" don’t assume Vanguard will be the lowest just because they invented index funds. 
Check the web sites for the exact funds you want to buy"
Point well made, @notrichenough
Regarding moving funds, I just moved my daughter’s Roth IRA from E-trade to Schwab and it was painless. We just filled out a form and sent it to Schwab and they handled the rest. I called E-trade to officially close the account and they told me there would be a $60 fee to close it. So my daughter will have an account there with a balance of $1 for years to come. I have Vanguard index funds purchased through Schwab. There was a fee (load) but since they will be held for many years it becomes negligible. After years of worrying I needed investment advice I’ve come to realize that what we really need is good tax advice. Schwab used to call twice a year and ask for my husband to discuss our accounts, which are all managed by me. I finally wrote to the regional manager (a woman) and the calls finally stopped.
Good for you! I once asked to have an unlisted phone number. They told me there was an annual fee to not put my number in a phone book. I asked if it was legal to use another person’s name on my phone. They said yes. So, 20 years later, if someone calls my house and asks for Ms. Kramer, I just hang up.
Also, make note that anyone moving/transferring IRAs in 2015 and forward, there is a new rule limiting those moves to one per year UNLESS they are trustee-to-trustee transfers or conversions from IRAs to Roths:
http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/IRA-One-Rollover-Per-Year-Rule
At schwab, one can buy Vanguard funds in admiral class if the balance is more than $100K.
Actually, Schwab has told me that you can’t buy or hold Admiral Class Vanguard funds with them. Hmmm. maybe In need to speak with them again? Anyone can buy and hold Vanguard ETFs that correspond to the index funds at Fidelity or Schwab, if desired. The expense ratios are as low or lower than admiral shares.
Holding ETFs are more tax efficient than index funds. In ETFs, you don’t realize any gains until you sell it.The mutual fund (VTSMX) will kick off capital gains as the fund manager trades in the account even if they are just trading to adjust the fund’s holding. So index funds should belong in tax deferred accounts.
We use both Fidelity and Vanguard. Lately I have found that customer service is generally poorer at Vanguard than Fidelity. They seem to have an awful lot of new, inexperienced people on their phones! (They sound fresh out of college, so I do have some sympathy.) I am seriously considering moving everything over to Fidelity. (It is true you can buy Vanguard funds through Fidelity, but there is a fee each time you buy or sell.)
The new fidelity card is 2% on everything.
My inherited money is with vanguard, and my funds with fidelity. I felt overwhelmed with LIFE this past year, so just agreed to professional management with fidelity, which is less than 1 per cent. I feel like a wimp, compared to CC people on this thread. Time will tell.
@bookworm, I understand feeling overwhelmed. I don’t know the numbers in your case, but unless you are doing a lot of slicing and dicing, managing your money should take no more than a few hours per year. It’s not a matter of being a wimp, although it’s easy to feel that way – to most Bogleheads I’m a wimp for having someone else do my taxes. Guilty as charged.
If it makes you feel better, then it’s “worth” the fees. Otoh, if you feel it’s not worth it, it is not very difficult to do it yourself (especially if you have a CPA do your taxes).
ETA: I think it’s 2% on the card if you send the cash back to a Fidelity account, which I do.
Interesting about the new limit on moving/transferring IRA money. Perhaps some people were continually going in and out within 60 days.
@Madison85, I think some people treated it as a “payday loan.” I don’t think any legitimate use of someone’s retirement funds will be curtailed by this new rule. It’s not as though I do it often, but a rollover (trustee to trustee) transfer works fine.
This is exactly what happened. A guy was chaining rollovers together, basically giving himself tax-free access to his money. But he blew the last rollover, redepositing the money after 61 days instead of 60. This led to the custodian reporting a distribution, which was taxable. He wound up in Tax Court over it, and the Tax Court undid years of precedent of limiting rollovers to once per year per account to once in the last 12 months (not even calendar year) regardless of how many accounts you have. This guy screwed it up for everybody.
The other big IRA case this year was that the Supreme Court ruled that inherited IRAs are not retirement accounts and therefore do not have protection from creditors in a bankruptcy. This turned a lot of planning on its head.
IDK. It’s possible they changed the rules since we opened the accounts grandfatherinf existing accounts.
Once a year rule doesn’t affect me at all. I don’t want to bother with it more than once. Every twelve months may be a PTA.
It only applies to rollovers where you actually touch the money. You can still do unlimited numbers of custodian-to-custodian transfers since you never actually get hold of the money.
@LBowie, if can add some funds to Vanguard, at the Voyager or Voyager Select level, I think you get more experienced reps to speak with you.
I have accounts at Fidelity for more than 40 years and they are very good at what they do. My rep gives me free trades (x trades per year) and if I need more, I just ask him.
However, they are a mutual fund firm and it takes gumption not to be swayed by their pitches all the time.
I don’t know how others feel about Dreyfus or Principal - we had company 401k with both of these, I got familiar with their various funds. We have our ‘emergency’ fund split between our checking account and a Dreyfus account.
Also had been familiar with TD Ameritrade so have set up Roth IRAs for DDs there. I figure out a good indexed fund to invest in and go from there.
Navigating the financial aspects of ‘having enough to retire’, along with utilizing the tax rules for decision making is a lot of what is on people’s minds and therefore on this thread.
I was looking at several of the books that talk about broader aspects of retirement - like the 2009 book by Ernie Zelinski “How to Retire Happy Wild and Free…” I have already read about ‘right sizing’ for home and thought about staying in current home or splitting to living two places (so downsizing to do that w/o spending more on housing - or essentially having just so much money tied up in housing). A more recent book by Emily Birken “The 5 years before you retire” - however looking at the chapters I thought the Ernie Z book covered a lot of the topics. Emily Birken also wrote another book “Choose your retirement…”
When I want to place a $35 order with Amazon Prime I want to order the 2011 book “A Good Financial Advisor will Tell you…” written by a CFP and a CIMA - I figure it will be worth buying if I glean just a little bit from it. $18.95 hardcover book.
Thank you @cbreeze – I definitely like the greater variety of low cost index funds at Vanguard. We have the 529s at Fidelity, plus my husband’s 401k and other funds there, but in the near future it could make sense to shift more to Vanguard. After all, the 529s will be spent down soon.
When you close out your accounts at a firm to move to another, do you have to pay a clossing fee? How much are they in general?
@Iglooo, @momsquad was asked for a closing fee ($60 at Etrade) and kept a $1 balance to avoid it. 
Some custodians might have a fee, but I don’t think it’s usual. A small fee to handle the transfer and paperwork seems reasonable, but personally I think anything over $25 is excessive.
My wife had to move her brokerage account from Vanguard to Fidelity (long story having to do with her employer’s compliance department list of approved brokerages). Vanguard moved some shares of stock, seamlessly, and with no fees for transfer or closing the account.