The best time to make an IRA contribution is the first business day of each year. If you make your IRA contribution at the beginning of the year, instead of April of the following year, it gives each installment an extra 15 months of additional compounding for each contribution every year. Since markets go up on average, this means you can expect greater growth with more time in the market resulting in better long-term results.
Annual IRA contributions can be made between Jan. 1 and April 15 of the following year. Because of the extra three and a half months, when you send in a contribution for your IRA between January and April, be sure to indicate the year of the contribution.
Contributing: Debi Rybicki
Learn more
Year-end IRA tidying, by Debi Rybicki
Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits, from the Internal Revenue Service
Retirement Saving: Which IRA? by Adam Baley
Types of Investments for Retirement, from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
When Should I …?
As our financial lives evolve, we often wonder at what point or how frequently to take certain actions toward our long-term goals. In an ongoing feature, investment advisors from Landaas & Company provide answers.
(initially posted Feb. 2, 2017)
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