Roth IRA, looking for advice

i use american funds or us global. american has the lowest fees for managed funds with better returns than the S&P (lifetime, which varies between 10 and 70 years depending on the fund) and lower betas (vanguard or fidelity index funds have lower fees, but no research since they just buy what the market buys). beta is the volatility compared to the S&P (which is always 1, lower is better).

I'll get some more info up later tonight... don't have time to drag out my statements and such right now :/.

The general rule is you use your age to define what you should keep in low risk investments. In my case, I am 27 and I keep 27% of my money in low/moderate risk investments and the rest in aggressive funds. This means every year or two you need to re-balance your investment and make sure more of your money is safe as you near retirement.

beta is the volatility compared to the S&P (which is always 1, lower is better).

Lower is better if you're pushing 45 and up. As the old saying goes, no risk, no reward.

High-beta stocks are supposed to be riskier but provide a potential for higher returns; low-beta stocks pose less risk but also lower returns.

well, i meant all things being equal. there are stocks returning 14% with beta under 1, and stocks returning 14% with beta's well over one.

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. | Family of No-Load Mutual Funds (http://www.usfunds.com/main_intro.asp)

American Funds (http://www.americanfunds.com/default-home.htm)

american funds has some really good "set and forget" options that'll beat any s&p index fund by a mile, and have the lowest fees for a managed fund.

I bought us global's china regional and eastern european funds a few years ago and have gotten 20% and 42% annual growth over that time. for IRAs, there is NO minimum to invest in usfunds, which is really nice.

I've dug up a few other IRAs I'm considering, what do you guys think of these? These are all starting to look the same to me.

Transamerica Premier Equity Inv (TEQUX) - Google Finance (http://finance.google.com/finance?q=tequx&hl=en)

Transamerica Premier Diversified Eq Inv (TPVIX) - Google Finance (http://finance.google.com/finance?q=tpvix&hl=en)

Delafield (DEFIX) - Google Finance (http://finance.google.com/finance?q=defix&hl=en)

Are these your only options, Matty? I think Guy was dead on with the American Funds.

American Funds - How to Open an American Funds Account (http://www.americanfunds.com/about/setup.htm?r=t)

My only requirement is to be able to open one with $250, I'm looking to open one for me and one for my wife, so $500 is about all I can afford right now.