Opened ROTH IRA for Mom
I sent in some paperwork two weeks ago to set up a ROTH IRA for my mom. They requested additional paperwork and I finally got everything in today and the account is set up now. My mom has no idea what is an IRA. I tried explaining it to her but she doesn't really get it. She's one of those really hard working immigrants that came to America for a better future for her kids. For decades she has just been working in low paying labor-intensive jobs and pushing her kids to do well in school and hope they'd end up with a better job than she has. Her jobs don't have 401k or pension (hint: Chinatown sweatshops). She's going to depend on her kids for income in the future. Her investment is her children. She expects to receive regular payments from her kids. I just took charge and decided to take care of her retirement funds. Since she has low income, I decided that ROTH IRA is the best choice for her. I'm going to get her to contribute regularly and I'll have to oversee all her investments. Initially, I'm going to make her take some risk. As time goes on, I'll start to diversify the investments for her. So as she approaches her retirement age, she'll have a more stable portfolio with bonds and fixed-income funds.
posted by Sean @ 4/06/2005 08:30:00 PM
2 Comments:
I love this post. My mom is the exact same way! US Tax laws and investing is so confusing already, with language barriers, it's very daunting to immigrants.
Anyway, it took me an hour to explain the benefits of investing her cash in a CD.
She still keeps all of her dough under the mattress though so I pretty much doubt I can get her to invest in an IRA account.
Haha.. I love the under the mattress stories.
I don't blame your or my mom.
Some college graduates don't even understand the ROTH IRA. People always say the ROTH IRA is a good investment and they talk like the ROTH gives returns. I always have to correct them. The ROTH IRA is an account where you can invest in different options. Within the ROTH IRA account, your investments can have gains or losses.
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