I was wondering what all factors need to be considered when deciding if money should be invested immediately or if it should be held on to and invested in an IRA. My specific example is that my wife and I have budgeted to invest 1.2k/month. We can each put 5k into an IRA on January 1st 2011 (already have done it this year). I assume I should put the money in the market for now and then take some out when I can put it in the IRA (I have stocks that have been in over 1.5 years so I can pay capital gains tax on the sale).

I assume these are all factors I need to account for:

Buy/Sell spread
Average return expected
Taxes (cap. gains in my case)
Investment fees (0 for me because I use Zecco)
Time period to be invested
Amount that can be earned by not investing (bank account, etc.)

What else?

I'd probably just store it in an online savings account and throw it all in on Jan 1. Those accounts aren't paying much right now but it's only 10K. Why invest in the market for only 8 months?

Risk

Why invest in the market at all? I expect a higher return from the market than I do from a savings account.

Can you expand a bit? Risk that I won't have the 10k to invest in January or risk of what?

If I understand the OP then you're going to have $1,200 invested for 8 months, $2,400 for 7 months, $3,600 for 6 months, etc.

You're talking about like an extra $150 in earnings over an online savings account. It's just such a short-term investment and small amount, I don't know if it's worth the exposure.

What is the exposure? I assume you mean to losses, but why is that bad? It seems like it's very similar to having it already in the IRA, it's just that the tax benefit isn't there. If the market goes down, there is no tax anyway and if it goes up then that seems like a good thing.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, I'm just trying to understand things.

losses

Sorry, I was editing while you were posting. See my previous post where I'm inquiring why that is a bad thing.

It's just my opinion - I'm not saying it's right. It's probably probablistically correct to put it in the market. I just don't see it as necessary since it's your retirement fund. You're trying to gamble on short-term gains on money that is intended for the long haul, right?

I would just earmark this $1.2K/mo. as already being part of your retirement and put it in some BS online savings then transfer it on the first of the year.

Again I'm not saying that is the best or only way to do it. Hopefully others will chime in as I'm basically repeating myself.