Hi, I've been following the Mustache blog for a couple of months now, and after reading the past posts on investing and browsing through jlcollinsnh's website, I decided to invest some cash I had sitting in a low interest checking account. I wanted to start with a low entry minimum fund and then switch to VTSAX once I had $10000 saved. I started with about $4500 (since increased to about $10500) and planned on having about $300-500/month that I could invest on an ongoing basis.
I opened up an account at optionshouse, but upon trying to make the trade, got an error that VDIGX was a mutual fund. Weird, I thought they offered mutual funds, but since the trading page was an absolute nightmare for an investing idiot to try to figure out (I've flown 747's in flight simulators with fewer controls, gadgets, and doodads), I decided to switch brokerages.
Googled for the best online brokerage for mutual funds and found Scottrade. The reviews I read said they charged no fees and no commissions for no-load funds (I thought), so I transferred my money over and bought $3000 of VDIGX (can't remember why I went with that over VTMSX), only to find out there was a transaction fee of $17. O_o $17 is a pretty big percentage if you're buying $300 worth of shares every month.
Clearly, I suffer from reading comprehension issues. So I'm reading through Vanguard's website and they would appear to not charge transaction fees for their ETFs. However, I thought this to be the case with Scottrade, and I was obviously way off the mark there. So before I go switching everything over again, I wanted to verify:
- If I open a Vanguard account, fund it, and begin investing in a no-load Vanguard ETF (say VTSAX), is there some fee that I will be charged? They state no commission and no transaction fee, but I'd like to be sure I'm not going to be charged a "brokerage fee" or a "securities fee" or a "company picnic fee" or some other fee that I didn't know existed and therefore didn't know to check for.
- Can I transfer the VDIGX shares I've already bought from Scottrade to Vanguard, or do I have to sell them and transfer the money? Probably a moot point, as I now have enough to buy VTSAX anyway.
- Is there a minimum amount of money I could invest each month? I understand that I have to buy ETFs in whole increments, that there is a minimum investment on each of the ETFs, and that, for VTSAX at least, there is a $100 minimum for additional investments. I don't see anything on their website about additional fees for monthly investments under a certain amount, though, so I assume that I could in theory invest $100/month without incurring some sort of penalty?
Thanks for any help