IRA account

[Dave Lehnert]

Looking for a place to start an IRA.
Any company you liked or disliked?

[Dewey Torres]

Like Shcwab... so much in fact that I am still with them. Great customer service and a variety of services. Website is top notch and computer tools and reports are about a good as I have ever seen.

My wife had an Ameritrade account and it was no where near as good... it was not an IRA though. The Schwab account is.

[Tom Veatch]

I have mine with Fidelity Investments (http://personal.fidelity.com/products/retirement/rollover/rolloverintro.shtml.cvsr) and have no complaints. A more important question is probably what type of investments to hold in the IRA and I'm not qualified to offer advice on that subject.

[Ted Shrader]

+1 and +2 for Charles Schwab. Both my wife and I have separate accounts there (and a joint one, too). Very good customer service. The website is first rate for market research, portfolio profile, etc. The advisors do not work on commission, but on a fee schedule, so they don't need to sell you anything to feed their family. They just advise. There are others with lower transaction fees, but Schwab's fees are not very much higher. Depending on the size of your account, you may get free advice.

No stock recommendations from me, the stocks/mutual funds you pick are up to you.

Ted

[mark page]

I vote for American Funds. They constantly have high performance track records. You will very rarely ever see them advertise so they are not an everday household name. I have my major 401k with them and some roths. My 401 is a no load fund, and as an economic gloat, I have managed in the past year not to lose my butt like other people have. I've been with them for appx the last 15 years and no problems. They have good customer service and can tailor to whatever you want.

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks!

I have a good idea what I want to do. Just need to find a place to deal with.

[Dewey Torres]

Dave,
One thing to keep in mind with your IRA is that you can't touch it right away so part if your strategy should be factoring weather the broker you pick is going to be around until you are able to draw.

Yes you could move your money but why not pick a good company (like you are doing) from the start and let it be?

Another reason I went with Schwab. I don't know how old you are but that is over 20 years for me.

[glenn bradley]

Happy with Schwab and Fidelity both but, I'm a long term guy looking towards retirement.

[David G Baker]

At one time I had Schwab and had around 12,000 with them. Everything was fine for a year or so then they started charging inactive fees that were higher than the earnings were. I dumped them and went to Vanguard and have never been happier.
Don't know if it is still true now but at one time Charles Schwab was one of the highest paid CEO in America. I didn't like the thought of the company managing my money paying their CEO a criminal amout of money, another reason I won't use Schwab again.

[Kev Godwin]

I have my largest retirement investments with T. Rowe Price and have been with them for 20 years and am happy. 401K, former SARSEP, and Roth IRA are there.

My wife has her portfolio with Vanguard and has invested primarily in their index funds. She is happy with the service.

We were both fortunate this last year. We both side-lined about 60% of our stock mutual funds a year ago and parked the money in CD's and other cash type investments. (Kind of like Bugs Bunny jumping off of the plane just before hitting the ground and walking away. Not claiming to be smart - just got lucky.:))
Kev

[John Keeton]

I have used Vanguard for many years, as well as T. Rowe Price and American Century. Unfortunately, not many of these did well over the past several months, but I have been pleased overall. Unless you had cash accounts, or the rare unscathed fund, the past 12 months has probably not been kind to your portfolio regardless of who you had!!

[Mark Patoka]

I think part of it depends on what investments you are going to use for your IRA. When my wife and I first started we used are local credit union because we were investing in CDs, then switched to American Century when we started getting into mutual funds and then over to Schwab to keep all our investments in one place.

I never had any problems with Schwab, great online research and account management, and over the years they've reduced their fees to compete with the other investment houses.

[dennis thompson]

I'm with both Vanguard & Fidelity. Vanguard is generally known to have the lowest fees.I find the available research at Fidelity better than Vanguard.
Basically I'm happy with both of them.
Dennis

[Michael Weber]

+1 for Vanguard

[Eddie Watkins]

One you might check is Muriel Siebert. I use Schwab but saw a list of top companies not to long ago and Muriel Siebert was considered one of the better by the evaluator. Just trying to give you another option.

[Thomas Bank]

Another pleased Charles Schwab customer.

[Al Wasser]

I have done business with Schwab for many years. I also have small accounts at Ameritrade and Scottrade. I prefer Schwab. I think it is nice to have a local branch where you can walk in and discuss something if the need arrises. I am not a fan of doing it all by phone, but that is me.

[Neal Clayton]

i use fidelity mainly out of convenience, last employer set up our 401ks there so i stayed with it for my brokerage account.

honestly i find google's finance section as good as alot of the brokers' sites.

the only thing that makes one different in function than the others is e-trade lets you trade overseas markets online, i don't know if any of the others do that yet or not (i know fidelity doesn't).