What to do with wife's Roth IRA

[James!]

So I just found out my wife has a Roth IRA with $1500 in it. I knew it existed in the back of my mind, but didn't know it was a Roth.

Anyway, I've gotten around to sorting out my investments and now we're wondering what to do with it.

It's with "First Investors" and we don't have anything else with them. She currently contributes to a pension/403b through work (public school system).

We don't really have need for a Roth because our bracket now is fairly high and I anticipate it being lower in retirement.

I know it's not a lot of money but I'm not sure what to do with it. Also, I've done our taxes in the past and never done anything about this. Perhaps she was receiving relevant statements for whatever reason we didn't take this in to account.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
James

[GGNoob]

So I assume she doesn't have any other Roth IRA? I'd just roll it over into Vanguard and purchase a Target Retirement Date Fund and then forget about it.

[MDM]

It's with "First Investors" and we don't have anything else with them.
Thoughts?

Transfer the money to a Roth IRA at Vanguard, put it in the target date 2050 fund, and forget about it again until you are 60 years old.  Or something similar to that.

[seattlecyclone]

I know it's not a lot of money but I'm not sure what to do with it. Also, I've done our taxes in the past and never done anything about this. Perhaps she was receiving relevant statements for whatever reason we didn't take this in to account.

For the tax issue, it's probably fine that you haven't done anything about it. The only real reason you would report Roth contributions on your tax return would be to get the saver's credit. Any dividends or other transactions within the account are non-events from a tax perspective.

I agree that you should roll the account into Vanguard and let it grow until you retire. If your income grows large enough that you can't make deductible IRA contributions anymore, you may well add to this account before you retire.