Hello fellow mustachians,
Like most of you, I trust long-term low-fee investing with index funds. Vanguard would be ideal, but I do not think it is available for residents of my country (Tunisia), and I have done my research.
I was looking for online brokers to buy Vanguard ETFs, I have created a "practice" account at a day trading website (etoro.com), it is mainly a website for day traders and forex and there are no vanguard ETFs available, just a few stocks, but they also offer indices (DJ30, SPX500, NSDQ100, UK100, GER30, FRA40), these are their fees :
DJ30 | $10 fee per unit | currently at $14,825
SPX500 | $0.5 fee per unit | currently at $1,595.60
NSDQ100 | $1 fee per unit | currently at $2,876.50
UK100 | $3 fee per unit | currently at $6,477
GER30 | $4 fee per unit | currently at $7,907
FRA40 | $3 fee per unit | currently at $3,885
If I invest my extra money in SPX500, at what seems to be a reasonable fee ($0.5/$1,595), I will be able to mirror the SP500 index and enjoy something similar to "Vanguard S&P 500 ETF", right? There are transaction fees, but with wire transfer and very low frequency trading (buy SPX500 at whatever current price is, hold until I retire or change brokers). Am I missing something guys, too good to be true?
I am not asking you to do my research, but I would like to know if someone else tried this. Also, maybe you know some tried-and-true international broker?
PS: I am a student and I am investing about $80/month (plus some occasional freelance income), I will buy maybe one unit of SPX500 per year (current retirement savings : about $1.300. Gotta start somewhere).
PPS: You Americans are spoiled, dammit I wish I could just enter my SSN in Vanguard's website and get started.