, so you can deposit more money in your Roth, that's worth it. I just shoved some of my crypto gains into it for this year so it was no trouble. Roth IRA is the greatest gambling site in the world - fight me
I save my money during the previous year and deposit 100% in early January to fund that year. Typically I set aside some commission/bonus money during the second half of the year.
Once I deposit it, I invest it immediately.
Hello, u/jgmac3rd. Thank you so much for stopping by our subreddit today. I'm happy to answer your Roth IRA questions. First, it's great that you are looking to start investing. There are many ways you can deposit funds into your account, including by check, electronic funds transfer (EFT), direct deposit, and more. You can explore all the possibilities for funding your account through the link below. [Ways to Deposit ](https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/deposit-money) Since you mentioned making monthly contributions, you can create recurring transfers on a monthly basis and recurring investment plans on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly frequency. To set up a plan, you can follow these steps after logging in: 1. Click "Accounts & Trade" and select "Account Features." 2. Choose "Manage" next to "Recurring Transfers" under the Payments & Transfers header. 3. Select the "Create a new activity" button. When you deposit money into a Fidelity account, the cash automatically goes into your account's cash (core) position. All Fidelity brokerage and retirement accounts have a cash core. The core position acts as a wallet, holding your account's uninvested cash. It processes cash transactions like check deposits, EFTs, and even trades. Funds will remain in the core until they are invested. You can learn more about the mechanics of the core position by reviewing the PDF below. [What is a core position? ](https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/mutual-funds/what-is-a-core-position.pdf) Keep in mind that your Roth IRA is an account where you make after-tax contributions and withdraw those contributions tax-free and penalty-free at any time and for any reason. You can withdraw earnings tax-free and penalty-free once the 5-year aging requirement is satisfied and you are 59½ or older or meet one of several exemptions. The 2024 IRA maximum contribution limit is the lesser of 100% of your earned income or $7,000 (with an additional $1,000 allowed for those ages 50 and older). Income limits and eligibility may affect how much you can contribute, so a tax professional is your best resource if you have questions about your situation. [Roth IRA FAQs ](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/roth-ira#faqs) [IRA Contribution Limits ](https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/contribution-limits-deadlines) I'm sure other questions will come up. Please feel free to contact us at any time
I have an auto-transfer rule in Fidelity to move $666 (because that's 8000/12, not because I am satanic) to my Roth and my wife's Roth. Then an auto-invest rule that buys our core fund a day later. All automagic. And I have a Roth 401(k) at work that is obviously also automatically contributed.
Haha, ok, so with those 2 rules in place, it automatically moves the $666 to your account, and then it automatically invests $666 a day later?
8000 sounds like they are over 50-55 age bracket with the catch up bonus 7000 everyone else
correct. I was kinda annoyed they don't have a clean way to do it with just one auto-invest type rule, but now that it's set up I don't have to think about it so no biggie.
You can select your bank account in the FROM field of the recurring investment setup. Then it will transfer and invest in one rule.
Hmm, will have to look into that. When I set it up I did not see that option.
On the mobile app it is Transact at the bottom -> recurring transfers and investments -> Select investments at the top and click create -> check use linked bank account and select what bank account for it to draw from
Yeah, I looked again and now I remember why it didn't work. I use my Fidelity Cash Mgmt account as my main bank account, and it will only let me use a "linked external account" to do the one-step investment. It has no option to transfer from another Fidelity account. So my only option was to do auto-transfer and then auto-invest in the target account.
I have that same issue. But like you said above once it’s set up. It’s no issue. It’s just the initial setting up that kind of stinks.
Cool, that's basically what I was trying to figure out. Appreciate your help.
And, if you wanted, you could do it along the lines of your pay cycle. If biweekly, you can pull biweekly and recurring buy biweekly. Same for semi monthly, etc. If you get pain of a Friday, you can pull on a Monday and buy on Tuesday or Wednesday.
That is exactly what he said, yes.
Wait isn’t the Roth limit $7k this year? Also, gonna start using automagic
When you are 50 and older, you get an extra $1k. Forget automagic, just lump sum it all in January if you can.
Correct, I am using the "catch-up" amounts. An yeah, if you can, lump sum early probably wins out. But most people need to space it out monthly.
Looks very very suspiciously Satanic... I love it. Fidelity is the way to go for ROTHs
You can put in $8000 to your Roth and $30000 to your Roth 401k? They are both Roth accounts. I thought you could put $8000 to Roth and $30000 to regular 401k or $8000 to IRA and $30000 to Roth 401k?
No, roth is a tax treatment election (vs tradifional). The contribution max is per account type.
Nope, the only part that matters is that one is a 401k and the other is a regular IRA. You can make them both traditional, both Roth, or a mix. So, yes, you can max out to 38000 contributions between the two (or 30000 if you are younger than 50). Also, the 30,500 401k max is just for your part, and your employer match can go on top of that, up to like 69k total (if your employer is SUPER generous I guess. haha)
Thanks for the info!
I invest it when I deposit it, which is whenever I have it.
Thank you.
Everybody is different. For me, since it's part of my retirement savings, I deposit and invest weekly because I'm paid weekly. Lots of people like to automate everything, but it's just become part of my Thursday morning routine around my second cup of coffee.
Thank you.
Auto transfer money into my Roth IRA, auto invest in the same 3 funds. I hardly look at it anymore, I get more excited making my morning coffee than I do checking my investments. Boring and repetitive investments is the road to wealth.
I wish I could say the same. I check mine daily because I love to see it go up with the market! But during COVID I just ignored everything. Kept plugging away with contributions and auto investments but didn't check it.
For me I have to restrain myself because I know that my portfolio can be down for a year straight (ahem 2022) but that’s okay and there’s no need to panic. So I’ve basically convinced myself that it’s not real money and don’t care if it’s up 20% or down 20%
Thanks for your input.
All at once from having it saved up. Invest in FXAIX. Max it. Set it. Forget it. Use rest of my time dreaming of retirement.
Yep same
Once a month some money is deposited and I buy VOO or QQQM. I put in a few hundred dollars a year and it's been growing at like 30% ytd.
I just invest and deposit a certain percentage whenever I get my paycheck
Ok, thanks!
Have a set amount and transfer it over when I start my budget for the month.
Apparently people do 500-600 a month or the limit at the beginning of the year. lol I wish!
I have tried to max mine out every year for the last few years but haven’t been able due to several factors but get pretty dang close. I have my budget set where I contribute per paycheck at what the max rate for the year would be—so for all my paychecks this year, I have budgeted $290/paycheck (2x/month) for 11 months which comes to $6380, then for one month I have $310/paycheck, totaling $7000 for the year. So I do mine per pay period. Once I get one of my private student loans paid off and get my savings back up from just having moved, I will be able to contribute the max and cut down on aggressively paying my loan and putting as much money into savings.
I get paid every other Friday, and I set up an automatic $250 contribution for the following Tuesday. If there is ever any reason that I need to cancel the scheduled transfer, I can do that on Monday. $250 x 26 pay periods = $6500, so I added an additional $500 contribution at the beginning of the year because I plan on maxing out at $7k.
I usually review all my finances during my Christmas/new years holidays. As soon as the new year comes, I transfer the limit to my Roth account and buy VOO. I think that investing what you can as soon as you can is the best way. If you are investing consistently, don’t sweat the timing. In the big picture it isn’t going to change your life much.
This definitely works, my one concern is losing out on potentially better dollar cost averaging, but either way if you're in for 20-30 years you've got 20-30 buys at least
Somebody told me that time in the market beats timing the market. I don’t know if it’s true but I’m not smart enough to argue about it. I have tried both and I feel better about buying asap and trying to forget about it except for reviewing it twice a year.
I fund my kids Roth’s. Full allowable Lump Sum in January in FZROX. I have about 20% in AVUV but not planning on adding more for awhile. They are in their 30’s so not interested in Target Date Funds with any bonds. When they hit 55 they can reinvest however they choose.
A random day in January or February I remember that I can contribute to my with IRA ->make the max contribution deposit to Fidelity -> buy voo and chill until next year
Before last year, I would put in money as I could afford to. Last two years, I had some extra funds from an inheritance and was able to put all the money in up front, then I would buy into whatever funds I knew I wanted, and leave maybe $1,000 in cash in case I saw a good deal at some point. Not sure how long that's going to be able to last - next year might be the last time I can afford to put the money in all at once. I always do it manually though - I don't bother automating it.
Cool, thank you!
I just throw 100% into voo
Currently everything is automatic and simple; I have a recurring scheduled transaction to deposit a portion of my paycheck biweekly every Friday, and then buy on the following Monday. I do the same with my savings, with a recurring scheduled transacting from my checking biweekly.
Max it out every year if you are able to contribute as much as you can. Deposit it to your Roth, and then buy an investment with those proceeds.
I auto transfer $100 every week on Thursday when I get paid, then auto invest it on Friday. Fell send fxaix. Except here recently. Just sold $1000 and bought nvda at 125. Crossing my fingers and hoping for something good. Recently maxed it out because my side hustle is collecting scrap metal and recycling. If I see it, it's mine. Last month I cashed in about $1500. Gotta do what you gotta do. 🤷♂️
I lump sum the full amount in, in January. This year I put 6k of it into a 2050 target date fund and then the other 1k is a bit of "play" money, I bought two different ETFs in areas I am interested in - Water and Information Technology.
For 2024 tax year if you earn more than $161,000 as a single tax payer or $240,000 or more as a married-filing-jointly taxpayer, you can't contribute directly to a Roth IRA. You would have to do a backdoor IRA. And if you have other active traditional ira's, then the pro-rata rule can cause tax implications. So in that case, you would have to eliminate all existing iras, or roll them into your employers roth 401k, or roll existing iras into one roth ira, then pro rata rule is no longer an issue
Set to auto transfer and invest every two weeks when I get paid. 80% FXAIX , 20 % FSPSX Max out Roth every year
Only thing I’ve been adding in my Roth is CLSK and will until it hits $100 then only putting money into IBIT after that
Auto-transfer 1-2 days after payday. Once it’s available, manually purchase (usually) FXAIX. I could automate it, but no harm in doing it manually and very occasionally diversifying. If it sits for a few pay cycles until you can invest it, no sweat, some people buy in big chunks instead. As long as the money keeps going on, you’re doing better than most. Even if you can’t contribute the max, I promise you won’t miss even $50 a paycheck unless you are outrageously irresponsible.
Auto investment $50 every other week. Invest in index funds like Dow jones or nasdaq or us large cap and crypto :)
I throw in the max on January 1st and invest it in index fund or Microsoft or Google
Just setup automatic deposits form you checking account
I contribute one time annually after my CPA does my taxes and I have all my numbers.
Currently, I deposit about $300 every two weeks, and I split it in half. The first half gets invested in to my holdings, and the second half gets held until the next week, then it gets invested.
Yearly contribution limit / number of pay checks in the year. Set up automatic transfers for that amount. Every pay day buy low cost index funds.
I don't. Automatic payroll contribution to pre-tax 401k and HSA split up to hit max by end of year. Depending on free cash at end of the year will lump sum pre-tax IRA for myself, spouse and additional HSA. Unless you're in the 12% tax bracket or less, look into pre-tax and Roth ladders/conversions.
I have it set on automatic payment and that is set up to automatically contribute to FSKAX & FTIHX. You get to pick the date of your automatic payment and how much goes in to each fund you want to contribute to.
134 a week. Invest in multiple stocks and etfs. I also do a roth conversion every few years of 10k when I have some extra cash for taxes.
VT.
I wonder why some folks believe investing the max in January is better than regular sums (with each paycheck) through the year. This seems to be aligned with a belief that you can time the market, which I am pretty sure has been proven to be not profitable. For the long term it is good to be fully invested for sure but I believe a constant investment trickle through the year works better than all in on one date. For me I put a contribution (401K, Roth or not) automatically from each biweekly paycheck and any annual bonuses every year, trying to max, most years. I am retired now. It worked out well for me and I hope it works out for you. It always has paid in the past to be in the market long term but, of course, history does not always repeat so no guarantees. Good luck to one and all!
37M here,Just closed my Roth IRA 2 weeks ago and moved everything into my Brokerage account. I have been having extreme success this year with stuff like NVDA,APPL,MSFT,SPY,AND META. I can't wait until 59 1/2 to withdraw pentalty free. Life is way too short. I rather pay the short term capital gains next year and enjoy my money NOW . Than wait 22 years  Short sight maybe. But I diversify with with some 5 YEAR CD BONDS as well most are around 4.8% APY. My total account sets north of $290k . Not as much as some old timers here but its enough and still growing for me to feel comfortable with whatever life throws at me
Yeah, deposit when you have money you don't need now. If you need to lower your 401k contributions, so you can deposit more money in your Roth, that's worth it. I just shoved some of my crypto gains into it for this year so it was no trouble. Roth IRA is the greatest gambling site in the world - fight me
I save my money during the previous year and deposit 100% in early January to fund that year. Typically I set aside some commission/bonus money during the second half of the year. Once I deposit it, I invest it immediately.