Where's the best place to set up an IRA that has no load mutual funds? We have a few different IRA's, one of which is at Edward Jones that my wife had there when we got married. They are constant trying to get my IRAs too but I don't want to pay their 5.75% commission on mutual funds. My wife has already paid it so we don't mind hers staying there.

Much of mine used to be with my employers 401k and was there for 13 years. I'm free to put it in an IRA anywhere I want now. Where would you recommend?

Bb

Vanguard and Fidelity would be good choices.

Stated: I am a financial nincompoop. However after several tries I have landed at Stifel Nicolaus and am very pleased. They are a true fiduciary. They do offer no-load funds, but they are seldom the cheapest per transaction. You did not really state whether you were looking for a broker or an investment tip.
I got out of "retirement plans", IRA and Roth, when I came of age, to get away from government rules. No mutuals ever again. With Stifel's help and easy online research, I manage my own account with a mix of bonds, equities, and preferreds. My goals were security, income and principle maintenance. 33% muni bonds, 66% equities and preferreds. I weathered the 2008 debacle nicely. You may want to look into it, ask lots of questions,your tax situation will dictate your best path.

Focus on “net” not just the load or transaction cost. You might make more money, if you pay a load or some transaction costs. Or you might not.
But just looking at no load mutual funds is likely restricting your opportunity.

Seconded. Add Janus to that group.

If you are eligible USAA has a god deal. You can set up a mix of mutual funds, etf's, and stocks. The mutual funds are no load and the commission on stock trades isn't much. Edward Jones is expensive.

I messed around with my investments for over thirty years. Two years ago I turned everything over to Edward Jones and haven’t looked back.

Schwab.

You can trade ETF's with zero commission.

And one more for these two

? Dave Ramsey has talked against ETFs, what is the downside? Isn't QQQ an ETF? GDX? They sort of seem like specialized mutual funds in a way.

Just buy the Vanguard Index 500 fund. No load and probably the lowest fees. Index funds have the lowest fees because there is no need to "manage"them. Over a 10 or 20 year period, it's been hard to beat. them for appreciation. Why pay a 1.0% or 2.0% annual fee when you can pay 0.16% or something and get getter appreciation? And front end loads are for suckers.

No need to look further than these two brokers. Both sell all different kinds of funds. Someone mentioned Janus funds. Janus was one of my best performing mutual funds when I had a 401K with Fidelity.

Vanguard and Fidelity.

Heck, Fidelity even has a couple of index funds now that are literally zero fees for anything ever. But I trust Vanguard as a company moreso because of how they are organized.

Another vote for Fidelity or Vanguard. One advantage that Fidelity has for some people is that they have offices where you can talk face to face with someone if you like that. Vanguard is all over the phone, I believe.

I use both Schwab and Fidelity. I have a self directed 401K and QRP, a Roth IRA, and a regular account with Schwab and a regular account with Fidelity. Schwab is a lot easier to use when making trades and is very easy to see all your accounts and to move around on the site.

Earlier this month Schwab dropped their trading fees to zero and the others brokers followed suit.
So you can buy or sell 1 or 10,000 shares of AAPL [apple] or FB [facebook] for under a dollar.

You can buy/sell stocks, ETFs,mutual funds,bonds,or CD's all in one account. Schwab also has managed accounts for those who don't want to do it themselves.

I've switched my mutual funds to ETFs because you can buy or sell anytime during the day when the market is open. Mutual funds only buy/sell at the end of the day and make you hold them for a set period of time or you get charged a % fee.

Think of an ETF as a mutual fund you trade like a stock. No waiting until the end of the day for the NAV, it's priced like any other stock and bought and sold with market, limit and stop orders because it trades like a stock.

Yes QQQ and GLD are ETF's. SPY represents the S&P 500.

You're hard pressed to do better than Vanguard and particularly VTSAX.
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/vtsax

For a do-it-all fund, I like the Fidelity Four In One Fund. It's a fund of 4 funds. It's 48% 500 Index, 12% Extended Market Index, 25% International Index and 15% US Bond Index.

This.

I am a USAA member. I had narrowed it down to Fidelity, Vanguard, or USAA. USAA seems a bit more limited but they've always been good to deal with banking and insurance wise.

I'm interested in ETFs as well. I used to actively manage my own stuff but I parked it all in early 2008 before the crash and when I got back in a few years later I just left it middle of the road risk fund with my 401k. I've forgotten a lot in 12 years of not managing things myself.

I put most of my extra cash into rental homes from 2011-2016 but I'm no longer doing much of that.

Bb

I've been with Fidelity since the 80's. I like them. We have two managed accounts plus several mutual funds that we manage. I can't see ever going with a load fund. You are giving up a substantial percentage of your money right up front. Fidelity has a very good research tool and offer no cost funds as well as ETFs.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have put my money into an S&P 500 index fund and left it alone. Maybe some NASDAQ and Total Market too. Expenses are very low and the returns have been excellent. Warren Buffet was right.

I have mine invested in guns!

I have Fidelity. Like one poster said, they have some funds that charge nothing at all. It is a USA broad index fund that has 3400 stocks in it. I use it quite a bit. I dont buy loaded funds EVER!!. With Fidelity, they dont even charge a commission for buying or selling stocks anymore. If I had to do it all over again, I would have put it in just a few index funds and a few ETF's , and a few bond funds. A large cap , madcap and small cap index fund. I would have a few bond mutual funds and a tax free muni fund. I would have been better off as of now but I do have my portfolio in more conservative dividend stock like Exxon Modil AT&T,, Walgreen, British Petroleum, and Johnson & Johnson United Healthcare ETC. I make about what the Dow Jones Makes but with higher dividends and less volatility.

burley, dude you know better, REAL ESTATE!!! use your IRA self directed to buy real estate. tons of different ways to do it. went to a real estate investing lunch yesterday and a guy only put 1k in his roth IRA never added any other money, but used it for real estate deals and now has 750k in the account.

I asked my accountant who sees over 300 returns a year. how did the wealthy people get there. None of them got there from mutual funds and the stock markets, 120k in a 401k invested in the stock market is not my idea of wealthy, BTW.

I made a little money on real estate but only when I was physically able to do some of the maintenance myself. After paying $530 to have a $22 walmart thermostat installed and being robbed by plumbers charging $400 an hour in the same month and many other things I decided rentals weren't worth it.

I was charge $5300 to have some mold from a leaking water heater remediated. It took two guys 90 minutes each. The tenant was immunocompromised so I had to have it professionally done.

I had 5 single family homes in a great rental market at one time but I tried to be a good landlord and take care of things so it was mostly break even. I sold one to the tenants at a loss because they had pretty much destroyed it and I didn't want to deal with gutting and remodeling it. I made around $20,000 on the next one when I sold it after about 3 years of dealing with jerk renters. I made about $40,000 on the last one I sold but had a ton of sweat equity in it.

I can't say I didn't make a little on real estate but I sometimes wonder if it was worth it. I don't see many deals around now either. I'd like my money to be earning without me having to clean up a yard that tenants neglected for 3 years or scrape boogers off the walls with a paint scraper. I'm sure there's better ways to make it in.real estate but there are a lot of scammers in it too.

I have one 4 bed 2 bath 2 car garage rental left. It rents for $1200 a month and I'll have it paid off in 3 or so more years. Taxes and insurance are about $300 a month so paid off I'll net $900. I could sell it for over $200,000 and then hard money loan that out at 12% and make much more money without dealing with renters. Equations like that make me question owning rentals. I know I could leverage out that $200 k and borrow into several rentals but it's just more hassle and more expensive repairs.

My in laws were always savers and put about 10% of their income in a 401k. They are very cheap and cautious and for most of their lives didn't earn much. They retired with over $3,000,000 in their 401. They started early and had time on their side.

I did get a good deal on one rental when I bought it because the guy had it in a self directed IRA and had to start taking money out because he turn 70. He had to sell it in a very down market and wasn't happy. I gave him a low ball offer and said call me if it comes down to it and you don't have other options. He called a few months later and said let's do it.

I wonder what kind of real estate deal a guy could do with $1000 in a self directed IRA. I'm sure it's been done but I wouldn't know what to do with only 1k.

Bb

made shiit tons on this



FSLCX

You keep repeating this and people keep telling you it's BS.

I think Cummings is right that there is money to be made in real estate I've made some. I'm just questioning whether it's worth it or not. I saw a lot of people lose money in it too. I'm sure there are some better angles out there than being a landlord. There is one big problem variable with rentals and that's renters. I'm just tired of renters. Keeping 1 rental for diversity is enough for me right now. I plan to pay it off and use it to supplement income.

Bb

I wonder if you can use a self directed IRA to do hard money loans?

Bb

YES! burley I thought about your story as a landlord. It reminds me of what my dad always used to say about rentals. He had the same experience as you pretty much, in some cases worse. But had he held on and kept at it, he would have retired in a totally different circumstance. For me I own a disaster cleanup company, which is a big help for me. The other thing is I try to hang out with other property investors. I have a mentor that owns 100 doors, We have real estate clubs in our area that meet and talk about most aspects of property investment. I think there is a couple things I would say about your situation. I have a team of people I use, yes people come and go out of it, but I replace them with others through my connections with other real estate investors. you mention the HVAC guy who ripped you off. YES that is a problem, "I have an old guy who will look at a furnace and say thats a $30 part, don't replace the furnace that one is simple with few parts to break. The new ones have way more parts to break and don't last as long. " I have another company who is my backup that is honest and doesn't try to rip me off. Plumbing is always one of my tuffest trades. So is just a handi man, We have a list of people we call for almost everything. I also have other people from a real estate attorney. 2 different title companies, and my wife is an agent.

the other I would say is idaho until recently hasn't performed like my area has. I think that matters quite a bit. Idaho is an emerging place to live and lots of people are wanting to move there. But its going to come down to the economic situation in that area. Are there jobs to support the people wanting to move to that area? I was in twin falls last month. I love the area, but it looks to be like its a ton of agriculture, which I LOVE, but I dunno about the employment prospects long term in that area. Invest for cash flow, stay in it long term. look for emerging areas to own in, run it like a business. if tenants don't pay by the 7th of the month, they get a 3 day notice to vacate, pay attention to what types of tenants have worked well and which ones haven't, build a real estate team, accountants, lawyers, title, repairman, hang out with others doing the same thing. Thats my tips.

burley if you are interested my mentor brokers hard money. If I had the cash to do those loans he is the only one I would personally work with on it, the last thing you want is a loan like that going sideways!!! He also has info on what you can do with an IRA account like you are asking about. PM me if you would like his contact info, There is no one else I have have learned more from about business short of my dad than this guy.

one edit: I also know a guy selling tenant in common investments for commercial real estate, for someone like you that wants to do no managment, I think its something like a 7% rate of return they offer. They buy commercial property like dollar general, etc pretty solid commercial investments then you buy in as a fractional owner. I have his contact too if you are interested.

Cummins cowboy. My dad made his first million in rentals. There is a big difference in people who buy rentals and people who buy stocks and mutual funds. Here it is. Most renters keep their properties for decades. My mom and dad built their first house in 1966. He has rented it since 1974. Of course he made a lot of money and getting $1000 a month on a house that cost him 24K. Now, take 10 mutual funds that were bought in 1966 and I can guarantee those people did very well. The Dalbar study sais the avr. stock investor makes 3% per year . Not good huh? Here is why . They take the money out , the market goes up, they put it back in, the market goes down. Many actually loose money investing. Buy 50 stocks in 1966 and you can bet they ddi very well and never argued with renters. I sent you a PM a w months back about an energy ETF. Had I bought the ETF the day I PMed you , I would be up about 7%. plus 1% in divies. Not bad for 2 months. It may go up or down, but in 25 yrs I bet I will be sitting pretty. Time in the market is the key and time in the house rental is also the key.

If I were to ever jump ship from Vanguard(no current plans on it) the only place I would go would be Fidelity.

Most all of the brokerage firms offer no-load funds as well as deeply discounted or commission free stock transactions.

I have money at Vanguard, but their web interface sucks big time. They do have a very nice money market yielding more than 2% (VMMXX) which is a nice place to store money when you can't find anything to buy at the moment. I also have more trouble setting up accounts at Vanguard than anywhere else. TDAmeritrade is very good and so is Schwab. There are often running promos of several hundred dollars for new account of minimum size.

I was sure proud of myself for jumping out of the market in 08 right before the crash. The problem is I didn't jump back in soon enough. I would have been better off just leaving it in and taking the hit but riding it back up.

I became fairly cynical about the markets and just didn't trust it at all. It seemed like a shell game. I bought a bunch of silver in 08 and 09 and made some on it then kept a little as an emergency fund. I then started buying rentals for few years. Then I focused on getting out of debt the last 5 years. We've always put some in the markets but i keep 50k of it in a very low risk money market that only pays 2% as an emergency type fund.

Now that our debts gone except for the 1 rental we are trying to put 19k a year in my wifes 401 and 6k in my IRA. We are paying the rental down quick as we can but decided to start investing now too even if it means a few years more of rental payments. My health is not good and I was only able to get 250k in life insurance so I'm trying to save and invest what i can to leave the family in a good spot if my card gets pulled.

After talking to my in laws the main thing they had going for them was time. They didn't make a lot in their early years but started paying into different retirement investments in their twenties. They just left it in and let it ride. If it went down they just bought more. They retired with millions but still won't usually buy a grandkid lunch.

I try to save and manage my money but I've just never been able to be as cheap as some people can. I just couldn't pass up a fieldcraft in 6 creed for $1150 for example. I wish I would have been putting $500 a month in since I was about 25. Can't turn back the clock but I can start now. I put $5500 in an IRA last year and plan to max it out every year from here on out and max out the wifes 401k. If we save any beyond that we may do hard money loans or more real estate.

They way the world and labor markets are changing I feel more compelled than ever to leave something for my kids. My oldest is only 7 but they all have savings accounts, cds, and they each have a sizable bag of silver and a little gold. I'd like to start buying them a few select stocks and funds.

I think I'll get started on a fidelity or vanguard acct. I just need to decide between the two. I also need to know if there's any downside to ETFs. They sound like a good alternative to traditional funds. I'd like to get a good chunk in an index fund or two and spread the rest around the market a bit. I'm kind of excited to start learning about the markets again after writing them off during the Obama years.

Bb

Lots of good info on the thread and remember that everyone reading this is not in the same boat money wise.
Some here own businesses,get paid as a 1099 r, work for a company and get W-2's and have access 401k, 403B, etc. Some have 1 person incomes, some have 2 person incomes.Some have kids or other family to care for and some of us have more debt than others.

Twenty years ago my account slapped me up side the head and told me to open a brokerage account, a self directed 401 K, and a Roth IRA with Schwab. I had just finished raising two kids thru college as a single parent and was self employed. I started funding my 401 K to reduce taxes and put any that was left into my Roth. I also bought a couple stocks in the brokerage account.

As I said in an earlier post that Schwab interface is the easiest one to use even though I have a Fidelity account that gets my SS every month and has some dividend paying stocks in it.
I've also had a Dean Witter account ,an Ameritrade, and E trade accounts. I also have a 401K thru my work .
You can have more than one and some one stated that Schwab has a sign up bonus and maybe other do also.

ETFs are so much easier to buy and sell than Mutual funds. That's why they are growing so fast and you can pick exactly what type you want, Buy today and sell tomorrow especially if the dems look like they are going to get in next year.

Remember that funding your 401 K, 403B, reduces your taxable income. I'd much rather put money in a retirement account than give it to the government.

If you are a business owner or self employed you can fund over 50K a year. You can also do a Roth IRA which is funded by after tax dollars. Doesn't reduce your taxes but grows and you don't pay any tax when you take the funds out.

Different strokes for different folks but I hope this helps.

About 10 years ago we were in the same boat with stuff spread everywhere. It was all doing OK but it meant understanding a whole lot of fee structures, doing a lot of assimilation to determine how we were doing and keeping our plan on track. Moved everything to Fidelity and now it's in one place and when you reach a certain threshold you get a very nice amount of personalized help in tracking, planning and measuring.

As you say, your mileage may vary however we are much happier having it all in one place but the important part is to be in the game!