Here’s how to max out your Roth IRA in 2018

Hitting the maximum speed limit for the first time while driving? Exhilarating, but fleeting. Maxing out your Roth IRA? Less exhilarating, but much more rewarding.

Whether the balance in your retirement accounts sits at empty or you're trying to rev up your planning, it may be time to take a Roth IRA for a spin. This type of individual retirement account will grant you access to a broader array of investments that often have lower fees than employer-sponsored plans. And even with 2017 in the rearview mirror, you have until April 17 to contribute to these IRAs for that tax year.

Whether you're looking to max out last year's or this year's contributions, the following tips will keep you on track.

1. Open an account

It'll be hard to max out a Roth IRA without an account and stuffing money in a shoebox won't cut it. Why IRA the Roth way? These accounts offer valuable tax advantages — money and investment earnings grow tax-free and there's no income tax on withdrawals during retirement — plus, you'll benefit from compounding interest (earning interest on both investments and interest over time).

The primary advantage of Roth versus traditional IRAs comes down to taxes. With a Roth, you pay taxes upfront, whereas you'll pay taxes later with a traditional IRA when you take distributions. Generally speaking, if you're currently in a low tax bracket (or early stages of your career), consider a Roth IRA because your tax rate may be higher come retirement.

Setting up a Roth IRA takes a matter of minutes. You'll need to decide whether you prefer an account with an online broker or a robo-advisor (the difference being how actively you want to manage your investments). Once you've opened an account, select investments. To benefit from both diversification and low costs, consider a portfolio constructed of index funds and ETFs.

Look for providers with low account minimums, low (or no) account fees and fund minimums, a large selection of no-transaction-fee mutual funds and commission-free exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the type of customer service and educational resources you desire. Finding a Roth IRA comparison on the web can help you review providers side-by-side.

2. Envision your future

It can be difficult to prioritize far-off goals, especially with opportunities for instant gratification today. Experts recommend saving up to 15% of your pretax income each year for retirement.

If you don't want to work forever, you'll probably need to save more than what's allowable in an employer-sponsored plan (a maximum of $18,500 for workers under the age of 50 for tax year 2018). Use a retirement calculator to check whether you're on-track.

3. Set manageable goals, then make regular contributions

Retirement planning is a decades-long journey and even shorter-term goals, like setting aside $5,500 in one year, can be daunting for most people. This isn't the type of loose change you likely have laying around — and it's money you won't be able to touch (without incurring penalties) for decades to come.

But breaking down that $5,500 goal into a more manageable weekly or monthly amount may help. Maxing out contributions this year works out to about $15.07 a day, roughly $105.77 each week or about $458.33 monthly.

With those numbers in mind, set up a schedule for making contributions to your Roth IRA. Don't go for the extremes (once-a-day or once-a-year); instead, opt for a manageable schedule, like the same day each month. This will help ensure you don't rack up trading costs with a too-frequent schedule and resist the urge to time the market with a too-infrequent strategy.

Opt for an automatic trading plan, if possible, to benefit from dollar-cost averaging. This is a strategy of spreading out investment purchases over time to ensure you don't invest all your money when prices are high.

4. Know your limits

Don't despair if you can't max out a Roth IRA this year — this goal may take time to achieve. Even a few hundred dollars invested can balloon to several thousand dollars over the course of a decade or two.

When in doubt, be prudent: Don't try to max out an IRA if you're racking up high-interest debt in the meantime or don't have enough to cover monthly expenses. Contribute whatever money you can this year and resolve to increase that amount down the road.

This article originally appeared on the personal finance website NerdWallet. Anna-Louise Jackson is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: ajackson@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @ALJax7.

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NerdWallet: Best IRA Accounts: 2018 Top Picks

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