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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: birdeye on July 11, 2014, 10:05:49 AM

Title: Financial advice to new US immigrants
Post by: birdeye on July 11, 2014, 10:05:49 AM
Hi everyone, great forum here
Before I ask my question, let me give you some background.
Both me and my wife are in our early 40s we have 2 toddlers, and we  immigrated this year to Los Angeles CA.
We brought with us 500K$ and our combined annual income in the US as of this year is 220K$
We both started this year a 401k/403b which we max (also in target date funds)
When we arrived I wasnt sure what to do with the money we brought so I opened a taxable account and bought with it a Vanguard target date 2040 mutual fund.
Now after reading this forum Im not sure if we need to change things and would like your advice.
1. Should I leave the target date MF in the taxable account or is that a big mistake tax wise. Keep in mind that our 401k's sum is very small because we just started it this year so allocating bonds there and stocks in the taxable wont be really possible (not enough funds in the sheltered accounts compared to the taxable ones).
2. Do you think we should rather buy real estate for investment with some of this cash?
3. Is it possible for us to open a roth IRA? from what I understand, at our income level its not allowed
4. Is there another way for immigrants to move a large sum of money to a retirement account from a foreign retirement account?
5. Are there any other tax advantages/ disadvantages that a new immigrant should be aware of? (I know about the FBAR's and reporting international bank accounts)

Thanks you all for your help