Hi trying to retire at 45 how am I looking?

[cdarbonne1]

Panacea. Thank u for advice.. I'm going to start research on Vanguard, Schwab,and Fidelity. They are not brokerages right? How do I know which one to invest in. And should I, or would u suggest pulling all my invested money($70,000) from Edward jones and start investing it myself? I'm currently having automatic bank drafts taken out and goes toward my stocks. How does Edward jones get paid anyway. I remember he said 2%. Is that 2%of my principal investment that is withdrawn out of my bank account or 2% or on the total amount

 

[panacea]

They are all DISCOUNT brokerages. The best one probably depends on what you intend to primarily invest in. For example, one of the three may have the most free ETFs, another might have the most no transaction fee mutual funds, etc. I'd say why not just give Vanguard a try? Good variety of low cost options and their mutual fund costs are the lowest in the industry... Can't really go wrong. EJ sales reps get paid by commission. If you buy a stock, you get charged something like $65. Sell a stock, cha ching... $65. Buy a mutual fund 5.75%... etc. Discount brokers like Vanguard generally have hundreds of no load (no commission) mutual funds to choose from and stock transactions are under $10. Hope that helps.

 

[cdarbonne1]

They are all DISCOUNT brokerages. The best one probably depends on what you intend to primarily invest in. For example, one of the three may have the most free ETFs, another might have the most no transaction fee mutual funds, etc. I'd say why not just give Vanguard a try? Good variety of low cost options and their mutual fund costs are the lowest in the industry... Can't really go wrong. EJ sales reps get paid by commission. If you buy a stock, you get charged something like $65. Sell a stock, cha ching... $65. Buy a mutual fund 5.75%... etc. Discount brokers like Vanguard generally have hundreds of no load (no commission) mutual funds to choose from and stock transactions are under $10. Hope that helps.

Yes this helps out, I have a tdameritrade account that i was doing some buying through, but didn't really know what i was doing so i figured i would seek the help of financial advisor to help me out and moved my money to EJ. I still have about 6000 in tdameritrade but it is in a few stocks too... is a mutual fund just a big group of stocks?

 

[panacea]

yep, pretty much. A mutual fund is a pooled investment for several investors where stocks or bonds are purchased and held by a fund manager. One of the advantages is more diversification without having to necessarily make a really big investment.

 

[cdarbonne1]

Hey guys after doing some figuring and thinking I think 45 (10) yrs from now might be a little too soon and although I can save enough to do it it would take some extreme measures. I'm going to take baby steps first. And crawl before I walk. But get more and more aggressive as I go.. In another 3 years I want to me on track to retire at 50!!! Love reading all these post...