Question

Need some advice.  I work and live in the great State of Alabama.Need some advice. I work and live in the great State of Alabama. I am 40 years old. I am employed in education so I have a TRS account (Teacher Retirement Service). I have been contributing eight and a half percent of my salary to this account since I was 21 years old. This is a twenty five year retirement account. I also have a deferred compensation account with the state (RSA-1) that I have been contributing to since early in my career. With the RSA-1 account I have it set up for fifty percent stock and fifty percent bond. Basically the state takes fifty percent of that account and invests it into the S&P 500. I have my emergency fund in a high yield savings account through my local credit union that has a two percent APY. My question is would it be better to open a betterment account and contribute to diversify or throw more money into the RSA-1 account that the state manages for me?  

Answer 1

Hard to say without all the info, I guess the question boils down to where to put the next dollar. Looks like your choices are RSA-1, Savings, or Betterment (brokerage). What about a Roth or traditional IRA? We wen't with Vanguard for our brokerage account and IRA's. I think the answer depends on a lot of things. Any debts? Pay those first. Any plans coming up that you need money for? Save for that. If neither of those fit, then I would invest. I want to have assets in tax free (Roth), tax advantaged (RSA-1), and taxable (Brokerage) accounts. That provides some flexibility.