2006-06-21 10:24:15 · 4 answers · asked by j r 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Investing
You can't "buy" a Roth IRA. You can open a Roth IRA account with a mutual fund company or brokerage firm and make a deposit, where the deposit will be invested.
Lowest cost? Vanguard (www.vanguard.com).
2006-06-21 10:28:47 · answer #1 · answered by Cão Bravo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A Roth IRA is merely a type of account. A Roth can hold many different kinds of investments from bank CDS, to mutual funds, to stocks and even real estate!
What kind of investment do you want? That's the first question you need to answer.
It is possible to get a Roth account that carries minimal and sometimes minimal annual fees, but again..what's inside the IRA counts more.
The bank is probably not going to charge a fee, but then a CD doesn't earn enough return to even beat inflation and is a poor choice for a retirement account.
Mutual funds come in many varieties and the fund companies will, in most cases, hold your accounts directly without you needing a brokerage account. However, most have an annual fee, at least until you hit a certain minimum in the account. Some firms, like American Funds charge only $10 a year, others charge as much as $35.
A brokerage account is going to give you the most flexibility because you can buy and sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more from it...but your set up fee is going to run around $35 and so will your annual fee.
Those high fees will eat your investment alive if you don't have a great big account.
So...presuming you are a smaller investor, take a look at a good no-load mutual fund company like T. Rowe Price. They have very low account minimums and low fees.
But....you've just gotten the easy answer, the hard part is picking an investment. THAT might be worth paying a fee for unless you are willing to do some homework. Edward Jones (a brokerage firm) will help you get going and it will probably cost you 5% or so of your investment up front to get that advice (cheap for a small investor). Once you have your funds chosen, you just keep adding to it and watch it grow and you get rich.
www.edwardjones.com for the office nearest you...
2006-06-21 11:34:46 · answer #2 · answered by Lori A 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you want to invest in mutual funds, open an account with a no-load mutual fund company. If you want to buy CDs, go to a bank.
DO NOT buy any mutual funds from banks because then you will have to pay commissions
2006-06-21 10:30:53 · answer #3 · answered by ps2754 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any credit union
2006-06-21 10:27:57 · answer #4 · answered by barfly 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋