I have recently been considering starting to invest a small amount into Betterment for future savings (not retirement), until I stumbled upon articles in this forum stating pros/cons of it compared to somewhere like Vanguard, which many readers seemed to prefer.
The articles prompted the thought of how I pay, in my opinion, pretty high fees for my retirement accounts that I have with Smith Barney (separate from my gov't TSP account). I Really like the adviser we have, but in reality have overlooked the fees for years.
I have 5 accounts with Smith Barney (an IRA for me rolled over from my previous employer, and 2 IRAs for my wife (Simple IRA and regular IRA), as well as 2 very small Roth IRAs for each or us).
I've reviewed my accounts and found that I am paying 1%/year in advisory fees for the 3 IRAs. Then, we are paying $75/year for the Roth IRAs each, which is a huge hit considering the tiny amount of money I have in there.
I wanted to see what your opinions are on if it's worth continuing this path of paying these fees. I'm pretty confident that the funds that we are in are good funds and that we are getting solid advice and performance. However, is that enough to warrant paying these "extra" fees? If not, what options do you recommend? If Vanguard, does that mean I manage everything myself and do I risk lowering my potential retirement nest egg by having a non-skilled investor like myself managing this for the long haul?
I appreciate any input!!