<prompt> Human: Hello everybody, Ive only recently gotten involved in my moms finances when my dad passed away last year. At 55 years old seems to be in decent shape. The house shes living in has no mortgage and was built new two years ago after a fire, which was all covered by insurance. Its value including the property is about 250,000. My dad left behind a 100,000 life insurance policy, 23,000 in a Roth IRA, and about 130,000 in savings most of which was in a low yielding money market account. So thats about 250,000 in cash assets. She has a job that sustains all of her expenses about 35,000 a year. She is in good health and has no reason to retire in the next decade or so. After getting the life insurance payout, I put about 140,000 into a Betterment account for her. Its made 11,000 since October. What advice would you have in this situation? At age 55 is it worth maxing out her Roth IRA contribution every year until retirement? Assistant: Automoderator second and third link to this FAQ and the graphic at the bottom is probably going to help you out the most.Not sure what your moms income situation is, but she should take these steps and max out her accounts and, since shes over 50, she likely is eligible to make catch up contributions as well.Human: So it is worth putting into a Roth IRA even at age 55? What are the annual returns like? Assistant: So it is worth putting into a Roth IRA even at age 55?That question really depends on what her taxincome situation is. If shes thinking shell in a higher tax bracket come retirement, then Roth IRA is the way to go. Otherwise, a traditional will work out the best. See the IRA FAQ here What are the annual returns like?Depends on what investments you put the money in. Also, past returns are not an indicator for future performance, so I wouldnt use that as a benchmark to judge investment by.Human: Okay, what is the benefit then vs. an investment account with a service like Betterment, in which Im getting 6-10 annual returns and I can sell shares and withdraw money whenever I please?  <response>: A Roth IRA is just a container for the investments, you can put whatever youd like in your Roth IRA. You can open an IRA at Betterment, the money will be invested the same way, but your mother wont be paying taxes on distributions or capital gains.I would recommend taking a look at urobert_bradley and umbc010 comments. Vanguard has really low expense ratios and the Target Date Retirement funds will reallocate as your mother gets older to help reduce the level of risk as you get closer to needing to use the money. 