Traditional不知道，但是Roth是会亏掉本金的。但Roth里面买MF，要比直接炒股保险得多，只要Diversify，Hold足够长的时间，都是会盈利的。建议你还是看看Mutual Funds的入门书籍先。

any investment can lose money. even buy bonds from US government.

i have not heard any roth will guranteen your principle.

that is so true.  look at the recent i-bond yield rate.

yeah, i stopped my automatic purchasing plan. but I may start again next time they announce the rate tho.

exempt from state tax is a selling point. and flexibility is very important to me.

did u get into any ADM, PEXI?

买fund没有fdic保险的。最坏的情况是可以亏掉的。于股票账户的区别在于diversify 的大些，所以相对风险比股票小。

谢谢大家的回复。看样子ROTH IRA如果买FUND的话，是没有FDIC的。但是traditional IRA如果买FUND的话，却有FDIC的。本来以为ROTH的收益是免税的，比较适合我。没想到竟然找不到principal insured 的fund. 各位考虑买traditional 或是roth的时候，仅仅是从免税角度出发的吗？ principal的风险一点都不在考虑之内？

下面就是我去年买的traditional ira的资料：

Stock Market IRA - A well deliberated risk

• The interest generated is based on the changes in the Standard and Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500)
• Minimum initial deposit: $500.
• Available term: 5 years
• The principal is insured by the FDIC up to $250,000

仔细考虑了一下，虽然ROTH的收益可以免税，但是还是有风险。谁也估计不到在漫长的几十年后，美国经济是啥样子。而这是退休金。关系到老年的生活质量。如果真的连本都亏掉，到时候可真的是哭都没眼泪。

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-5-9 17:45:00编辑过]