I've largely ignored dealing with my finances in the past, mostly because I really, really hate dealing with them, and as a result have made some poor decisions. I've been making good money but I've changed jobs a lot. As a result I had multiple 401Ks with some money in them, which I was advised to put into rollover IRA. I did this last year, but because of being clueless about investment, never invested this money. That money has sat, uninvested, for about a year.
Now that I've realized how stupid I've been, I have invested that money. Unfortunately, I also just realized that the maximum annual contribution for this IRA is 5500$ annually. I read that I should be able to contribute up to 18000$ to a 401K annually, but apparently this only applies to employer sponsored 401Ks? I also read that it may be possible to have multiple IRAs?
I realize that I will never get back the growth potential I've missed out on for the last 5 years.
My question is, since I've chosen a path where it makes sense to manage my own retirement savings,
- How should I go about getting back on track?
- Should I look at opening more IRAs and make the maximum contribution annually?
- I also have money in savings that is un-invested, which I was considering using to buy some investments. What is the optimal way it could be put to good use for supplementing the IRA income?
Thanks