I started investing when I was about 12 years old. My parents opened up a CD around 1991 with money I received from a bicycle meets car incident. $6,000 earning 6%. Later on they opened up an account with an Edward Jones advisor. I knew I needed to save and invest but I did not have an interest in learning more about it until fairly recently.

Lately I've been consumed with learning all I can and taking the initiative to maximize the 401K from work, as well as a Roth IRA and a taxable acount held at Edward Jones. During months of research I decided the 1.35% of assets EJ charges as a fee is too expensive.

The tipping point was when I started seeing Edward Jones self promoting the awards they won regarding LGBTQ policies and practices. They also push the women and minority empowerment social justice agenda.

https://www.investmentnews.com...stirs-up-controversy

I've decided that Vanguard suits my simple investment strategy and I just wrote an email to the local advisor to explain my displeasure and that it's nothing to do with him but I won't do business with a company the props themselves up with the leftist, liberal virtue signaling. I will send it once Vanguard initiates the transfer of my assets.

It's a marketing call. I think gays and lesbians have a higher per capita income and net worth than the average person.

But what did you get for your 1.35% ? Did they manage your funds for you as in buy and sell and maintain a portfolio?

1.35% ?? Say bye bye ...

MDS

Both Vanguard and Dodge & Cox have served me well.

I’ve been a Vanguard fanboy since way back. I don’t know any other way.

Yep. Vanguard, Keep it simple and do it yourself and you’ll be fine.

another vote for Vanguard.

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I have a hard time seeing what makes the financial needs of LGBTQ-whatever different from those of the rest of us.

Vanguard for simple approaches, or look at Fidelity for more options and better customer service.

Split between Fidelity and Vanguard Target Retirement Funds. Nothing fancy, but low cost and easy as can be to add money.

I've had my SEP-IRA with TD Ameritrade for about 20 years. Low, but not very low fees. What I like is the thinkorswim web app that gives very good real-time visibility into the status of each investment, and allows the investor to be his own trader. It also provides a wide variety of investor training videos, albeit heavily oriented towards options trading strategies.

I also have a non-retirement investment account with AMTD, that I previously held in a USAA "managed portfolios" account. I was very discontented with having to pay someone to annually rebalance my funds for seemingly little real world gain. OTOH, I never had to occupy my mind with any decision making.

Not that it is easy to compare apples to apples, I was with USAA during the 2007-2008 period. At least they managed not to lose everything. Since then, it seems that the market has been so healthy, I can't imagine anybody not making double digit returns.

The Bogelheads site has a lot of sage advice for just this sort of decision. The consensus there seems to be "self-managed Vanguard" all the way.

crue-dell:

With Edward Jones, I've always wondered if they are worth it, so, how did you personally do with their advice compared to, say the S&P 500 index?

Did your adviser knock it out of the park, or was it so-so.

Have to consider his performance minus his fees, and have to consider dividends with the S&P 500 to make it fair.

Vanguard is terrific. I have been with them over 40 years. The leader in low fee quality mutual funds and services. I can also buy several non Vanguard funds through them with no fee if I want.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
It's a marketing call. I think gays and lesbians have a higher per capita income and net worth than the average person.

But what did you get for your 1.35% ? Did they manage your funds for you as in buy and sell and maintain a portfolio?

It wasn't a bad way to get started, as I was truly ignorant of investing. I believe that putting money in the accounts consistently is better than trying to trim fees. Yes, he maintained a Roth IRA that contained around 7 mutual funds and a single account of about the same size. I automatically deposited money monthly and just didn't pay much attention. I have had very good growth that has been in line with my 401K through work and has just followed the market averages. I would meet annually with the advisor and ask questions, but looking back he didn't seem interested in actually teaching me anything.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
crue-dell:

With Edward Jones, I've always wondered if they are worth it, so, how did you personally do with their advice compared to, say the S&P 500 index?

Did your adviser knock it out of the park, or was it so-so.


Have to consider his performance minus his fees, and have to consider dividends with the S&P 500 to make it fair.

To be honest, I didn't have much interest in my investments until recently. I didn't study the statements, I just put money in on a regualar basis and I've done well. I would say the performance is inline with the market average. I've definitely made money when the markets were up and lost heavy when down. I just continued max out my contributions. That $6,000 I started with has evolved into assets worth a little over $100k. Just doing some simple math in my head I could save $1300 in fees my going with the Vanguard managed account.

I also remember a few years back, EJ was commissioned based. Right after they were hit with a $75 million lawsuit they switched to fee based

https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-177.htm

They failed to disclose the funds they pushed the hardest was kicking back tens of millions of dollars.

During my research I also noticed they take 2% of dividends to reinvest them. I understand they have to get paid for what they do, but that shows nowhere on the monthly statements. Makes me wonder what other fees they don't show.

quote:

Just doing some simple math in my head I could save $1300 in fees my going with the Vanguard managed account.

Why does it need to be managed? You've been studying so buy the mutual funds, ETFs, and stocks you want. Their 0.3% management fee is on top of the mutual fund expenses so you could very well end up with the same portfolio for 0.3% more cost.

I don't think I'm in a situation that needs to be managed but was just making a comparison of fees. I'm guessing EJ is quite a bit higher because they are a "full service" broker.

Another thing I wanted to add to this discussion is a YouTube channel that really got me fired up. Its The Money Guy Show https://www.youtube.com/user/MoneyGuyShow

I've learned more in a month or 2 from listening to these 2 guys than anything else. They are fee only advisors in Franklin, TN.

quote:

I've learned more in a month or 2 from listening to these 2 guys than anything else. They are fee only advisors in Franklin, TN.

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Keep reading and learning. I manage my own retirement accounts and have never had a business course. I read Barrons and the WSJ for years. I read a few other books as well. If you move your money from Edward Jones it will be a hassle. All brokers hate to lose accounts and are particularly slow to transfer money.