Craig Wear, CFP®Craig Wear, CFP® | Expert in Roth Conversions & Tax-Efficient Retirement Strategies for IRA Millionaires

Most people think they are smart when they open a Roth IRA.

3 Sept 2025 · 0 min

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A short YouTube clip by Craig Wear, CFP® warning that simply depositing cash into a Roth IRA (often left in a money market/savings-style account) is insufficient. He emphasizes that contributors must invest those funds in assets (stocks, ETFs, bonds, etc.) to realize compounding growth; otherwise they risk missing out on large retirement gains.

The biggest Roth IRA mistake people make. Putting money into your Roth IRA isn't enough if you just deposit the cash and walk away. It's probably just sitting in a money market account, which is basically just a savings account. The growth comes when you actually invest in things like stocks or ETFs or bonds or all kinds of things. But without that step, you could miss out on hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in retirement.