I'm new to Roth IRA's. I've got about $1k in one,

IRA means individual retirement account and you can deposit a max of 5.5k/year from your checking account. Put it in a mutual fund if you're confused when you have about 3k. Do a riskier one if you're under 50.

>>1179805
By all means start the account and start funding it ASAP, but I would personally warn you against investing in anything at the moment. We're due for another recession anytime within the next year or two.

Forget about keeping your money in savings as the 1% interest rate makes you actually lose money because inflation is > 1%. Stocks typically return about 8% per year when averaged out over 10 year spans. But there is risk.... You will get 25-30% in some years (2012-2013) as the stock market recovers from recessions and you'll lose 10-20% of your money (2007-2009) other years. We're due for another set of 10-20% losses, just like we had during the Great Recession, anytime now.

Go ahead and fund your account which should be FDIC insured until you start buying stocks. Fund it for the next few years while you see stock prices falling, but don't buy anything until everyone is bitching about how much money their IRA/401ks have lost. Start buying when the stocks are on sale.

While you're waiting out the next recession take some time and read A Random Walk Down Wall Street to learn the basics of how the stock market works. Pay special attention to what he has to say about ETS/index funds.

If you have a little free money, buy a few bucks worth of VOO (Vanguard's ETF which tracks the S&P 500) so you get a feel for how the market works. You're going to see that it is only earning about 2% interest at the moment and you just might see it drop by 20-30% in the coming few years.

>>1179878
The recession will be long over in 40 years when he takes his money out. Literally put it in there and forget about it

>>1179891
>in 40 years

Did you mean 4?

>>1179902
No it's a retirement account

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>>1179878
Is it better to invest in times of depression/recession? I know that plenty of people made gains through the recession due to the decreased stocks.

Would it be better to wait until we see a down-swell to put a few thousand in a fund?

A thousand?? Put it in and forget it. Dollar cost averaging starting now till any hypothetical recession will be fine because you are very risk tolerant. You have until you retire. With a thousand dollars to Invest now, you are talking the difference between growing wealth now or losing 200 dollars at a down turn. Who gives a fuck start one now so you have it established and keep funding it. Recession hits? Invest more.

>>1179934
People like that won't invest when the market is good, because it's going to go down, and they don't invest when stocks have dropped either. They don't make money.