I opened a SEP IRA for my wife on advice from my accountant because she was a contractor for a few months before finding a permanant position. There is a high likelihood we will never touch this account again (ie: no regular contributions, assuming she wont be a contractor again) Thus I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas as to the best investment vehicle to put this money into? With such a small principal, transaction costs are a huge factor (this is @TDA).. I was considering dividend stocks, but im going to have small amounts of cash sitting around that I wont be able to do anything with. Maybe a few shares of a growth stock? Use it for speculation? we're both in our mid 30s and we've already got a decent IRA/Roth IRA (ive been contributing maximum since college), so it wont be sorely missed if I speculate it to zero (it will be like uncle sam funding my investing) Thoughts welcome!
If you are not going to be adding to this account, I think dividend stocks be the way to go like AFL and PG. But with the stock market making a possible top soon, might be best to wait for a huge pullback first so you get to buy more shares.
Whatever you do, DON'T buy ANY kind of leveraged ETF (2x, 3x, long, short, doesn't matter) with funds you do not intend to touch. These products track over very short time frames e.g. 1 day and are suitable only for very short term trading.
One massively diversified ETF? VTI? What other assets are in your overall portfolio? You should treat them all as one. It doesn't really matter what accounts they are spread over, other than taxable/exempt.
It depends on which contracts he's trading in futures. All day trading margins vary for all markets. But also, most brokers and or clearing firms require more than just $1300 for initial capital to open an account. Also this is a SEP IRA so he'd have to find a custodian who would allow him to trade futures on those funds because most custodians don't. And when he does find an IRA company who would let him trade futures on those funds, that IRA company would eat at the capital with all their fees. Not worth it.