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Who knows..it's not the vehicle you use for investing that matters, it's the underlying investments. However, the IRA should be maxed out in order to take advantage of the tax breaks - $1,800 a year doesn't come close to maxing out the tax breaks, by putting the $1,800 in a traditional account (I assume you mean a mutual fund and not a tax advantaged account), you are leaving tax deductions on the table.

I have a question for you. What is the money for and when do you need it?

Investing in the stock market makes a lot of sense if you have a long time to invest (for example longer than 20 years). Because the stock market goes up and down a lot on a daily basis though, it doesnt make much sense to put your money at risk unless you have ample time to ride out the waves.

In the short run the stock market is a casino. In the long run its a great investment. Make sure you have plenty of time.

If you might need to take the money out in the next 5 years, avoid the IRA and avoid the stock market. If you are planning to leave the money in there until you retire, definitely stick with the IRA and stick with the stock fund. Over the long run you will benefit from the tax savings and will most likely do better in the stock market than you would in bond funds or money markets.

Its awesome that you are setting aside money every month. Keep it up!

Give yourself +1 for going with Vanguard and +1 for having an IRA account. But I would recommend you try to get the maximum $5,000 each year in that IRA egg shell. That takes $5,000 off the income side of your taxes. Even with a low effective tax rate of 15%, that means you either get $750 tax refund or pay $750 less in taxes. That's huge. And that's every year you do it.

This must be a mutual fund account. They have a brokerage account but that has a $3,000 minimum deposit. Do both of these accounts have a money market option? If yes, put all you money in the money market choice on or before January 6. Your mutual funds are driven by the markets and the earning reports of all the biggies start with Alcoa Aluminum on Monday January 9. The consensus on Wall Street is those earnings are going to be bad news. That will drive stocks down and that will drive mutual funds down. But you should see a nice little gain by Friday January 6. That's because all the big investment managers, Vanguard included, sold their dogs on Friday December 30 to get them off the books. From January 2 through January 6 they will be buying new stocks. That tends to push the market, and your funds, up. Stay in the money market funds until after all the biggies have reported earnings - January 9 - 27. You can go back in funds on February 1. Another reason to be safe in money markets during this period is because European countries have some big bond problems to face during that same period. As you may know, those European markets can really hurt ours.

Morningstar is the be all and end all for finding out more about your funds and how they are rated. Check out their site. Also, check out John Bogle. This wonderful old gentleman is the founder of Vanguard. He has good advice for all investors. Try to find videos of him.

That's a good question.

I have recently considered taking all my 401 money out of the stock market since Wall Street is just a bunch of gambling addicts f __ing around with MY money.

I'm considering investing in an income property or just moving the money to a high interest earning savings account at least till the gamblers get help and stop abusing us.

Hi, I think you should reconsider.

Before I answer your question, I suggest that you watch this video from Robert Kyosaki. Its a 6 minutes video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk75OUYNvRY&list=LL...

So by now, you should know that whether it is good or not to put your money in IRA.

By the way, in my opinion, you may want to invest your money in FOREX. You can start small. But I think you would not want to take the curve to learn trading. Do you? If yes, its good for you. If no, its also good for your.

Because you don't necessarily need to know how to trade. There is a short cut to do it the easy way and automate the process. I explain more on my source link.

whatever u do, is possibly good but i would also advise allocating 10-20 % in Gold & Silver. to even out your allocation a bit...