John G

Good info from Kathy. I would just add this: if you have not filed your 1998 taxes, you are still able to open an IRA for last year. Of course, you can also contribute to 1999 at the same time...assuming that you will meet all of the requirements this year. Funding an IRA at the begining of the year gives you a full year of tax sheltered earnings and is a good idea if you have the funds.

"Aggressive" is often in the eye of the beholder. What you call aggressive I might call growth. The labels can be misleading. Two of my favorites are very similiar: Janus Twenty and Marsico Focus. They both concentrate their picks on about 20 to 30 stocks. Both have good track records. Tom Marsico left Janus about two years ago to start the Marsico... and amazingly, both funds have prospered. They hold big cap growth stocks and some turn around prospects. I like the "focused" portfolio concept. Both are no load, but I do not know their IRA fees. Besides web sites, you can use Kiplinger, Worth, Money and other financial mags to give you some ideas. Don't get lost... you have about 8000 mutual funds to consider.

You may want to scan the current Consumer Reports which lists around 100 funds that have been successful. While financial analysis is not that magazines specialty, they can give you a useful short list to study.

The previous comment is not correct. The 150K threshold does not apply to Roth conversions. I believe that 100K AGI is the appropriate income limit for your 98 conversion qualification. Concerning your $106K 1998 income, atleast check with your accountant before you throw in the towel. If you try to qualify again in 1999, you may want to try and shift any special car payments or bonuses into Jan 2000. You have more options if you are either self employeed or own your own business. Good luck.

I can't give you the technical answer, but I sure wonder why you would consider this move. The Roth is a tax shelter, the long term benefits are huge, especially when you have many years to retirement. The average citizen doesn't have many tax shelter options. A few years from now you might want to kick yourself for using a Roth to pay off a college loan. I would look to ALL of your options before ever considering this move. Most college loans have reasonable interest rates. If you provide more details, you may get more comments on point.

A short note to your Congressman and Senators would be useful. Use the internet and tell your elected officials what you think about the $2K limit, income thresholds, Roth conversion rules (income, 4yr average), and of course privatization options for social security.

Many mutual funds have lower minimums for IRA accounts, and you can split up your ROTH assets as you wish. Be sure to ask about annual fees for IRA accounts. They can be as high as $50 per account. Some fund families offer you a break or even eliminate fees when your IRA assets exceed $10,000. If your reason for multiple funds is to achieve some level of diversification, you may be better served initially in having just one mutual fund that is very broadly based such as a total-market fund or and S&P500 index.

Education IRA: You are correct that you will not be able to accumulate much in the current formulation, even if you start at birth. I guess Congress did not have a calculator handy the day they set the groundrules. See other listings on this message board for some alternative ideas. Using your own Roth IRA for your kids education: my view is this is not a good idea. Once you create a tax shelter (the Roth) you want to keep the most amount of $$ in it as long as possible. If your kids are young, the world (and your personal finances) will change signficantly before they start college. You may ultimately decide to borrow rather than disturb your Roth. One aspect of paying for college that most people overlook is that for 18 years you have been paying for food, clothes, housing, etc for a child out of your normal income. When you kid leaves for the big U, the real significant additional cost is tuition. I would suggest that you invest with the goal of paying tuition from the accumulated assets and plan to pay the room & board out of income. I think that is a more realistic goal for college savings.