Money Handling

We handed out money today. I didn't like it.

Specifically, we handed over the maximum annual contribution for each of us to a Roth IRA that's administered by Ameriprise. It was one of those things that we knew, intellectually, was a good idea, but emotionally, taking that much money from a secure if not-terribly-well-performing money fund and giving it to someone to make bets on -- someone who'd started the meeting by saying that their fund was 'only twenty percent down, which is better than most' -- did not sit well with me. I wanted to grab the check and run. In fact, after his little litany of 'It's bad and it's going to get worse', my wife joked that he was convincing her to put her money under the mattress -- and I was with her on it.

What particularly amazed me was that he said he would be able to invest the money next week -- after the check physically went to their headquarters in Minneapolis and was cashed. I was dumbfounded. What is this, the 1980s?

But we did it. It was the right thing to do. I tell myself....