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pay off high interest debt
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top off your emergency fund so you don’t run into expensive short-on-money situations
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take care of deferred maintenance on your car or house that might turn into an expensive repair
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If you have an employer sponsored 401k, increase the contribution amount to get 10k more tax free into it before the end of the year and use the $10k cash in hand for expenses.
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Open a roth IRA and contribute the maximum amount you can (which may vary based on your income)
VT, VTI, and SPY are good broad-market funds with good historical growth.
1-4 are all taken care of. I need to learn more about a roth IRA and what an index fund is. I’m okay with letting $10K sit somewhere for 5-10 years, possibly longer like for retirement.
I like these points. Preventing a future expense by paying less now is always worth it, if you can afford it.
Being poor is expensive.
It’s much more expensive to be poor now than it used to be!
Second vote for VTI.
I used to not have any doubts about a Roth, but I’ve been considering that maybe it’s a little too much like giving the government a free loan. Do you know if there’s a thorough comparison anywhere between a traditional and Roth IRA that takes into consideration the opportunity cost of paying tax on the contributions?
The biggest question is, do you think your tax percentage will be higher now, or higher in the future? If you think your income might increase later (placing you in a higher tax bracket), or that the government might increase your tax burden later, then it’s better to pay taxes now.
Compound interest will far outweigh paying taxes now for a Roth. Especially if you also have a 401k, the taxes in retirement will be potentially large based on the growth of the fund over decades. A Roth makes it so you pay nominal taxes now for potential large tax free growth later.
The exception would be if you think your income will decrease in your later working years, in which case a traditional IRA could make more sense. That however is a unique case. Generally it’s better to take advantage of a Roth if you can for tax free gains later.
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