I need to open roth IRA account. Need help selecting brokerage house.?

Question

Where should I open my roth IRA account. Fidelity charges $75 for transactions fee funds. They have a lot of non-transaction fees funds ($0 fees). Etrade and scottrade has very few non-transaction fees funds but their fee is very low. Less than $20. I don't want to limit myself with only some of the mutual funds (NTF) with fidelity. At the same time I will be paying $20 for everyfund I buy with etrade.

Answer 1

I have been with Fidelity for over eight years...and here's a few things I have found out:
I don' t think you can beat their site for research and/or assistance.
When you learn how to use their portfolio layout, you can tell everything about things you've bought, the various prices, profit or loss on every sale,and their " analysis" of your holdings shows you where you stand as far as allocations in sectors.
As far as fees ...there are soooo many NTF funds ( so similar to funds with fees- if you compare holdings) that you really don't need to look at the funds with fees...but, if you absolutely, positively have to have that other fund, $75.00 ?
you're talking about maybe one day's profit ( or less).
You'll find the same dilemma with some funds that have " short-term trading fees" ( with all brokers)...sometimes you just have to sell before the 3 month or 6 month period...so what ? you're getting OUT of a loser no doubt...that fee is half ( or less) than what you're losing every day. So you get out.
You will find that "fees" aren't the big problem some naysayers ( about funds) make them out to be....
If this is your first IRA ,( limit $4,000.?) you will probably be buying only one fund for a while anyway... or you could get venturesome and go one fund and a little stock?
Funds I have had great " luck" with: FEMKX , FLVCX, EUROX, FRESX, ICENX.. funds I have been in made money and got out: NBGEX, FBRSX, FSCHX.,FNARX ( shoulda stayed!)
One loser ( my fault -late getting in) was Alpine Real Estate... paid a short term trading fee and never looked back. And, in my case FRESX was a better deal...
If you're going to try the stock- trading route let me suggest a good " refiner" between now and June...gas prices up, up... TSO.. FTO...WNR. Jump start that IRA... and add the profits to your " fund" in June.( we hope)
IF you are going to be " conservative", don't be so conservative that you exclude " international" markets...the rest of the world is " cooking" like the U.S. did in the 50's and 60's....... look at FGBLX...or even FNMIX ( fantastic if you're frugal...every month you get a few more shares ( dividend) and you just have a little more working for you next month....and on-and-on)

Answer 2

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Answer 3

If you are going to buy and hold, Sharebuilder is probably for you. It's $25 a year, but "cash" over $500 (I think) is put in a mutual fund which gives 4.4% interest right now so $800 in the money market would cover your expense. The other fees are $4 per buy and $15 something to sell. So if you buy a stock or ETF once annually that's just $4.

Answer 4

the ideal reason to start a Roth is,, The valuable factors made on your Roth IRA at the instant are not taxed, So in case you have your Roth IRA's with a brokerage account you may commerce shares with out ever paying a capital benefit tax,,, hence, if your Roth looses money, you may no longer declare the loss the two, good success,

Answer 5

Schwab is not very limited + you should not be buying mutual funds in general anyway. ETFs smarter and much lower internal expense. .6 vs 1.5% often. ADX & PEO 2 closed ends even better as sell at 10%+ discount to asset value. No mutual fund sells at a discount.

Answer 6

A good option with Fidelity is that while deciding what to do with your money, you can leave it in the money market which is paying 4.9%.

I know of no other brokerages that give you this kind of return for a MM.
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