Quick investment question

TripleAAA

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2002
1,412
0
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I've been investing off and on with American Funds, using a financial advisor who charges a commission.

My question is, can I buy American Funds without going through my advisor and therefore possibly avoid these fees? In other words, can I deal directly with American Funds on my own since I already know what funds I should invest in?

Thanks
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Have you thought about switching to low-expense stock index mutual funds or ETFs with no sales load and no commissions?

Most actively managed funds do worse than the S&P 500 index if held long enough. Compare your funds to vanguard.com's VFINX. VFINX, it's swell!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program . . .
 

Special K

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
7,098
0
76
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Have you thought about switching to low-expense stock index mutual funds or ETFs with no sales load and no commissions?

Most actively managed funds do worse than the S&P 500 index if held long enough. Compare your funds to vanguard.com's VFINX. VFINX, it's swell!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program . . .

I'll second this. If you calculate how much your advisor is taking out in the form of fees and comissions and compound that over 40+ years (I am assuming the typical person will work and invest for 40 years before retiring, obviously you may have more or less years of investing left) it will probably add up to a sizable amount of money that you will never see if you keep paying them to invest your money.
 

Jadow

Diamond Member
Feb 12, 2003
5,962
2
0
sell the american funds and buy with fidelity, t.rowe price, or vanguard.
 

Svnla

Lifer
Nov 10, 2003
17,986
1,388
126
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Have you thought about switching to low-expense stock index mutual funds or ETFs with no sales load and no commissions?

Most actively managed funds do worse than the S&P 500 index if held long enough. Compare your funds to vanguard.com's VFINX. VFINX, it's swell!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program . . .

I'll second this. If you calculate how much your advisor is taking out in the form of fees and comissions and compound that over 40+ years (I am assuming the typical person will work and invest for 40 years before retiring, obviously you may have more or less years of investing left) it will probably add up to a sizable amount of money that you will never see if you keep paying them to invest your money.

I will third this. OP, if you have $50 a month, you can buy any low cost index mutual funds directly without any load or fee/commission.
 

Capitalizt

Banned
Nov 28, 2004
1,513
0
0
Open an account with Vanguard. Zero fees to buy or sell, and less than .1% annual fees for holding the funds. Easy way to diversify into a large basket of stocks.
 

SludgeFactory

Platinum Member
Sep 14, 2001
2,969
2
81
Vanguard.

Do what Special K said. Google for an interest calculator, do some basic calculations over 30-40 years and see how horribly you're getting ripped off when they skim "just" a couple percent off your rate of return. You'll be shocked.

Sorry, not interested in putting somebody else's kids through college.