Hi,
My tax man called yesterday and after figuring out my taxes he suggested I open an IRA for my wife because she has no plan where she works and if I did he could get me an extra $700. in my return. Not a bad idea I figured, thats a 35% return on my money. It will cost me $1300 to get a $2000 IRA, finally Uncle Sam comes through and throws me a bone. I owe my tax man a lunch.

Anyway, I work at an educational institution and after a number of years of putting money into TIAA-CREF I love the returns their Growth & Equity Index funds have netted me (28.9% and 25.6% annual average compound rate for the last 3 years). I checked and can open an IRA in my wifes name and have the availabily of the same funds my money is in. Great.

I have just finished reading both "You Have More Than You Think" and "Rule Breakers and Rule Makers" back to back and loved both of them. I am considering not going with TIAA-CREF but instead going with a discount broker and starting possibly a Foolish Four approach.

Any suggestions??
The performance of The TIAA-CREF funds can be seen at :

http://www.tiaa-cref.org/set-annprofs.html
Thanks,
Gary