Do you use the same brokerage for IRA and regular investments?

[Zedon]

I'll be opening a regular investment account soon and wondered if it's a good idea to keep it with your IRA brokerage or separately.

[kork13]

Yes -- I prefer the simplicity of having all of my investments accessible at once from a single investment house. Realistically, I don't see any particular risk inherent in such a choice, so it is an easy one for me.

[feh]

All of our IRAs are with Fidelity. We also have a taxable account with Fidelity.

We also have a taxable account with Vanguard, because I had a specific fund I wanted to frequently invest in, and didn't want to pay Fidelity $75 for each purchase.

[Retired To Win]

Go for Lower Cost or Extra Convenience

I have 3 IRA accounts and 1 taxable account spread across 3 different brokerages. This makes sense for me based on my individual investment needs.

I opened up an IRA and a taxable account at Merrill Edge less than a year ago, strictly because I'm on a special deal with them that allows me to do 30 commission-free trades in each account each month. This saves me lots of money.

But Merrill Edge doesn't offer corporate bonds rated below A, so I've kept my IRA account at Schwab so that I can have access to high-yield corporate bond offerings.

Finally, my SEP-IRA account is at Folio Investments because they made it super simple and super hassle-free to set it up. And the trading costs are very, very low.

So, you see, the right answer is that it all depends on what you need to have.

Retired to Win
making the most of my time and my money

[GrimJack]

I have too many accounts I think - a 403b from Oxford University Press, I have a TSP for my government job, I have 4 different accounts with Vanguard, and a couple with TDAmeritrade. I am at the age that I have to get everything down on paper (or at least an email) for that EOL moment. These are just my tax advantaged accounts.

Since my 403b is a mix of 'regular' retirement' and 'their 1% retirement plan' is similar to my TSP, I wonder if I can get the 403b moved to the TSP??

[cardtrick]

Yes, IRA, Roth and Taxable are all at the same discount broker. $3.95 per stock trade. Can't beat that.

[DisciplinedSaver101]

If it was me, I would consider opening an on-line account at a discount broker and putting the money into an S&P 500 Index Fund. Charles Schwab has a very low-fee fund. Most brokers are going to have a very hard time beating the S&P 500 over the long run, and meanwhile they will charge you a hefty fee. That fee really adds up over the years.

Good luck.