How to Open a Roth IRA

A Roth IRA is a true gift for retirement savers. While you won't get a tax benefit now, contributions and earnings in the account grow tax-free. In addition to being able to take tax-free retirement distributions, Roth IRAs also don't require minimum distributions, so you can choose to leave the money in the account to keep growing after you've retired.

That means opening a Roth IRA is a strong first step toward supercharging your retirement savings. Here's how to do it.

How to start a Roth IRA

1. Figure out if you are eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA.

While anyone with earned income can open a Roth IRA, contributing to a Roth IRA has income limits.

For 2024 and 2025, the contribution limit for a Roth IRA is $7,000 for those under age 50 and $8,000 for those age 50 and older. That contribution limit phases out and is eventually eliminated at higher incomes.

If you are not eligible for a Roth IRA because your income exceeds the allowed limits, consider the backdoor Roth IRA strategy, which lets you open a Roth by converting money from a traditional IRA.

2024 Roth IRA eligibility rules

» Read our detailed overview of Roth IRA contribution and income limits.

2025 Roth IRA eligibility rules

2. Decide where to open your IRA

If you're a “do-it-yourself” investor, open your Roth IRA at a brokerage.

For people who want to pick their own investments, opening a Roth IRA at an online broker makes a lot of sense. At the best brokers, you’ll find a large list of low-cost investments to choose from, including index funds and exchange-traded funds. The top brokers also offer extensive retirement planning tools, robust customer service and reasonable account minimums and fees. And you maintain complete control over how your retirement funds are invested.

If you're a “manage it for me” or hands-off investor, choose a robo-advisor.

If you’d rather have someone pick an investment portfolio for you, you can open your Roth IRA at a robo-advisor. Robo-advisors are online services that build and maintain a diversified portfolio for you. You pay a small fee for the service, but their fees generally are far lower than those of a human financial advisor.

For people who want to invest for retirement but don’t want to worry about managing their portfolio over time, a robo-advisor is an easy choice. The advisor will offer portfolios that vary based on the amount of risk you want to take, with “aggressive” ones for people who want a high percentage of their portfolio in stocks and “conservative” for people who seek a less volatile investment account.

» See our list of the best Roth IRA providers in both categories.

3. Choose how much you want to invest

How much do you need to open a Roth IRA? While there generally isn’t a fee for opening a Roth IRA, there may be other costs and requirements depending on your provider and selected investments. A few brokers and robo-advisors — but not all — may require a minimum amount to open an account with them.

Think about your budget, your investing goals and how long you have to invest. If you want to max out your contribution for the year and you're eligible to contribute the full amount, that works out to about $583 per month in 2025, or $666 if you're over age 50.

» Roth IRA calculator: Find out how much your contributions could be worth.

4. Gather your paperwork to open the account

So, you’ve learned all about how Roth IRAs work and even settled on a provider. Now what? It’s time to gather any paperwork or documentation you may need to set up your Roth IRA account.

Exact requirements may vary based on the financial institution, but generally, you may want to have the following information available during the sign-up process:

• An ID (such as a state driver’s license or a passport) to confirm your identity, address, and date of birth.

• A Social Security number or tax identification number.

• Proof of employment, if applicable.

• The name, addresses and dates of birth of any beneficiaries you’d like to add to the account.

• The routing and/or account numbers for the bank or investment account you’ll use to fund your Roth IRA.

Once you have all that information handy, head to the provider's website to open your Roth IRA account.

5. Pick your investments

A Roth IRA is an account type, not an automatic investment. Contributing is just the first step. If you want to build wealth over time, you also need to invest that money.

If you're a hands-off investor and you've opted to open your Roth IRA at a robo-advisor, that service will choose a diversified investment portfolio for you. It will also manage that portfolio over time, investing future contributions and making sure your overall strategy is on track. (Robo-advisors generally are registered investment advisors operating under a similar structure to human investment advisors.)

If you've opened your Roth IRA at a brokerage firm, you can get that diversification on your own by building a portfolio out of index funds and ETFs. To do that, you’ll want to decide how much of your money to put toward riskier investments, such as stock funds, and how much you want to keep relatively safe in, for example, bond funds and cash. This mix is called your asset allocation.

IRAs give you access to a large pool of investment options. Once you’ve decided on your allocation, you can select specific funds to meet that. And if you get stuck? Use a model. Check out the portfolios used by robo-advisors (often displayed on their websites), then mimic them. Be sure to rebalance the investments as they shift out of the original allocation you decided on because you won’t have robo-advisors to do it for you.

» More guidance: How to invest your IRA.