Saving for retirement is a life-long journey; the sooner you start, the better the result. With a growing number of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, it can be difficult to set aside any extra money for retirement investing. In response, many investment firms are offering a decent chunk of bonus cash to new customers who are ready to start saving.
IRA stands for an Individual Retirement Account, and it is a special type of IRA that is tax-advantaged. Unlike a 401(k) plan that your employer might offer which uses pre-taxed income, Roth IRAs are funded with income you already paid tax on. You pay taxes on money going into your IRA, but those contributions can grow tax-free over the years. Even better, if you wait until you’re at least 59 and a half years old to withdraw, you won’t have to pay taxes on that source of retirement income.
E*Trade offers up to $600 or more as a bonus when you open a new brokerage or retirement account. On top of that, you might be eligible for $0 commission fees. The “or more” part of the deal is pretty vague, so we looked into the fine print. You can get up to $3,500 in free money. However, you need to deposit at least $1.5 million into your new account within 60 days of opening it to receive this top-dollar bonus, and that's not an option for many of us!
This bonus offer from Fidelity is lower, but it’s easy to qualify for. If you open an eligible Roth IRA account and deposit at least $50, you’ll get $100 more directly from Fidelity. That’s it. No hard-to-reach conditions or qualifying requirements. You do have to keep the bonus money in your account for at least 90 days.
They offer cash bonuses for new Self-Directed investment accounts. However, you’ll need at least $10,000 in assets to qualify for even the smallest bonus amount, which is only $100. You’ll get $250 for $25,000-to-$100,000, which gradually increases to $3,000 if you roll over more than $2 million.
TD Ameritrade is a great choice if you’ve been saving for a long time or were lucky enough to win the lottery. Their professionally managed portfolios are backed by one of the most trusted names in finance. You can also earn this account bonus on education accounts and other specialty accounts for trusts, pensions, or business partnerships.