I was poking around the ING site and noticed that you can invest in some mutual funds or set up an IRA through them. I already have a savings account set up, and I automatically add some money each month to it. And through work we have a Simple IRA set up thats pulled from my paycheck, too. But ING is damn cool, and I was wondering if it would be worth looking into starting something with them. I can't seem to find any info about a minimum investment, but it sounds like you can set up auto-deposit progams with those, too. Perhaps somewhat related is whether to just invest in the straight mutual funds, or to put money in one of the IRAs? Anyone have any advice? Thanks!

First you need to remember an IRA is an investment so it's NOT FDIC insured like the ING Direct Orange Savings Account is.

Next determine the right IRA for you (http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/sav/iracompare.asp) (Traditional vs Roth IRA).

Finally read the ING Direct IRA Disclosure Agreement (http://home.ingdirect.com/open/IRA_disclosure.pdf) and Prospectus (http://home.ingdirect.com/open/prospectus.pdf) ... if you are still interested in proceeding here is an application (http://home.ingdirect.com/open/IRA_mutual_fund_app.pdf).

Thanks for the info! I realize that the investments aren't FDIC insured, but I figure that diversifying investments might be a good thing. It sounds like through ING I can put money in either of the IRAs, or just invest straight up in the mutual funds (this would let me withdraw money from them without penalties involved with withdrawing from IRAs early, right?) What would the advantages of each be? It just seems like going through ING when I've already got something set up there would be a simple solution.

Maybe I'm completely off here....I'll check out the link, too. Thanks again!