At 52 what do you need to open a roth IRA?

Answer 1

You need what is called "compensation income." That is taxable income from wages, net self-employment, or alimony.

Your Roth IRA contribution for the year cannot exceed your compensation income from the same year.

You can still open and contribute to a 2008 Roth IRA until 4/15/2009. Make sure your financial institution clearly understands you are contributing for 2008 and not 2009.

For 2008, you need to have Modified Adjusted Gross Income of no more than $169,000 (Married Filing Jointly), $10,000 (MFS), or $116,000 (Single or HoH). See Table 2-1 on page 60 of Publication 590:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf

See Worksheet 2-1 on page 62 to Calculate your Modified AGI:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf

Note that if your income is too high to make a Roth IRA contribution, you can still make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA if you are under 70 1/2. In 2010, the tax law changes so that everyone is eligible to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The part of the conversion that came from non-deductible contributions is tax-free.

So even if your income is too high, you might want to make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA and convert it next year.