- quote -

Well if they stop somebody else will start. Anyone who opens an account
with them is quite likely to stay with them because of the low fee,
including the low transaction fees - recently lowered to 7$ for limit
orders too. I'm not sure how they make money with bigger accounts either
if they don't trade frequently and don't use margin. As for the nickel
and diming - I have yet to come across anyone worse than Vanguard for
small accounts. And for the transfer out fees - I would guess (I don't
have any knowledge about the facts) the guys with the higher fees and
higher balanace requirements also have higher transfer out fees.

- quote -

Personally I could care less about money market rates or printed statements.

- quote -

SD wrote:
- quote -


SD,
I hope you're right about that, it'd be good to have a brokerage firm
that remains low-cost. I just am skeptical when firms allow accounts
that generate too little revenue to even cover the costs of mailing the
paperwork! It seems they aren't able to cover costs on the smaller
accounts with their current fee structure so I wonder if they'll start
nickel & diming like so many of the other firms have. Or, do obnoxious
things like adding a $75 transfer-out fee on IRAs. At some point they
need to make money & it seems the industry doesn't think it can do so
with no-minimum, no-fee accounts.

Or maybe it comes out in other ways like lower money market rates or
charging for printed statements or who knows what.

-Tad

- quote -

Scottrade, no fee and probably will stay that way. I have my IRA with
them and Invest in batches of 1000$.

noreplysoccer[at]hotmail.com wrote:

- quote -


Thanks. The fees are much better at my current broker (Scottrade).
I like the idea of setting up the account now and letting it sit in cash
or a 6 month CD until I either find a $500 minimum mutual fund I like,
or get to add another $400 for 2005 after DD gets a few paychecks.

Best regards,
Bob

net stock would allow you to buy a stock for $4 transactio fee and use
the other $596 to purchase the stock, reinvest dividends and buy
fractional shares.

zxcvbob wrote:
- quote -

Bob,
At $600 you're probably better off picking from the few-dozen funds that
have IRA minimums <=$500. SmartMoney just did a piece on this recently
(try google) or you can just do a screen on Morningstar or Yahoo. You
mentioned SPY - here are some index funds, like SVSPX, with low minimums.

ETFs like DIA or SPY really make sense only for larger invested amounts.
You'd probably pay a few-percent commission and it's hard to find a
no-fee brokerage IRA for $600 - or at least, if you find one, it might
not stay that way. Traditional no-load mutual funds allow you to invest
every penny (and add in relatively small amounts in the future) and of
course dividend reinvestment is automatic.

FYI, most brokerage firms allow you to reinvest dividends on designated
securities.

-Tad

zxcvbob <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> writes:

- quote -

[snip]

- quote -

Even in an IRA?

- quote -

A year or two isn't the end of the world. Even if you
have to leave the $600 in cash for a year or two until
she has another summer job/babysitting job/etc. and has
at least $400 of earned income, I'd still open the account
so the contribution for this year can be made.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

zxcvbob wrote:

- quote -

SPY Price = 119, so you will not have 100$ leftover if you buy 5.

- quote -

zxcvbob <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote:
- quote -

Have you investigated DRIPs?

I believe they allow fractional reinvesting and work with lower amounts.

(Not an index or mutual fund, but its an idea.)

--
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
as they fly overhead. -- RFC 1925

Where would you invest $600 if you were opening a Roth IRA on behalf of
a child? (She had $600 in earned income last year.) If the DJIA drops
below 10000 or the S&P 500 below 1000 I guess I could buy 6 shares of
DIA or SPY, respectively, but I'd rather pick something where the
dividends could be reinvested. And I don't want to buy 5 DIA's and
leave almost $100 in the account as cash.

Most of the mutual funds I'm interested in require $1000 minimum opening
balance, but I don't know that DD will have at least $400 in earned
income for 2005. She's 14 years old.

Let's say I open the IRA before April 15 with $1000; $600 for 2004 and
$400 for 2005. Then at the end of 2005 she only has $350 in earned
income. Oh no! Can I pay her $50 to clean out the garage or something
and report that as earned income on her 2005 tax forms to bring her
income up to $400?

The concept of a retirement account compounding tax-free for 50 years is
sweet, but it's not easy to get it off the ground with a child's tiny
maximum contributions.

Thanks, regards,
Bob