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Vanguard, Fidelity, and everybody else
03-18-2012, 06:00 PM
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#1
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 61
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Vanguard, Fidelity, and everybody else
I haven't done in-depth analysis of which fund families are a better buy than others, but I seem to see the most frequently mentioned on this forum are Vanguard and Fidelity. My 401k is with Oppenheimer, but I have some IRA's with Putnam. Should I be looking at Vanguard and/or Fidelity, or others, for long-term placement of my money? And if so, what makes them the best choices? I'm not looking for out-and-out investment advice, I'd just like to know why they seem to get the most ink.
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03-18-2012, 06:04 PM
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#2
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,000
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__________________
Numbers is hard
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03-18-2012, 06:06 PM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 10,252
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They get the most ink because they are the least expensive by a very wide margin.
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03-18-2012, 06:10 PM
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#4
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: westerville
Posts: 262
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Both Fidelity and Vangaurd are condidered low cost with many no load funds available. They have a full compliment of services and I acually use both. vanguard has my 401K. Fideility has my individual Mad Money stocks as a trade stocks like thier trading tools tools. I also own a significant amount of different Americam funds that had up front loads however very low expenses inside the funds with low turnover rates and better overall long term 10 years returns for the style of funds I was shopping for about ten years ago..
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03-18-2012, 06:25 PM
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#5
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 61
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Thanks for the quick replies, all -- I'll be checking out the links posted by REWahoo.
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03-18-2012, 06:53 PM
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#6
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
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Vanguard ETF funds are some of the lowest cost investment choices around. But they are available at any brokerage firm. And some firms offer free or dirt cheap trades.
Fidelity is also good because they offer free trades on many ishares ETFs, and have a few good low cost index funds (although their selection recently got worse with a doubling of expense ratio of their International Spartan fund).
__________________
Retired in 2013 at age 33. Keeping busy reading, blogging, relaxing, gaming, and enjoying the outdoors with my wife and 3 kids (8, 13, and 15).
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03-18-2012, 08:49 PM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 17,194
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When I was doing a review for a new 401(k) provider, Putnam was not that bad.... so I would not throw it out just because it is not one of the big two...
Vanguard did not want to have anything to do with us as we were way to small... so we went with Fidelity and are pleased... but Putnam was our next choice...
Can not remember about Oppenheimer... I do think they were a bit pricey....
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03-18-2012, 10:01 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: LaLa Land
Posts: 4,693
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Years ago my old broker put me into Oppenheimer funds, I later found out that the up front charge to put money into the funds was 5.75%, can you imagine? I got out of there fast and didn't even bother to look at the ER's on the funds.
My advise is not to commit any new funds to Oppenheimer and call Vanguard ASAP.
__________________
Work is something you do to get enough $ so you don't have to....Me.
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03-19-2012, 01:03 AM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: midwestern city
Posts: 4,061
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I am at Vanguard and Edward Jones. I get very good service from both companies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by teekaymn
Should I be looking at Vanguard and/or Fidelity, or others, for long-term placement of my money? And if so, what makes them the best choices?
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__________________
Very conservative with investments. Not ER'd yet, 48 years old. Please do not take anything I write or imply as legal, financial or medical advice directed to you. Contact your own financial advisor, healthcare provider, or attorney for financial, medical and legal advice.
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03-19-2012, 04:41 AM
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#10
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 702
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I have been happy with Schwab whom I have been using for the past 7 years. I find their website, trading, banking, on line education, news, and money transfers are all very well designed and reliable.
I have started to go to some of their educational workshops at the local branch since I retired and most of them have been worth while. Some have been better than others.
I don't know too much about their mutual funds. I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.
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03-19-2012, 05:41 AM
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#11
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,314
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In addition to the interest in no load funds and low expense ratios, many here like index funds rather than actively managed funds. Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab have good selections of low cost index funds.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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03-19-2012, 09:33 AM
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#12
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 507
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL!
They get the most ink because they are the least expensive by a very wide margin.
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+1 that was my first thought - Cost. It is the only variable you can control.
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03-19-2012, 09:41 AM
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#13
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeAtLast
I have been happy with Schwab whom I have been using for the past 7 years. I find their website, trading, banking, on line education, news, and money transfers are all very well designed and reliable.
I have started to go to some of their educational workshops at the local branch since I retired and most of them have been worth while. Some have been better than others.
I don't know too much about their mutual funds. I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.
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In terms of ETF investing, too, Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity all have a list of ETFs that can be traded with no commissions. Vanguard and Schwab ETFs can be traded commission-free at their respective sponsoring brokerages, and Fidelity has some iShares funds that can be traded with no commissions.
The Vanguard and Schwab offerings are very comparable in expenses; for any given asset class there are times the Vanguard ETF is cheaper and times when the Schwab ETF are cheaper. (For the most part, the iShares are a little higher in expenses.)
Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity have been competing and trying to one-up each other in terms of offering lower cost, lower fee investing options for "Bogleheaded" investors. And we as investors are the winners for it. Competition can be a wonderful thing.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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03-19-2012, 10:52 AM
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#14
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 518
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FUEGO
Vanguard ETF funds are some of the lowest cost investment choices around. But they are available at any brokerage firm. And some firms offer free or dirt cheap trades.
Fidelity is also good because they offer free trades on many ishares ETFs, and have a few good low cost index funds (although their selection recently got worse with a doubling of expense ratio of their International Spartan fund).
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We just built a ETF portfolio at Fidelity using the commission free iShares. Given our interest in regular rebalancing the free trades make it a great deal.
SIS
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03-19-2012, 11:21 AM
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#15
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,150
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I started with a big name full service retail brokerage trading individual stocks exclusively, learned a lot but wised up after a few years of moderately higher commissions.
I then moved my whole portfolio to Fidelity for about 10 years when I traded individual stocks and active mutual funds, it was a good fit then, I was 100% equities in those days. When I stopped trading individual stocks and focusing on index funds, I moved everything to Vanguard (about 15 years ago). Vanguard had way more index funds to choose from. Fidelity provided more hand holding than Vanguard, but I no longer needed the help by then. However, Fidelity advice was usually good but not always, mostly bright "kids" with narrow knowledge.
My old employer had our 401k's with Schwab. The funds were garbage, but that was my employers fault (dumb selections), Schwab had decent funds - just not options for us.
I'd be comfortable with Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab - though I like Vanguard best for DIY index investors.
Best of luck...
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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03-19-2012, 11:34 AM
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#16
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 13,149
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeAtLast
I have been happy with Schwab
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Me too. I've been with Schwab for over 20 years and so far, so good.
Quote:
I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.
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If you haven't discovered this yet, you can ask Schwab to set up your account to trade Vanguard funds commission free.
I think an investor can do just fine using either Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity. I stick with Schwab because DW has a bad case of "investor-phobia" and requires a brick and mortar office nearby. Fidelity would also work for us. I've studied Vanguard and if it were not for DW's craving for brick and mortar facilities, Vanguard would work just fine for me.
The key thing is to avoid a brokerage where salespeople try to put you into loaded MF's with high ER's or try to sell you other products which are more focused on paying the salesperson a nice commission as opposed to meeting your needs efficiently. Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity all meet this requirement. After that, whether you're paying a .06% or .08% ER for a TSM index fund isn't going to make all that much difference.
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"I wasn't born blue blood. I was born blue-collar." John Wort Hannam
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03-19-2012, 12:12 PM
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#17
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShortInSeattle
We just built a ETF portfolio at Fidelity using the commission free iShares. Given our interest in regular rebalancing the free trades make it a great deal.
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I use the free trades to my advantage as well. I get my credit card rewards dumped into my fidelity account, along with $75/month or so in interest on a bond. Every few months I end up with a few hundred bucks in cash in my brokerage account and I can buy a few shares of an ishares ETF. However the comparable vanguard ETFs are starting to be a much better deal in terms of expense ratios so I will be slowly switching over to vanguard ETFs.
__________________
Retired in 2013 at age 33. Keeping busy reading, blogging, relaxing, gaming, and enjoying the outdoors with my wife and 3 kids (8, 13, and 15).
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03-19-2012, 12:16 PM
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#18
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,854
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I use Vanguard since my MegaCorp uses them for 401k.
I also use Fidelity because I manage my dad's retirement assets, and he had them there for years already.
I must admit I think Fidelity's online site is slightly easier to navigate, but otherwise I'm ok with either one. With Vanguard I've not found a way to integrate DW's portfolio with mine...but then I've never asked them if it's possible. When you're a "buy and hold" person...you only look online about twice a year.
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"Live every day as if it were your last, and one day you'll be right" - unknown
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03-19-2012, 01:09 PM
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#19
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,483
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Vanguard is FAR BEHIND Fido and Schwab as far as what you can do on the site..........
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Consult with your own advisor or representative. My thoughts should not be construed as investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results (love that one).......:)
This Thread is USELESS without pics.........:)
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03-19-2012, 01:15 PM
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#20
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,150
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FinanceDude
Vanguard is FAR BEHIND Fido and Schwab as far as what you can do on the site..........
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That was/is my experience too. And Vanguard's reports/format is the clumsiest too. Though I still like their index find choices.
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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