JMO, I would spend a few hours to educate myself on the basics to become a "self directed investor".
What that means is basically you do the research and make your investment choices without a broker's
input. If you can get to that point - which doesn't need to be difficult - the only logical place to keep
your investment accounts is at a discount brokerage. Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, E-trade are a few
popular discount brokerage houses. I can recommend Fidelity and Schwab from about 20 years experience
with both. The best research for starting as a "self directed investor" is to get a good grasp of what mutual
funds are, what ETF's are, what fund expenses and low cost funds are, what index funds are and what dollar
cost averaging is. There are a million esoteric details, products and stategies, but for a small investor just
starting out, limiting oneself to mutual funds and ETF's is the best course. Common sense investing in mutual
funds is not difficult, but it does require a bit of knowledge.
I can give you a hint on what your research should reveal: no one you'll be dealing with has
any statistical relevant ability to time the market at all; no one you'll be dealing with has any ability to statistically beat
random dart throwing for stock picking; because of those 1st two facts investment expenses become a very
important factor over longer time frames in portfolio performance; and finally indexing with low cost funds makes the
most sense for stock/bond investing strategy for the little guy
I personally would not do business with Merril lynch. I had a Merril Lynch CMA account back before they were
absorbed by BOA. From a little recent experience with them dealing with my mom's finances they don't appear to have
changed much. In other words what you'll get with them is an arrangement where it is as important for them to
make money off your account as it is for you to make money. I have the same negative opinion about any full service
broker, too much conflict of interest. They all cost too much for what they do, which is basically nothing if you are willing
and able to study and master very basic investing knowledge.
The hardest part to do well with investing is to be disciplined about actually saving. The second hardest part is to
stick with your rational plan during times of market upheaval (like now).
+
850 FICO8 since 2015, Thanks MyFICO - 5+ years since last HP
@ttleigh wrote:
Have you looked into dividend reinvestment plans?
This is how I personally invest in individual stocks.
