I have no idea what I am doing. I opened a Roth IRA as I do not have any retirement at this point. I am 42 and I am putting in $100 per paycheck. What is a good index? Do I put it all into that index? Will someone from Chatles Schwab help me? Help!
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Hey Josef!
Opening a Roth IRA with Schwab is a great start! And yes, you could certainly call them and they may be able to help, although I can’t promise they won’t push you toward higher fee funds.
My advice would be to dump 100% of your investments into a 2045 “target date index fund”. That year is (about) the year when you’ll be 65. And the target date index fund has a really well diversified mix of US and international stocks and bonds. Schwab has some great ones. Here’s an article on why I love target date index funds and it even has ticker symbols at the bottom:
One word of caution is that when you contribute money to a Roth IRA it just sits there. So investing is a two step process. First, contribute the money then second invest it (by buying the target date index fund). Schwab’s interface can be a little confusing as I think you have to set those up separately to automate them. Have an automated transfer, then separately set up an automated purchase once the cash is there.
I’d recommend setting up those automated transfers and purchases then checking back in a few pay checks to make sure all the money is invested in the TDIF and not sitting there in cash 
And yeah, call Schwab and make them help!
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