Multiple IRAs

[Guest rc7744]

I am new to the world of IRAs. Is it possible to have more than one IRA account? Are the dollar contributions limited to $4,000 total in a given year or can one contribute $4,000 to each IRA account? Thank you in advance for your replies.

[txdd]

You can have as many IRA accounts as you want to pay the fees for.

The COMBINED contributions to all your traditional and Roth IRA's for 2006 cannot exceed $4,000 if under 50 years old.

[John G]

If you were allowed to have multiple accounts each at 4000, you would defeat the limitation Congress wanted on IRA/Roths.

While you can have multiple IRA/Roths, there are practical limitations from how much paperwork you want to track and possible additional fees for multiple small balance accounts.

But... if you wanted 2000 at Vanguard and a second 2000 at T Rowe Price... you might want to have two direct mutual fund accounts, especially if one or more of your chosen funds are not commonly listed at brokerages.