Thanks meldy! I do have many places. I had this guy who has been working with my dear friend, who lost her husband very suddenly last year, helping me. I've been to the SSI retirement symposium so that I could hear what I might need to tell mom who is just about to retire (age 70 next year), and what I might start doing to position myself. I saw him in action there; he was giving the right advice. "Don't take Medicare until as late as possible", if nothing else, but there was more, and he was right on. I've been teaching my son that too, showing him how compound interest was the most important part, so much so, that he could invest X, by age X, and if it averaged X, then he'd have millions by the time he retired (way earlier than 65), even if he quit at a certain point... that he wanted to start now and doesn't plan to quit investing in it. He started his retirement nest egg at age 8 (three years ago), and will put it into his first CD by the mid-year next year ($1,000 minimum), which is pretty good because he started out with getting only $15 a month for everything he does, and although it's up to $45, that's all he ever get. Anything else, he'll have to work a job (to pay for a car, gas, insurance, designer clothes, etc.). He's never taken anything out of the retirement fund because he has another savings that he takes from when he wants the "big" things and already has spending money set aside. I think he'll do it. As long as some wretch doesn't get her hands on it later on. It has been fast because we knew how to pare down, set aside exactly what was needed for the bare bills, save as much as possible, and some small amount is now being added as investment. Some time next year, they'll get switched. The bigger savings will be all investment fund with a bit going into CDs. And I'll go back to my own personal having-fun-with-the-stock-market investing. I can make big bucks with that, even when the market is down. And God is good. That too. Moreso, because of that. :)

Be aware you will probably pay a fee for closing out the IRA and moving it. Standard stuff, just so you know. Banks tends to charge higher management fees than a good discount brokerage, and offer a generally poorer choice of funds to pick from. If you are scared of the market and want to keep the money in CDs, check out the bank they are currently held at as to how their rates compare against the competition. The website http://cdrates.bankaholic.com/ shows you rates and can sort by term, but they do not verify the financial health of the bank. Do some homework here and pick a bank thatÂs safe even if not the highest fractional return. A lot of banks are in trouble but the FDIC doesnÂt publish that list so it can be hard to find out if a bank is real danger of being taken over. If you don't know how to move an IRA I would certainly not classify you as someone who should be investing in individual stocks! Mutual funds (stocks aka equities) and short-term bond funds would be a better investment. To move an account, open an account at any brokerage or financial institution  theyÂll usually let you do it on-line  first. See my caveats below about proper titling. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Once the account is active (entered into the system), the brokerage/FI will contact your motherÂs bank and get the funds transferred over. You do not and should not ever have to Âtouch the funds. Schwab ranks high for customer service and widest variety of available funds. Vanguard is discount but you can only invest in Vanguard funds - they have some very good ones but also some real dogs with similar names so it can be tricky. There's an analyst who posts on-line and he specializes in Vanguard funds only, with interesting analyses of why one fund is a good investment but another similar Vanguard might not be. This is fascinating reading but more than you probably want to do. Similar to Vanguard but with several funds ranked highly by Money magazine for overall return in their recent survey is T. Rowe Price. You might want to check the Money magazine website to read the full results of the survey article. Fidelity is the biggest pension funds broker/manager but I donÂt consider them the best from a funds standpoint. Caveats: The 2 critical things about Inherited IRAs are titling and distributions. You can have IRS difficulties if either of these is messed up. Wherever you move your IRA to, stay on top of these issues, because the IRS considers it your responsibility, no one else's. Titling an Inherited IRA: NEVER combine an Inherited IRA with your personal IRA funds. The title of the account should be: "Inherited IRA deceasedname fbo yourname". So if I inherit an IRA from my mother, it is titled "Inherited IRA Susan B. Anthony fbo JKom51". FBO means 'for benefit of' and it is acceptable to use the acronym. - Distributions must continue if your mother was taking them, but they are calculated on your life expectancy.

USAA has a good rep so I don't think it should be a problem for you to leave it there for a while. SmartMoney's website I believe is free for access, but I could be wrong - I'm a WSJournal subscriber and the two are owned by the same company so there's a lot of cross-links on the websites. It isn't easy finding an good independent fiduciary advisor, but for people who need help developing a comprehensive financial plan (which is not the same as earning a high ROI on investments), I think it's essential. Most middle-class folks would find it helpful to talk to a neutral third party who can ask the hard questions and analyze your total financial picture. One thing for everyone to be aware of is that when I refer to financial planning, this is not only a legal term, it actually refers to creating a 'road map' that takes you from your current financial situation to achieving your short, medium, and long-term goals. It is aiming for a moving target, so any life-changing events - life, death, marriage, divorce, change of job - means some fine-tuning may be needed to your plan. To produce a good plan requires time spent in not only gathering all your financial info and analyzing it, but defining your goals. Some will be achievable and some will not be. Only you can define and prioritize them, and a good advisor will help if needed. You can get a financial plan, separate from investing advice, from any certified fiduciary advisor. Cheaper ones are computer 'plug in the numbers' produced, so always make sure you understand the base assumptions, and have multiple scenarios run to be sure you're covered for any contingencies/emergencies you haven't foreseen. Establish the total cost of meeting, gathering info, analyzing, and producing the plan(s) up front before signing anything. It takes time to do a financial plan, and anyone promising you it will be easy and fast isn't going to do a comprehensive job. It's an advantage for the fiduciary to be an insurance agent OR to be very familiar with insurance analysis, because many people could use advice on how to use different types of insurance to mitigate risk in various areas of their life. At a minimum you should contact at least three fiduciary advisors, obtain references, and investigate them thoroughly, before working with one. Even if all you need is a financial plan, do the research, but confine the requested references to clients who received a financial plan at least three years ago and are willing to discuss its usefulness. It is not uncommon for people to pay for a financial plan and then follow the suggested actions on their own; e.g., do their own investing, etc., without engaging the advisor to handle their portfolio. OTOH, a financial plan that goes unimplemented is just a useless piece of paper. We used to have to gently 'nag' our clients that they still hadn't completed certain checklist items on their plan, so it depends on how good you are at doing tasks that many people put off....until it's too late.

As U.S. homeowners can deduct mortgage interest, if your mortgage interest is 6% and you're in 33% marginal (i.e. top, for you) tax bracket, 33% of that 6% is 2%, leaving you with a net cost of mortgage of 4%. In Canada we can't deduct mortgage interest - but when we sell owner-occupied home, capital gain is free of tax. If you own a bond (taxable-interest type) paying 5% and you're in 20% tax bracket, your after-tax rate of return is 20% less than your apparent earnings, or 4% - outside of tax-deferred IRA. The costs of owning a home are larger than was originally suggested: there's higher insurance rates (if you're in an apt. you insure only your furnishings), costs of a new roof on occasion, repairing cracked basement wall, replacement of furnace, etc. Many financial advisors in Canada say that every worker should own our tax-deferred retirement plan - but some of us are less than enthusiastic about them, for reasons that relate to lower tax rates on certain types of return on non-retirement-related investments, both in terms of current income and on cashing of assets later. Some homeowners seem to forget that, were their money not invested in a home, it could be earning (whatever) rate of return invested elsewhere. Out of which they would need to deduct their costs of rental. Plus (expected) increased value of their home on sale after a number of years. Many clergy in our country used to live in church-owned homes and some felt that such homes did not relate well to familes with 4 kids and empty-nesters, plus they said that they wanted to profit from the increased value of homes, over a number of years ... so they wanted to own their own homes (and the church pays tax-free rental allowance). I said that they'd profit a lot lower than they figured ... for clergy move fairly often, and each move would usually require sale of their current home ... with the real estate people pocketing a substantial portion of the increased value of the home since the last move. If I'm a renter and get transferred ... or downsized, with no current local job prospects, requiring a move to secure satisfactory employment, if I rent an apt., all I need do is hire a moving truck. Not so if I own a home. There are many nuances that relate to the wisdom of buying a home or renting, or paying down a mortgage rather than ivesting for retirement, one of them being having enough asset on hand that one can survive fo half a year or so with no paycheque, if required. I don't always have it, but I have a line of credit at the bank, unused at the moment, that costs me nothing to maintain,which I can draw on as I choose. Some years ago when I asked a local bank whether I could make a loan, using strong assets as collateral, they said that would be O.K. - so I moved about 2,500 miles to take a commission sales position. When I went to that bank for a loan and they wanted to know what rate of income I'd have ... they turned me down for the loan! So ... I had to withdraw some of my tax-deferred retirement asset (on which I paid minimal tax, having low income that year). Good wishes as you pursue greater knowledge about how money works: not only does enhanced knowledge increase one's power ... it pays well, on occasion . ole joyful