Comments on: Best Brokerage for Mutual Funds

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:32:52 +0000

The Money Magazine article you referenced wasn’t necessarily ranking a broker in which to hold your mutual fund selections…it was just putting together a list of the best in it’s estimation.

To reply to your Title: The Best Brokerage for Mutual Funds, the winner, hands down, as of 2/13.2007, has got to be Wells Fargo’s WellsTrade.

Here’s how they work differently:

Most brokerages have a selection of No-Transaction Fee funds. You may or may not find the funds you would like to invest in as part of this list. A larger group of funds are no-load TRANSACTION FEE funds. Fidelity charges a $75 commission to buy these funds!

Wells Fargo has changed the game. You can use one of your 100 free trades per account/per year to buy those transaction-fee funds (in this case, vanguard, fidelity, dodge and cox, oakmark, you name it…) for…free.

It also levels the playing field making choosing between an ETF and a mutual fund based soely on the underlying investment, not based on the commissions you would pay to buy and sell the ETF.

Me thinks this is a whole nother post here…

By: Free Money Finance

Free Money Finance — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:22:05 +0000

Star Money Articles for the Week of Feb. 12

Here are interesting posts and news this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork members and beyond: Consumerism Commentary gives five reasons people spend more money on the internet. AllFinancialMatters says that not all SP 500 index mutual funds are created e…

By: Tinyhands

Tinyhands — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:12:18 +0000

@Getting Green-
However, there is the very real possibility of paying higher management fees (and/or early-liquidation premiums) in your “set it & forget it strategy.” Compounding is in effect here as well, but your mileage may vary, depending on the fund chosen, the amount periodically invested, and the number of purchases per year.

This would be a very easy Excel spreadsheet (I love Excel) to set up for someone with the time to do it.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:05:21 +0000

I just got done flipping 300 pennies five times in a row. 6 of them landed heads up all five times. I conclude that these 6 pennies are the hot pennies for 2007. Next time I flip them, you should bet on all 6 of them coming up heads. It’s a sure thing.

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:46:21 +0000

I love Vanguard and T rowe Price, I have accounts for both.

I also like Fidelity because of their 24 hour customer service.!

By: mbhunter

mbhunter — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:05:55 +0000

“Here are the funds that you should have bought last year, but didn’t.”

By: Getting Green

Getting Green — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:28:07 +0000

I don’t like ETFs, primarily because if you’re going to use dollar cost averaging or invest X amount every month, you have to pay a fee for each investment. I like the idea of opening the mutual fund once, setting it and forgetting it. Vangaurd & T Rowe price have some really great targeted retirement date funds as well.

By: not confucius

not confucius — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:59:46 +0000

regarding your point on the ETFs, and how it’d be better to go with a cheaper brokerage — i used to give that recommendation to others but after thinking about it, i would say that advice doesn’t apply universally… if someone is a hands-off type of investor, and cares primarily about being with a top-notch brokerage, then going with places like vanguard and/or fidelity might be worth it… here’s the logic…

let’s say a person trades 2-3x a year… going w/ fidelity or vanguard will cost them an extra ~$40 or so (assuming they’re buying to hold)… however, if you’re satisfied with fidelity/vanguard, and decide to put all or most of your investment dollars with them, then you get two benefits: 1) if you set up your main account with fidelity/vanguard, you’ll get the advantages of being an accountholder if/when you decide to invest in mutual funds through the same brokerage (b/c of fee waivers for accountholders); and 2) if you build up your overall amount of invested money to a certain level, you may qualify for lowered trade costs

again, this is for people who care more about being with a top-quality and not-too-high-cost brokerage, and also doesn’t trade very often in the course of a year… =)