{"id":7446,"date":"2014-02-19T10:50:39","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T18:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/?p=7446"},"modified":"2016-12-21T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T15:28:10","slug":"retirement-set-forget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/retirement-set-forget\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement: How to ‘Set It And Forget It’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The polls are clear and dismaying. Just 13% of Americans are “very confident” in their\u00a0retirement\u00a0planning, while 38% are “somewhat confident,” the\u00a0Employee Benefit Research Institute<\/a>\u00a0found in a 2013 poll.<\/p>\n

That means nearly half of us (49%) are somewhere on the other side of that line. Shockingly, nearly a third of Americans (28%) are “not at all confident” in their\u00a0retirement\u00a0plan. That’s a record high for the 23 years of EBRI polling.<\/p>\n

The nervousness of Americans regarding\u00a0retirement\u00a0has unleashed a flood of government proposals. One is a new type of IRA, called the “myRA,” which offers automatic pay deduction features, has no fees and invests solely in U.S. bonds. It’s meant to be a starter account for the half of Americans who cannot access a 401(k).<\/p>\n

\"retirement\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Several states are getting in on the act, proposing a variety of ways to help uncovered workers. The idea is to create privately run\u00a0retirement\u00a0plans through nonprofits, employer associations and other groups, who then would become\u00a0fiduciaries<\/a>, that is, they look out for savers in the plans.<\/p>\n

While these simplified, low-risk savings plans are welcome, any person earning a wage already can open a Roth IRA and buy a commission-free total bond ETF with an extremely low management fee.<\/p>\n

The future income from such an investment would be tax-free and, while\u00a0an all-bond portfolio is not the best advice<\/a>, it would approximate the myRA approach without the government having to lift a finger.<\/p>\n

The problem is, you have to actually take steps: The person has to open a Roth account somewhere, have the discipline to set aside a portion of each paycheck and then remember to fund the IRA by their tax deadline. Clearly, that’s beyond at least 49% of us.<\/p>\n

Roll your own retirement plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you’re in this situation, you could wait for the government to step in and create a product. Or, you could get a jump-start today. It would take about a week to get everything off the ground.<\/p>\n

Once you build your own\u00a0retirement\u00a0plan, however, the actual work of managing falls to a couple of days a year.<\/p>\n

Here are the steps:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0Go online and select an investment service. Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard and TD Ameritrade are just four of the largest. Most require a minimum to start an account, which varies from zero to $1,000 or more. The money resides in a “sweep” account at the brokerage, a basic cash account.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong>\u00a0Open an individual\u00a0retirement\u00a0account (IRA) for every wage earner in your family. Consider opening\u00a0both traditional and Roth accounts<\/a>. One gives you a tax break now. The other gives you a tax break later.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong>\u00a0Get the account number of the sweep account and ask your employer to automatically fund it through your payroll department, taking a fixed amount from each paycheck. If they cannot, set up an automatic deduction at your bank for the day your paycheck clears.<\/p>\n

Then forget it, until tax time. Your preparer can advise you on which IRA to fund to receive the maximum benefit. If you are unsure of how to invest, a\u00a0well-designed portfolio is easy to create and track online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The polls are clear and dismaying. Just 13% of Americans are “very confident” in their\u00a0retirement\u00a0planning, while 38% are “somewhat confident,” the\u00a0Employee Benefit Research Institute\u00a0found in a 2013 poll. That means … Read more →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[62,42,43,37],"yoast_head":"\nRetirement: How to 'Set It And Forget It' | MarketRiders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can build your own retirement plan, the actual work of which falls to a couple of days a year. 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