Listen to your spouse

As a man, I should have known better when my loving spouse said she did not understand why a real estate limited partnership was a good investment for our (very modest) college savings for our daughters and/or future house purchase. But I, of course, in my male wisdom, not only listened to the brokerage salesperson, but also elected to invest in it in my IRA.

Well, it was later revealed that my brokerage was misbehaving, and it wiped out many thousands of investors, pushing limited partnerships and suggesting that they were as safe as CDs.

I lost the entire $2,000 investment in my IRA. And by the way, I shouldn’t have had a taxadvantaged investment in my IRA anyway, as the IRA is already taxadvantaged. You pay your money for some education.

I also try to listen to my spouse more.

— B.H., online

THE FOOL RESPONDS >> You learned some great lessons. For starters, some investments are better suited for IRAs than others. Stocks you expect to grow the fastest and securities paying hefty interest or dividends might be good for your Roth IRA, as you can expect not to be taxed on withdrawals. Tax-free bonds, on the other hand, needn’t be in a tax-advantaged account. Meanwhile, know that many limited partnerships are fine investments, but they do work a little differently than common stocks, and you should read up before investing.