thinking of either joining fidelity or edward jones..

Do you post on craigslist often?

as far as a IRA goes......RUN AWAY FROM Edward Jones....far away! Their annual fees are a joke. Not to mention front end loaded funds they put you in. RUN AWAY! The only thing they are good for is a MM fund with check writing ability. That's it basically.

I like EJ. Yes I pay like 50 bucks a year for them to manage my IRA, but it is nice to have a guy to call or email.

I do all MFs. I made 10% this year on my 100k.

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ColdDuck

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so, you like the loads, annual fees, expense ratios, and small choice of funds they offer? How about the high brokerage commissions on stock trades? How about their high fees for unit trusts? How about the fact they do not allow you to make trades online like vanguard and others? You have to call in to place a trade. That is ridiculous and so 1997. Hmmnnn. I prefer to manage my own investments.

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i would rather err on the side of caution. Therefore i just recently bought some EE bonds, not many just a trial thing at the moment. Also looked into CD's.

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There's also risk in being too cautious. If inflation is greater than your return which it probably will be then you're losing despite "erring on the side of caution".

Short duration, FTW.

I am no invester. I just like to send them a check every few months and they add to my existing funds. They never ask me to move money around. It is nice to email or call my guy and ask questions when needed though. I would like to do some trading online, but I never got into it. I probably need to learn more about the charges, but my total investment on my 5 accounts keep going up, so I am happy.

Based on your "suit/tux" post on the O/T, I know you are fixing to get married. Here is the drill:

1) Before wedding, make sure you have 6+month emergency fund in the bank .
2) I don't have to tell you to stay away from Edward Jones, others on the board have already filled you in. Vanguard would be a much more viable option for you.
3) Stop worrying about what kind of suit you are going to wear. Rent the tux !


And good luck in the future !

so no one likes fidelity?

Honestly, I think the OP needs to take some introductory classes in this stuff. No offense, but your post indicates you really don't know much about how all this works. That's okay, but you are setting yourself up for disappointment because you don't know what is reasonable to expect from an advisor.

EJ probably doesn't give horrible advice, but they do have a tendency to put you in funds that cost outrageous sales charges. You would be better off with any fee-based planner who doesn't pick your funds for you but will help you with insurance or retirement planning decisions.

For investing all you really need to do is buy a target retirement fund, and Vanguard has a very low-cost set that is well-regarded. You can open your Roth with basically any institution that will let you buy the funds you want.

Be aware that over the long run, there is nobody who can reliably pick better investments than the rest. Drop that expectation ASAP. There are plenty who will tell you they pick great funds, and they may have a lucky year or three, but they will not reliably and consistently do better. So the key is to pick a fund that costs as little as possible, this is why Vanguard is the leader. It is also why no advisor, EJ or otherwise, can realistically promise you great returns year after year.

Now go take some classes. Seriously. There are lots of advisors out there who will help you and won't charge nearly as much for it as EJ will.