Passive day to day income

[Rich Hupper]

Two questions for anyone willing to help a newbie.

1) what is the point of a roth or traditional IRA if you can only add 5000 to it each year. I am 30 so that means I have 29.5 years I can add to it. If my math is correct that means I will have $147,500.00 in there by the time I retire at 59.5. How am I suppose to survive the next 30 years on $147,500.00?

I currently have a "roll over IRA" which was at one point a 401(k) when I was an employee.

2) I would like to open up a stock trading account where I can buy dividend paying stocks with my roll over IRA. I would like to add the dividends to my current monthly income. Is this possible to do? Is it a horrible idea tax wise? Is the tax rate on dividends really high? I currently only make 70k a year as a sole proprietor with all my income in the form of commissions.

Thanks for your help.