Vanguard: I did it!

[argo]

Hi everybody,

Finally I was able to invest to Vanguard.

Although, where would I look up whether they are going to withdraw money from my account? I did not find transactions tab.

Do you know if they trace this?

[amberfocus]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

I just signed up with Vanguard recently, myself.

If you opened an account and sent them a check (as I did), you'll be receiving a confirmation letter from them as soon as they receive it.

For me, the sum I sent didn't get taken out of my account until a week later.

~mimi

[Reldon]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Hi Argo,

Congratulations. I also just signed up my account on Monday. Since I did automatic withdrawl from my bank, it was deducted yesterday. They said it will normally take 3 days to do that.

thanks,

[argo]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

I did automatical withdrawl as well.

RELDON:How long did it take them to actually withdraw your money?

[Secret8gent]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

If you all don't mind me asking, which funds did everyone go with?

I want to start ROTH IRA's for myself and my wife and fully fund them each year. I know I want to go through Vanguard and get into index funds. I am just unsure of which one to go to. The S&P 500 seems to be the standard. I have looked at the Target Retirement funds, but I like the Index funds better.

One other question, I know there is a $4,000 a year cap (until 2008) on ROTH IRAs, do I have to only invest in one fund? or can I diversify my ROTH funds? Is it possible to divide the $4,000 between say 4 funds like the S&P 500, Total Stock Market index, and the Value index fund or the REIT fund?

I know there is a $3000 min on the funds, so besides that, can I still diversify a ROTH IRA? Forgive my ignorance, I am still learning all of this.

[argo]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

I go with STAR (min $1000).

[safari]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

A lot of people don't know this because Vanguard has had the lowest management fees for quite some time, but if someone wants to invest in index funds, then it's better to go with Fidelity because their fees are only 0.10% as opposed to 0.18% at Vanguard. Fidelity offers Spartan 500 Index Fund - Investor Class (FSMKX), which is equivalent to Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares (VFINX). Fidelity also has a bunch of other low cost index funds, such as Spartan International Index Fund - Investor Class (FSIIX), Spartan Extended Market Index Fund - Investor Class (FSEMX) and Spartan Total Market Index Fund - Investor Class (FSTMX). You find more information about Fidelity funds here: http://personal.fidelity.com/product...wse.shtml.cvsr

The only negative is that Fidelity index funds require minimum $10,000 initial investment, so if you don't have that much money to invest, it makes sense to go with Vanguard. I recently opened an account with Fidelity after spending about a month on research. I chose Fidelity primarily because of their customer service (the best in the industry) and a wide variety of no transation fee mutual funds that they offer, in addition to their super low-cost index funds. I invested $25K into 4 mutual funds and will be adding $50K more in 2 months when my CD matures. I'll also earn 25,000 United Mileage Plus Miles from their current promotion http://www.fidelity.com/united

[LuxLiving]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Congrats Safari!!

We have The Hubsters Traditional IRA at Fidelity. We went with the four indexes you listed above and later added Fidelity Investment Grade Bond Fund (FBNDX).

Fidelity's Spartan International Index Fund - Investor Class (FSIIX) has been our best performer being up around 25% since our purchase! What's not to like?? FSIIX is my fav! The others do okay, but FSIIX is the current star in the crown.

Why invest in all of them? BECAUSE they cover the broadest spectrum of the total market and when one or two of them are down the others are usually up. It rather balances out well. Seems to even out the bumps in the market.

This ol' gal is happy with Fidelity and I look forward to possibly bringing the rest of our accounts under the Fidelity umbrella as we reach retirement age...they have an Assets Management program for smoothing out minimum withdrawals from the most effective asset straight to your checking. For now I am really enjoying their Full View program which allows you to go online and check your net worth each day!

Their service reps are very helpful when The Hubster and I get on the speakerphone and tagteam them with questions!

[Secret8gent]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Thanks argo and safari.

Unfortunately, I will not have the $10K to open a fidelity account so I will have to go with Vanguard.

I like the STAR fund because of the low minimum. I think I might go that route and start investing there, then when I have enough built up I will switch funds to the Target Retirement 2035 or one of the other index funds.

Thanks again.

[LuxLiving]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Fidelity does (I believe) have some funds that you can get into for around 2500.00. Get on the horn with their Customer Reps. Very helpful - they are!

[argo]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Another feature is that if you have less than 5K in vanguard you have to pay $10 annual fee. Is that right?

Has anybody found a way around it?

Thanks!

[WellManicuredMan]

Re: Vanguard: I did it!

Another feature is that if you have less than 5K in vanguard you have to pay $10 annual fee. Is that right?

Has anybody found a way around it?

Thanks!

Yes, there is a $10 annual fee for IRA's that have a balance less than $5,000. They also have a $10 annual fee for any Index funds you own with less than $10,000. There is not a way around the fees and if you are just opening your IRA this year you can't put more than $4,000 into it so you're stuck until next year when you can add more to it to avoid them. The only thing you could do is wait until next year to open an IRA and contribute for 2006 and 2007 at the same time since you have until tax day to contribute for the previous year.

For more detailed information on Vanguard's fees you can look at this page:

https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/VanguardViewsArticle?ArticleJSP=/freshness/News_and_Views/news_ALL_fundfee_04302004_ALL.jsp