If I have $175 a week to invest (I’m 50 and husband is 53), should I do his IRA and then his Roth? Or his IRA and then my IRA? (I don’t have a Roth).
I started contributing to my IRA back when I was in my 20’s. But my husband never did. I started his after we were married.
Any particular reason for us to contribute to our retirement accounts in a certain order?
Hi Shaystr,
I am personally doing My Roth first. The IRA is pre-tax and the Roth is post-tax. It depends on your situation, taxes, and your specific budget. IRA is tax deductible but with a ROTH you pay your taxes up front.
Here is a blog post by Jeremy and what I go by:
Nirav
Hey Shay!
I’d add that it sounds like you’re confusing the words IRA and Roth. An IRA is a retirement account that can come in two different flavors: Roth IRA and Traditional IRA. It doesn’t really make sense to contribute to both in one year, so likely both you and your husband would be contributing to each of your Roth IRAs. You said you have an IRA but don’t have a “Roth”? Does that mean you have a Traditional IRA, but not a Roth IRA? You could always open a Roth IRA, but continuing to contribute to your Traditional IRA is fine, assuming you qualify for the tax break.
The post @Nirav shared is indeed the order I would suggest filling up those accounts. Regarding whether the new money goes into his or yours, mathematically it doesn’t matter. The total won’t grow faster or slower if you put money into the bigger one or smaller one. So I kinda think that’s more of a marriage question than a finance question how you want to prioritize those contributions 