More on My IRA Experience
Mar. 16th, 2006 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcepsaI got a comment asking which different online brokerages (not sure if that's exactly the right word, but it's shorter than saying "firms-that-offer-Roth-IRAs" ;) I considered and why I went with the one that I chose, so here they are*:
I have tried to do this before, with little success: my initial attempt was with my current financial institution, Citibank. It went okay in the beginning, but I got stymied by their language; it sounded like I would have to open a brokerage account with them in addition to my IRA account, and I didn't want to have to deal with that (whether that's actually the case or whether I would have even needed to do anything more than what I did to get my Ameritrade one, I don't know. They lost me as a customer because it wasn't clear enough for me to feel comfortable.)
Tonight, I went about it a little bit differently. I was less concerned about feeling like I knew 100% exactly how the account worked, because something like that would take me weeks, if not years, of research. I made an assumption, which is that, to a degree, an account with any of the above-listed firms is going to work pretty much the same way regardless of the firm. I also assumed that if I didn't get everything set up just right to start with, I would be able to tweak it later or, at the worst, move it to a different account with another firm somewhere down the road. My goal for the evening was to make my best judgement and then follow through on it, and that's exactly what I did. Note that my goal was not "figure out for certain which of these is going to be the best one to see me through to my retirement." That way lies madness... (trust me, it's what's kept me from doing this sooner!)
So, a little more detail about what I looked for. I wanted a site that seemed to offer a lot of options as far as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. went. That ruled out a couple pretty much right off the bat, because it seemed like you had to use their pre-designed funds (whether that's true or not, I don't know. Maybe it's my loss for not investigating ING Direct further. At this stage, I don't care. If I figure out later on that's where I want to be, then that's where I'll go.) Again, a case of losing me because I couldn't make sense of what was going on. Also, I ruled out TransAmerica because the link to their site doesn't work, which is off-putting for two reasons. First, I want to be able to manage this over the web. Second, it's not really confidence-inspiring; I'm not sure whether they're even still in business!
I didn't go with ShareBuilder because their website was not very intuitive for me, and their fee schedule wasn't clear (I could get $4 trades if I traded on a Tuesday; otherwise it was about $16 per trade. I think.) That was enough to put me off.
TD Waterhouse I may not have spent as much time investigating as I should have; it was first on the list and it's got a lot of information on the site so I kind of got a little overwhelmed by it all.
That basically leaves Ameritrade and Vanguard, and I went with Ameritrade because their trades are $11/trade versus Vanguard which, if I read the fee schedule correctly, was $25/trade. And also it was kind of tough to find on the Vanguard site (had to get a few steps into the signup process before they mentioned it, though I maybe just wasn't looking in the right places). I liked the Ameritrade site because of its layout and because it was easiest for me to find the information I was looking for. Since my goal for the night was Get It Done (with a secondary goal to understand it as much as possible without getting completely wrapped up in it) that site is the one that got me closest to that goal.
* Please note that this list originally came from David Bach's book, The Automatic Millionaire. However, it is also freely available on the web here so I think I've given due credit :)
** I haven't tried the phone numbers, so your mileage may vary ;)
*** Link is apparently broken
| Name | Phone** | Website |
|---|---|---|
| TD Waterhouse | 1-800-934-4448 | http://www.tdwaterhouse.com |
| ING Direct | 1-800-ING-DIRECT | http://www.ingdirect.com |
| ShareBuilder | 1-866-747-2537 | http://www.sharebuilder.com |
| Transamerica GoalTender | 1-877-GTENDER | http://www.transgoaltender.com*** |
| Ameritrade | 1-800-669-3900 | http://www.ameritrade.com |
| Vanguard | 1-800-869-8623 | http://www.vanguard.com |
I have tried to do this before, with little success: my initial attempt was with my current financial institution, Citibank. It went okay in the beginning, but I got stymied by their language; it sounded like I would have to open a brokerage account with them in addition to my IRA account, and I didn't want to have to deal with that (whether that's actually the case or whether I would have even needed to do anything more than what I did to get my Ameritrade one, I don't know. They lost me as a customer because it wasn't clear enough for me to feel comfortable.)
Tonight, I went about it a little bit differently. I was less concerned about feeling like I knew 100% exactly how the account worked, because something like that would take me weeks, if not years, of research. I made an assumption, which is that, to a degree, an account with any of the above-listed firms is going to work pretty much the same way regardless of the firm. I also assumed that if I didn't get everything set up just right to start with, I would be able to tweak it later or, at the worst, move it to a different account with another firm somewhere down the road. My goal for the evening was to make my best judgement and then follow through on it, and that's exactly what I did. Note that my goal was not "figure out for certain which of these is going to be the best one to see me through to my retirement." That way lies madness... (trust me, it's what's kept me from doing this sooner!)
So, a little more detail about what I looked for. I wanted a site that seemed to offer a lot of options as far as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. went. That ruled out a couple pretty much right off the bat, because it seemed like you had to use their pre-designed funds (whether that's true or not, I don't know. Maybe it's my loss for not investigating ING Direct further. At this stage, I don't care. If I figure out later on that's where I want to be, then that's where I'll go.) Again, a case of losing me because I couldn't make sense of what was going on. Also, I ruled out TransAmerica because the link to their site doesn't work, which is off-putting for two reasons. First, I want to be able to manage this over the web. Second, it's not really confidence-inspiring; I'm not sure whether they're even still in business!
I didn't go with ShareBuilder because their website was not very intuitive for me, and their fee schedule wasn't clear (I could get $4 trades if I traded on a Tuesday; otherwise it was about $16 per trade. I think.) That was enough to put me off.
TD Waterhouse I may not have spent as much time investigating as I should have; it was first on the list and it's got a lot of information on the site so I kind of got a little overwhelmed by it all.
That basically leaves Ameritrade and Vanguard, and I went with Ameritrade because their trades are $11/trade versus Vanguard which, if I read the fee schedule correctly, was $25/trade. And also it was kind of tough to find on the Vanguard site (had to get a few steps into the signup process before they mentioned it, though I maybe just wasn't looking in the right places). I liked the Ameritrade site because of its layout and because it was easiest for me to find the information I was looking for. Since my goal for the night was Get It Done (with a secondary goal to understand it as much as possible without getting completely wrapped up in it) that site is the one that got me closest to that goal.
* Please note that this list originally came from David Bach's book, The Automatic Millionaire. However, it is also freely available on the web here so I think I've given due credit :)
** I haven't tried the phone numbers, so your mileage may vary ;)
*** Link is apparently broken
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 05:26 am (UTC)I have a savings account with ING. I like that they give me a lot of interest, so far their customer service is good or bad. There's no inbetween.
I had a 401K with Vanguard. I LOVED vanguard. I didn't have to do any of the setup like when you do your own IRA - but once in the program their website you log into was full of info (without being overwhelming), had everything you'd need(my john hancock one only shows me some things I'm interested in seeing) and their customer service is AWESOME.
I now you made a decision - but if you find Ameritrade's Customer service to be lacking I'd suggest vanguard.
You're like the 2nd person I know to be adult enough to have an IRA :) I need to max out my 401k and then start one :)