Posts Tagged ‘free trades’

3 Easy Ways to Cut Investing Costs

Posted on: May 10th, 2010 by

Financial Adviser - Financial Planner - Rockville, MDThe markets can be very fickle and uncontrollable, but what you can control is cost.  Keeping your costs down is crucial to your success as an investor.  The first step is to cut your fund fees.  I’m sure by now that you have already learned to avoid sales fees, but do you know how much your mutual funds really cost you every year?  Morningstar’s “Instant X-Ray” feature will break down your funds’ fees into hard dollar figures and compare them with the average costs of similar funds.  From there, you need to get rid of any funds with above-average expenses and are poor performing.  Replace them with low-cost index funds or exchange traded funds.

Next, you need to find a bargain broker.  The widely used online broker Fidelity does not have rock bottom commissions, but has a wide range of investment options.  They also supply a lot of research on their investments.  If you are looking to do a lot of the work yourself, you can go with bare bones operations like WellsTrade, which offers 100 free trades per year as long as you maintain a balance of at least $25,000.

And, finally, you need to haggle with your financial adviser.  The best time to negotiate your adviser’s fees is when  you are still shopping around.  But, if you have already settled, ask for a dollar-by-dollar breakdown of the exact fees you are paying.  At that point you can politely ask, “Is there anything we can do to lower the price tag”.  Now, if you pay by the hour, I would suggest doing a lot more research at home, have all of your questions thought out and written down, and come in with much of your paperwork done so that you will spend less time and money with your financial adviser.