Throwaway because it's humiliating that it took so long for me to figure this out.
For the past two years, I've been contributing the max to my Roth IRA. But the money has just been sitting in the settlement fund, because I didn't realize that I had to go one step further in order to actually get into an index fund. You have to buy shares! I assumed, incorrectly, since I've heard so much about Vanguard index funds, that the money I deposited would just go there. NOT THE CASE!
At least on Vanguard's website, this is pretty confusing if you don't really know what you're doing. So I figured I'd alert my fellow newbies. Sorry if this is actually obvious to everyone else already.
Submitted January 11, 2018 at 11:17AM by tfwyoudorealstupid http://ift.tt/2D17leq
