Otherwise, you may wait until
4/15/99 to open an IRA, and sometimes later depending on extensions for filing.

I was looking for a concise answer to the "geez, do I need to get this initial Roth IRA investment done by the end of the year or can I put it off until sometime in April" question." Thanks for clearing it up.

I only made a deductible contribution to my traditional IRA once several years ago. Since that time, I haven't been able to make a non-deductible contribution. My determination on whether to contribute was always made when I crunched those tax forms and numbers after the first of the year and verified eligability.

But I got to thinking ......with a Roth IRA, there is no deductible contribution. I simply get to put $2K of after tax money in the account each year. Since it's not deductible, why not start the Roth IRA ASAP to take advantage of market gains. Of course, this assumes that I can find $2K to do it with.

I plan to set up a Roth for me and my wife ASAP. Before visiting this board, I surfed on over to vanguard.com and dowloaded the application. We'll invest our maximum before the year-end and again after the first of the year. Of course this requires consulting with my wonderful wife first!!!

In the Stanley & Danko book "The Millionaire Next Door", the authors point out that the affluent have more non-taxable assets than the rest of us. Some of this may be real estate or timberlands, but some of it is retirement money for sure. If that $2K is sitting in the bank or in a money market account or in my discount brokerage account, it seems that the best thing I can do is get it out of there where it is increasing my tax burden and move it to a Roth IRA.....well before I submit my 1998 tax return

Gosh, I wish I would have thought of this months ago.

Any thoughts...