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Roth IRAs owned by ultra-wealthy Americans have been in spotlight after ProPublica obtained more than 15 years of tax return data on them.  The largest one belonging to PayPal (PYPL - Free Report) founder Peter Thiel had over $5 billion in assets as of 2019. Thiel used the account to buy founder’s shares in PayPal and also shares in Palantir PLTR and Facebook (FB - Free Report) when they were still private companies.

Unlike Thiel, Warren Buffett’s deputy Ted Weschler built his retirement wealth through publicly traded investments and strategies available to all investors. His investing journey provides some good lessons for other investors. These lessons include: start young, buy stocks, stay invested, maintain a diversified portfolio, and capture the power of compounding.

IRAs allow investors to buy individual stocks, bonds, ETFs or mutual funds.ETFs are excellent tools for retirement investors since they provide an easy way to build a diversified portfolio at a low cost.

Tracey recommends owning high-quality stocks like Apple (AAPL - Free Report), Amazon (AMZN - Free Report), and Nvidia (NVDA - Free Report), and ETFs in retirement accounts. The Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ - Free Report) and its cheaper version Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF QQQM hold many highly innovative companies. Apple, Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report), Amazon, and Alphabet (GOOG - Free Report) are the top holdings in these funds.

Investors should also consider low-cost ETFs like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO - Free Report) and iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT - Free Report) for broad market exposure.

Further, dividend-paying ETFs are better placed in an IRA as income is sheltered from taxes. The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG - Free Report) and the iShares Core High Dividend Growth (DGRO - Free Report), which hold companies that have a record of increasing dividends over time, are worth a look.