Hi Jeremy and Community,
right now, my budget allows me to invest a total of $500 a month. this is being spread across 3 retirement accounts - Roth 401k, roth 457, and an index fund.
would it be longitudinally more beneficial to invest the total allocation into one retirement account or keep it the same and slowly increase the amounts across the 3 accounts as my finances permit?
Hi Wayne!
First of all an index fund is not a retirement account - index funds are what you buy inside of a retirement account. So maybe it is another type of account?
In terms of compounding, your money will grow at the same whether it’s in one account or 3 - so that part doesn’t matter.
If you get a match in each account I would definitely at least take advantage of all of those.
Other than that, I’m not too knowledgeable about 457 accounts but I would prioritize the account that is most beneficial to you 
@vivitron is right on all of the above! There’s no mathematical benefit to combining accounts into one. So fill them up in priority order of match and tax benefit like this: