Taking control of my investments

[BMEPhDinCO]

Hi all,

So I have decided to start taking more active control of my investments, especially those not in my RothIRA.

Right now I have around $11k at Wells Fargo in two accounts - capital builder A and templeton(?) - both are high expense ratios and are not performing as well as I'd like.

I also have around $6,400 in a rollover IRA at rollover systems (invested in Fidelity 85%).

I was looking through Vanguard's list of index funds, and some of them seem better, but I wanted to get some opinions. I'm not stuck on Vanguard though, so substitute your favorite broker and tell me about them.

So if you were in my position:

28, grad student, married, very little money to invest (other than maxing Roths each year)...

What would you do?

A) Leave it where it is for now
B) Move IRA to Vanguard, invest in ____, leave WF alone
C) Move both to Vanguard, invest in _____

Are index funds better? Dividend funds? Diversify? Individual Stocks? What is the cost to do this?

I'm pretty new to this, so any help is useful - I do know that I want a low expense ratio, I don't want to be a daily trader, I do want to consider these long term (ie, Retirement in 40ish years), and I want it to be simple and low cost.

Thanks y'all!

[Petunia 100]

You are on the right track.

Costs matter. A lot. Yes, IMO, index funds are the way to go. Dump those loaded funds.

I suggest you move everything to Vanguard and choose a Target Retirement Fund. This one fund holds the 3 major indexes you need, has no additional layer of expenses, and automatically rebalances for you. Simple and very low cost.

[BMEPhDinCO]

Petunia,

Have you used Vanguard? Are they easy?

I already have my RothIRA in a target fund so I was looking to go into other things besides that...any index funds you can recommend?

Anyone else?

Thanks!

[Petunia 100]

Yes, I have had accounts at Vanguard for 8 years or so. Vanguard has excellent customer service and the website is very easy to use.

I don't know what is in your current Target Retirement fund, but at Vanguard TR funds are made of Total Stock Market, Total International Stock Market, and Total Bond Market. The most conservative also include some TIPS and money market.

If you do not wish to go the TR route, then I suggest Total Stock Market, Total International Stock Market, and Total Bond Market. Some like to also hold Reit and/or small value index. I hold small value myself.

Are you familiar with the Bogleheads' Forum? (Jack Bogle is the founder of Vanguard.) It is a very active message board with lots of good information about indexing.

Bogleheads • Index page

[disneysteve]

Have you used Vanguard? Are they easy?

We have the bulk of our portfolio invested with Vanguard and have been very happy with them. Their website is great. The trading interface is great. And on the few occasions when I've had to call them, their customer service has been great.

[MonkeyMama]

Agreed with the others.

[BMEPhDinCO]

Thanks so much everyone! I guess I'll be biting the bullet next week then.