This early financial decision could prove helpful over time.

Want to give your child or grandchild a great financial start? A Roth IRA might be a choice to consider. There are many reasons why starting a Roth IRA for a teenager may be a sound financial strategy. Read on to learn more about how doing this may benefit both of you.

Tax-free benefits during retirement. Setting up a Roth IRA for the teenager in your life could prime them to have more retirement savings. Plus, a Roth IRA has the potential to accumulate over the years, and the owner may be able to better manage their tax burden if they withdraw the money after age 59½.¹

This vital investment account question should be answered sooner rather than later.

Investment firms have a client service requirement. They must ask you if you would like to provide the name and information of a trusted contact.¹

You do not have to supply this information, but it is encouraged. The request is made with your best interest in mind – and to lower the risk of someone crooked attempting to make investment decisions on your behalf.¹

Why do so many people choose them over traditional IRAs?

The IRA that changed the whole retirement savings perspective. Since the Roth IRA was introduced in 1998, its popularity has soared. It has become a fixture in many retirement planning strategies because it offers savers so many potential advantages.

The key argument for going Roth can be summed up in a sentence: Paying taxes on your retirement contributions today may be better than paying taxes on your retirement savings tomorrow.

Think about it. Would you rather pay taxes today or wait 10 years and see where the tax rates end up? With that in question in mind, here are some of the potential benefits associated with opening and contributing to a Roth IRA.

Perhaps you know someone who carries no cash. Maybe that someone is you. Ten or 15 years ago, it would have been anomalous and occasionally frustrating to go through the day without any bills or coins on you. Now, not so much.

In 2018, Americans used debit cards more than cash at the point of sale for the first time, according to a Federal Reserve survey. This year, many merchants have encouraged cashless payments to discourage money from changing hands, an effort to reduce the threat of COVID-19 transmission.

The earlier you start pursuing financial goals, the better your outcome may be.

As a young investor, you have a powerful ally on your side: time. When you start investing in your twenties or thirties for retirement, you can put it to work for you.    

The effect of compounding is huge. Many people underestimate it, so it is worth illustrating. Let's take a look using a hypothetical 5% rate of return.¹

A practical financial checklist for the future.

When our parents retired, living to 75 amounted to a nice long life, and Social Security was often supplemented by a pension. The Social Security Administration estimates that today’s average 65-year-old woman will live to age 86½. Given these projections, it appears that a retirement of 20 years or longer might be in your future.^1,2 

The SECURE Act - What you actually need to know. . .

This act intends to improve retirement security for Americans, with many new provisions for those saving for retirement. Of course, SECURE is actually an acronym: Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement. This act will affect most Americans eventually, and it is important that you understand its implications for your retirement. Here are four things you should know about the SECURE Act:

Do you know the difference?

Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), which were created in 1974, are owned by roughly 33.2 million U.S. households. Roth IRAs, however, were created as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act in 1997, are owned by nearly 22.5 million households.1

Both are IRAs. And yet, each is quite different.

What’s the difference? What do these terms mean for you?

The COVID-19 outbreak has put tremendous pressure on stock prices, prompting some investors to blindly and indiscriminately sell positions at a time when the entire market is trending lower. Worried investors believe "this time it's different." When the market drops, some investors lose perspective that downtrends – and uptrends – are part of the investing cycle. When stock prices break lower, it's a good time to review common terms that are used to describe the market's downward momentum.^1,2

What steps might help you sustain and grow your retirement savings?

“What is your greatest retirement fear?” If you ask any group of retirees and pre-retirees this question, “outliving my money” will likely be one of the top answers. In fact, 51% of investors surveyed for a 2019 AIG retirement study ranked outliving their money as their top anxiety.¹

Retirees face greater “longevity risk” today.The Census Bureau says that Americans typically retire around age 63. Social Security projects that today’s 63-year-olds will live into their mid-eighties, on average. This is a mean life expectancy, so while some of these seniors may pass away earlier, others may live past 90 or 100.^2,3