Granite

Thank you all for the advice and opinions. If at the end of 5 years I go back to my old district, Is it possible to move the VALIC money into my ROTH. If so would I most likely have to pay a penalty of some kind?

I'm a teacher who has just accepted a new job in more financially secure district. This district offers to match employee retirement contributions up to 4% of their annual salary but they will only put the money into AIG's VALIC annuity. My old district gave no matching monies for retirement so I've been putting money into a ROTH IRA (T Rowe retirement 2030 fund). Here's my question...I do not know much about the VALIC annuity, but I assume the fees are much higher than my T Rowe Price fund. Is it better for me in the long run to take the free money and contribute 4% into VALIC or am I better off just continuing to put money into my ROTH? I assume I would be stupid to NOT take the matching contributions no matter what VALIC's fees. Any opinions or thoughts? Another piece of info is that I only see myself staying in this district for maybe 5 years before returning to my old district (long story...short answer, I will be commuting a long distance for the new job)

What sd are you employed by? SAU29 - Keene School District. Keene, NH This is one of the few benefits that we have in my district that very few of my fellow teachers realize. I've been looking at jobs up in Hanover, NH (SAU70) and they have a set 403b vendor list that is pretty limited to mostly insurance annuities. However, they pay their teachers a heck of a lot better. =)

New to the board here. I was shocked to learn that my school district allows its employees to research and select their own 403(b) vendors. We can go with whoever we want, but there is no employer match. So, I was able to call Vanguard directly and do the whole set up online via a link they emailed me. Why in the world would you go through a third party to set a Vanguard acct? I selected their 2035 retirement account for my 403(b). Kaika