Greetings, Nunes, and welcome. You asked:

<<My wife is retiring this year and she is taking a lump sum which she will roll over into an IRA. We are looking into investing into index funds, most likely the Vanguard 500 index for one, can anyone recommend any other Vanguard funds that would provide good long term growth? Also, does anyone know if it is possible to open up an IRA through Vanguard direct?>>

I'm not a fund investor myself, so I don't track them. I can tell you that Vanguard will indeed allow you to invest directly via a retirement plan transfer to one or more funds. Also, they offer a variety of selections in addition to the S&P 500 index. You might want to ask which others Fools prefer on the Mutual Funds board in the Investor's Roundtable folder. That's where funds are discussed in detail within Fooldom Use this link to get there: http://boards.fool.com/registered/messages.asp?id=1030021000000000

Regards....Pixy