A little while ago I opened an account with E-trade, but I’ve been hearing a lot about their potential bankruptcy. As far as I can remember my money are going to be insured since I am only investing $2,450, but I am weary of a company that might start to perform poorly. Does anybody have anything to say about any company that has low fees on their IRAs? Is there any way for me to transfer roth ira to another online brokerage firm?…Thanks a lot!

With the way the economy currently is did you loose any money from your IRAs ? I’m wondering because I was going to start one, but I don’t want to lose any money!

Me and my wife have been making Roth IRAs contributions for a number of years. In December of last year my wife started to work again and we figured that her income this year will push our joint income above the $160K cutoff for a Roth contribution. Before I came to that conclusion, however, I made a $1000 contribution to my Roth IRA  – which I now think I am not eligible to make. My institution says that they cannot cancel the transaction to make it look like no contribution was made. What will be the consequences of this mistake and is there anything I can do to fix it?

I have Roth IRA CD’s at a bank earning an attractive 5 year rate with a one time no bank penalty withdrawal clause. I opened these accounts in ‘06 & ‘07 by transferring and rolling over Roth IRA accounts from other banks originally opened over 5 years.
My understanding is I will not have to pay tax on withdrawn Roth IRA gains provided the withdrawal is done 5 or more years after opening. My question is, if I withdraw now will my gains be taxable based on the date of the current Roth accounts or not based on the original date of the Roth accounts?

I am using the online form that asks if I made any IRA contributions.What are they talking about? Is it both traditional and ROTH IRAs. Do I need to fill out any other forms to prove that I already paid taxes on the money that got contributed to my ROTH? Thank you very much.

How do taxes work when Canadians who may have worked in the US withdraw money from their 401k or ROTH IRAs at retirement? Someone told me that a 401k can be withdrawn (and taxed in the US), but when the money is taken to Canada it will not be additionally taxed. However, the ROTH IRA would be taxed as new income in Canada. Is this true? If so, this defeats the whole purpose of the tax free growth provided by the ROTH IRA.

I am currently working in the US but am a Canadian Citizen and hence dont really know where i will be come retirement (40 years away) so I am not sure as to where I should invest. I am trying to collect details so I can make an informed decision.

Thanks
Mathew, I know how the taxes work if you remain in the US. I need to find how they work if you plan to take the money to Canada. Of course I dont know how things will work in 40 years, but how do they work now?

Say that I open up a Roth IRA with Fidelity in 2005 and fund it with the maximum for the year. Then I open up a new Roth IRA in 2006 with Ameriprise and fund that with the max for 2006. Can I combine the two accounts? Are there any penalties or disadvantages to doing this?

I know that starting next yr, it will be possible to roll those 401K accounts eligible for rollover into an IRA to be rolled directly into a Roth IRA. If 100K is rolled over from a 401K to a ROTH IRA in 2008, will all 100K be taxed in 2008.

I guess I am asking WHY that is the law. I’m assuming lawmakers didn’t blindly choose $5,000 as the cap….