<p>OK, Thanks! Will check it out. H & I go from paying attention to investments to ignoring them. We’re back to paying attention and I am trying to make some informed decisions (as best I can).</p>
<p>I think my investments do the best when I ignore them and just let them grow, as long as they are good, quality funds. Better than giving into fear and greed! Then again, maybe someone who knows what they’re doing does better when they watch their investments closer.</p>
<p>All the cool kids are using wealthfront.com, which uses index funds, automated trading, and magic to construct and manage your portfolio based on a questionnaire you do to pin down your goals and risk tolerance, for very low fees.</p>
<p>They will show you the portfolio they come up with for free, so you can trade it yourself if you want.</p>
<p>I like bogleheads.org website. Am wishing there was a bricks and mortar office for Vanguard in HI. That’s one of the things I do like about Schwab. We are trying to simplify our portfolio at this point. We have way too many different investments in many accounts in many different institutions. </p>
<p>I know, first world issue, but it is what I’d like to focus on for this month and it looks like I will be doing some reading and pondering. Like the idea of low expense fees and index funds. </p>
<p>Will check out wealthfront.com. </p>
<p>We hold Vanguard funds in our Schwab account. It cost a little to trade Vanguard funds, which would be free if traded in a Vanguard account. It makes my life simpler to hold everything in one account and we decided it was worth the small fee for the infrequent trades we make.</p>
<p>Yea, I may just keep things in the Schwab account. Am on the fence on this. It did cost $76 per Vanguard index fund we bought but free to sell in Schwab account. Will be talking with Vanguard financial advisor in a week and see what he has to say. There is no obligation for initial discussion. </p>
<p>I read this article about safety of consolidating assets with one brokerage vs having many accounts. Am continuing to ponder. </p>
<p><a href=“Is It Safe to Invest at Just One Brokerage? - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324747104579025130705189904</a></p>
<p>Vanguard is awesome. So easy, and so cheap. We can actually trade stocks and ETF’s for free in our account (nt unlimited, but we end up doing as many trades as we like). We don’t need or want a physical presence or advice, but everything is online and very uncomplicated. Yay!</p>
<p>I am all for using a single brokerage for all investments. Getting one 1099 is quite helpful at tax time. I use TD Ameritrade. Look into using ETFs rather than mutual funds. Much simpler to deal with, and can be just as cheap, often cheaper, than a mutual fund equivalent. I just read <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Shareholder-Yield-Approach-Dividend-Investing/dp/0988679906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397015698&sr=8-1&keywords=shareholder+yield”>http://www.amazon.com/Shareholder-Yield-Approach-Dividend-Investing/dp/0988679906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397015698&sr=8-1&keywords=shareholder+yield</a> which is a very sensible approach to buying companies that use cash flows for the benefit of shareholders(dividends, share repurchases, debt paydown, etc.). The author started a couple ETFs that use this approach, SYLD and FYLD. I think it is a very sound approach.</p>
<p>Still weighing Schwab vs. Vanguard or keeping both brokerages. We will also have to keep Thrift Savings Plan and Prudential (for our 457 accounts from former employers). Am seeing what Vanguard has to offer–they’re supposed to be coming up with a personalized portfolio for us and we will have 45 minutes with a CFP–Certified Financial Planner again in 2 weeks. The Schwab CFP kept trying to get us to buy Windhaven or have someone manage our portfolio for another 1%. We weren’t interested in either of her products and she didn’t have much else to offer. </p>
<p>The Schwab CFP did evaluate our finances and came to the same conclusion we did–we are fine with both of us being retired and should NOT run out of assets (and in fact will be able to gift to our kids & others). After that, she kept trying to sell her two products. 
Will see what we decide next. H will be happy if we can at least get Fidelity out of the mix (we have some investments with them as well).</p>
<p>We are planning to mainly use low earnings ratio (ER) index funds in our portfolio. I know that Vanguard has amazing low ER index funds. Am waiting to see what the CFP comes up with for our next chat.</p>
<p>Have noticed that Schwab charges $25 for partial transfers and $50 for full transfers. Will have to hunt to see what Vanguard charges for transfers of assets.</p>
<p>We use USAA’s service. Super cheap!</p>
<p>Their expense ratios for the index mutual funds are something I’m paying A LOT more attention to these days. Some of the USAA ones are several times higher than I’d prefer to pay. Our lowest has an expense ratio of 0.029%, meaning I pay $.29 for every $1000 in the fund. Have some USAA funds that were .98% ($9.80 per $1000 invested). Over time and with considerable investments, the differences add up, especially since we are leaning more toward conservative investments over decades. </p>
<p>I wonder if Vanguard will charge anything. I transferred some stuff from Scottrade to TD Ameritrade, and Scottrade charged me $75, but TD Ameritrade refunded me the $75. Maybe they’ll give it back? If you’re eligible for any of Vanguard’s Flagship services, it really is a great deal. Discounted or free trades. They are so cheap.</p>
<p>I am surprised that Schwab charges for moving money into their accounts. Financial institutions usually chrage only for transferring the money out . Vanguard is great if you mainly hold Vanguard funds. For outside funds, my impression was it is a little inflexible.</p>
<p>Schwab charges for moving money OUT of their accounts–$25 for partial and $50 for full transfer. Supposedly Vanguard may refund transfer fees. Am still looking into all of this and trying to see the best path forward. Yea, we will qualify for some nice Vanguard services. We are more interested in low cost index funds than picking individual stocks at this point. Vanguard seems to have great index funds with very low expense ratios. </p>
<p>Hmm, I don’t recall DH saying anything about the management cost of USAA funds. Will have to ask.</p>
<p>Is the $50 per fund or per account? </p>
<p>It’s not management cost, it’s the expense ratio you pay every year for mutual funds that is typical for mutual funds. Any management fees would be additional. Yes, the charge is PER account! We currently have 3Vanguard accounts and 9 Schwab accounts, as well as a few at other places. </p>
<p>I think most of what we have with USAA is in a stock account. We also have a Janus fund and some other account ((Raymond James, I think?) that I think is overpriced but DH like the investment strategies the person there does.</p>
<p>Stock accounts avoid the pesky expense ratios which it costs to own the basket of stocks in index and mutual funds, but such funds are a good, low hassle way to diversify risk. I’ve mostly given up stock picking but am also tired of paying high expense ratios and fund managers. They tend to charge about 1% or more of all assets they manage! whether the value goes up or down. That erodes your returns pretty quickly. </p>
<p>My best index fund is 4x what I bought it for in 2009. Sadly, didn’t invest that much in it, but it’s quietly growing very nicely. H bought an index fund 30+ years ago for a out $1K that is now worth about $88K. He’s very pleased and proud!</p>