From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!dsd!atd!avsdS:nelson
Newsgroups: net.invest
Title: Money funds, IRAs
Article-I.D.: avsdS.310
Posted: Tue Jan 25 09:17:21 1983
Received: Fri Jan 28 03:46:26 1983

I am suprised at the ignorance of most people regarding IRAs.
Anyone stashing money in an IRA ought to have enough to at least open
a money market account (not neccessarily the bank type); if you don't
have $2000 to throw away until you're 55, you should be saving for
more immediate needs. Given that you do want to open an IRA, why not open
it with a stock broker? Some (Schwab, for instance) only require $2000
to open a money market account, and that money can be switched daily to
other investments - stocks, bonds, even futures. The only difference
between this and a normal account with them is in the eyes of Uncle Sam -
Schwab does not care, other than that you sign a paper saying that this
is an IRA account.

Why give your money to a credit union that pays lousy interest and does
not give you the flexibility of those other investments? Why give your
money to a bank that may charge you a maintenance fee for this account?
I should point out however that bank money market funds are paying
10.5% now, while my Schwab account is paying 8.2% (and has in the past
been one of the highest of MM funds). Nevertheless, this discrepancy
may moderate in time.

Almost anything you want can be part of your IRA (as far as I know).
If you really do want an IRA, why not have fun with it? After all, we're
all young on this net - it doesn't make sense to be too cautious.
(Actually it doesn't make much sense to me to open an IRA until you've
made all the other major investments you want - house, obligitory Silicon
Valley engineers sports car).

		Glenn Nelson, Ampex, CA