Where to open IRA?

UNR.Grad said:

Obviously there are a lot of different companies that offer ROTH IRAs. Does it matter which to use? You can transfer your ROTH to a different company further down the road correct if you wanted to do so? Also, they all earn relatively the same returns, correct?

I am looking at both Fidelity and Charles Schwab, but the Schwab account would be easier for me to open at this time with a $1,000 minimum or $100 automatic withdrawals to start vs. Fidelity's $2,500 minimum or $250 automatic withdrawals to start.

Any help would be great

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It matters most which specific fund you choose if you are talking about a large company. Some funds carry more risk than others. Make sure you look at fees as well, some funds have a fee if your balance is under a certain amount, some have fees to start up, some have fees to take your money out, etc. I use TRowe price and they have several funds that have no "front end or back end" fees. They also have something called "automatic asset builder" where I can choose to start out with a zero balance and put in 50 dollars a month (or more if I want).

I am sure Schwab and Fidelity have programs like this as well.

You may want to do a quick search in the news as well for any ethical violations by some of those top companies as well. I know fidelity has been in the news lately

"Fidelity Investments has suffered three years of embarrassing revelations of bachelor parties gone wrong (the dwarf denied being tossed, if you recall) and free Super Bowl tickets in a federal investigation of gift giving by Wall Street brokers eager for the fund giant’s stock commissions. The firm has already thrown out some of the employees involved and paid back $42 million to its fund shareholders. Today should mark the final chapter as Fidelity settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay another $8 million while sticking to the usual neither admit nor deny wrongdoing formulation common in these type of matters." http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/03/sec_dings_peter.html

Peter Lynch and Schwab have been mentioned lately as well. Not sure if this will mean anything in the long run or not.

I've had mine with Banc of America. But I am going to be switching to Vanguard. I've been doing a lot of looking and they seem to be pretty good. I'll probably be putting it into one of their targeted retirement funds or their Total International. I am unsure, but will be making the switch within a month.

Go to Vanguard. Don't ask questions. Just do it. You'll be glad you did later. Costs matter.

Ours are with TD-Ameritrade. No fees, no problems. My main brokerage account is with Scottrade, and I think they have Roth IRAs too. I'm completely satisfied with them, as well.

T Rowe Price is the heat. No starting amount needed if you choose to do their "automatic asset builder program" where they take out 50$ a month from your account (you can choose to invest more monthly if you want). Once you hit 2500k in your account you can stop the automatic asset builder program if you want. There is a $10 quarterly fee if you have under 2500$ in the account (I think). once you surpass this amount they no longer charge you the fee.

All in all they are very responsive when you call them, very helpful, very low to no fees on many of their accounts. It is worth looking into. www.troweprice.com

I second both T Rowe Price and Vanguard. Disclosure: I have Roth IRA in both, and I have had (and disliked) Fidelity.

Vanguard has 3k minimums on its funds, but I think they are by far the best mutual fund company and the best to put your Roth IRA in. Their fees are the lowest in the industry.

Fidelity is a close 2nd, but you usually need to put in 10k to get similar low fees

whats wrong with fidelity? I have all of my money there. they don't have any fees.

1. Pick either Fidelity or Vanguard due to the lowest expense ratios.

2. Pick an index funds if you don't know what your doing, at least that what WEB say's so.

3. If you don't like index funds then Target funds are okay too.

Fidelity has the two lowest expense ratios. I know one is fsmkx which is just follows the s&p500 with in expense ratio of 0.10%. I don't remember the other 0.10% but you can probably find it online.

Vanguard has some other good ones too. There s&p500 is at a 0.15% and their total stock market index is also at 0.15%. Can't go wrong with either vanguard or fidelity with there low expense ratios.

If you have a good amount of money, the other option is to buy a share/partial share of Brk-b which is Warren Buffetts stock at sharebuilder.com and ride the wave with the best using a Rorth Ira. One share of Brk-b right now is about $4,400. I'm personally doing a share of Brk-b with my IRA. Best of luck.

mmmlortab, what are you talking about? You can buy any funds from any brokerage house.

Yes, you can buy funds from any brokerage house, but I was getting at specific funds that have the LOWEST expense ratios that will also do well in the long run. I don't know what other companies charge if you don't buy from their specific company, so I usually just stick to the company name if I buy their fund. I think the Jan 08 money magazine had a list for the lowest expense ratios mutual funds that are worth investing in at the same time.

As for index funds, "A very low-cost index is going to beat a majority of the amateur-managed money or professionally-managed money," Buffett said at a press conference, a day after the annual shareholder meeting for his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. He also backs index funds in the, "Warren Buffett Way."
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN0628419820070507


I would only use sharebuilder to buy shares of Brk-B because I can only cost average the price since one share is $4,400, and I don't have that much money due to student loans. If I could buy brk-b shares outright I would use some other brokerage account. That is the only brokerage company that I know that I can buy partial shares. If you know of another let me know. I know Brk-b is a great long investment and it has outperformed the s&p500 consistently. I wish I would had invested my 2006 IRA in Brk-B since my mutual funds have taken a hit due to the economy.

Anyways here's some good reading for which funds to go with. There are a wealth of financial blogs online. One of my favorites is http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives...nt-mutual-funds-t-rowe-price-vs-vanguard.html

It compares TRP w/ Vanguard. His blogs are a wealth of knowledge. Have fun reading!

UNR.Grad said:

Great advice everyone, thanks! Seems like Vanguard is coming up a lot, maybe I can go with them but only if they'll have a start up account with automatic deposits. TRP looks great too.

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note that while fidelity has spartan index funds that offer a lower expense ratio than similar vanguard funds, the minimum investment is $10,000.

I would NOT go with Fidelity. Their service over the last year has gotten really bad, especially compared to how great they were in 2005-2006. Inordinately long hold times are the norm, some of the traders are not very knowledgeable about Fidelity's own services/procedures, there are sometimes technical glitches in placing trade orders, etc. I've become fed up with them to the point where, when I have some free time, I'll be looking at other brokerage houses to place my money.

Soundwave said:

whats wrong with fidelity? I have all of my money there. they don't have any fees.

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Fidelity funds have a higher expense ratio than Vanguard funds until you get to 10k (Vanguard itself has 3k minimums)

UserNameNeeded said:

I would NOT go with Fidelity. Their service over the last year has gotten really bad, especially compared to how great they were in 2005-2006. Inordinately long hold times are the norm, some of the traders are not very knowledgeable about Fidelity's own services/procedures, there are sometimes technical glitches in placing trade orders, etc. I've become fed up with them to the point where, when I have some free time, I'll be looking at other brokerage houses to place my money.

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i put in a bid for the visa ipo...if they can get me a few shares (which i am certain they won't), i'll stick with them. if not, hell, i'll still stick with them.

etf said:

i put in a bid for the visa ipo...if they can get me a few shares (which i am certain they won't), i'll stick with them. if not, hell, i'll still stick with them.

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ETF, you became an institutional investor overnight?

I get what you mean, you're buying Fidelity's allocation of Visa's IPO. I just thought I'd tease you a bit.

Is Fidelity making you sign a lock-up agreement, or are you free to flip the stock?

UserNameNeeded said:

I would NOT go with Fidelity. Their service over the last year has gotten really bad, especially compared to how great they were in 2005-2006. Inordinately long hold times are the norm, some of the traders are not very knowledgeable about Fidelity's own services/procedures, there are sometimes technical glitches in placing trade orders, etc. I've become fed up with them to the point where, when I have some free time, I'll be looking at other brokerage houses to place my money.

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I don't know about your experience but mine has been great ever since I joined Fidelity. I recently joined Fidelity so I don't know about the booming past years you refer to, but their service has been great, expecially for the products I utilize the brokerage for.

IceMan0824 said:

ETF, you became an institutional investor overnight?

I get what you mean, you're buying Fidelity's allocation of Visa's IPO. I just thought I'd tease you a bit.

Is Fidelity making you sign a lock-up agreement, or are you free to flip the stock?

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i'm not going to get any, because it's reserved for their best customers. but if you do get some, you're free to flip it if you want, but if you do, they kind of blacklist you from future ipos.

So I really want to open an IRA this year, which I'll have to do by April 15. I'm leaning towards a Vanguard target retirement acct. I am currently 2 years out of college, heading to an MSTP, and have a healthy stash of savings. My question is, where should I open the account? As far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm wrong) I can buy any fund through any bank/brokerage. I do my run-of-the-mill banking with Bank of America (which may or may not change depending on where I end up for med school) and also have an investment account (money market) with TD Ameritrade. There's a possibility I will switch to HSBC when I move on to med school.

So should I just stick with Ameritrade, or are there any downsides or advantages to any of the options I have?

Kraazy said:

So I really want to open an IRA this year, which I'll have to do by April 15. I'm leaning towards a Vanguard target retirement acct. I am currently 2 years out of college, heading to an MSTP, and have a healthy stash of savings. My question is, where should I open the account? As far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm wrong) I can buy any fund through any bank/brokerage. I do my run-of-the-mill banking with Bank of America (which may or may not change depending on where I end up for med school) and also have an investment account (money market) with TD Ameritrade. There's a possibility I will switch to HSBC when I move on to med school.

So should I just stick with Ameritrade, or are there any downsides or advantages to any of the options I have?

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I have my IRAs through TD-Ameritrade, and am happy with the service.

I have my brokerage account through Scottrade, and am also happy with their service (The reason why they are not in the same place is because WAY back when I opened my brokerage and IRA accounts, Scottrade did not offer IRAs. They do now, however.)

Therefore, I would recommend both.

I did it with vanguard. The best!!!

Sol Rosenberg said:

Ours are with TD-Ameritrade. No fees, no problems.

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Yup, same here...