Vanguard funds
 

I have a Roth IRA account with an Edward Jones broker. I don't shuffle money around in it and every time I encounter the guy, he will only offer me American funds products (I know they pay him to do that). I'm tired of paying him to get paid by them.

For something like this, are there down-sides to pulling this money and trying a Vanguard Roth? What am I missing?

No - call them up. Also ask about tax consequences

Stay out of bond funds...

Sure, you can do that no problem, people to it every day, very common.

There's no tax consequence.

Edward Jones is your current "IRA trustee/custodian." You would be doing what is called a transfer to another trustee/custodian (Vanguard). There's no tax consequences because nothing is being paid to you.

I put most of my non-401K, non-cash investments into Vanguard and I'm very satisfied. I figure it's low cost, low maintenance (I'm too lazy to buy and sell stocks), good performance, and their website is pretty easy to negotiate.

Not meaning to hijack, but this brings up a question I have. My wife has a 403b Roth IRA she established through the school district she no longer works for. Anyone know if she can transfer custodianship from the school district approved custodian to Vanguard directly under her name as custodian? Haven't thought of this before, but I'm suspecting a 403b fund may not be eligible for that sort of transfer.

By dealing directly w/ Vanguard you give up the expensive hand holding of a local broker

For most people a simple 3 -5 fund Vanguard account will do fine

you should have at least a bit of feel for what your asset allocation ought to be, it will depend on your assets, age, goals etc. place your assets appropriately in a few of Vanguards Index funds

You can roll over the assets from the 403b into a Roth IRA at Vanguard, call Vanguard and the will help you through the process, they love to gather new assets under management.

I read the regular column by Paul Merriman at MarketWatch, and I have ready some of the books that he offers for free on his website Paul Merriman. He's a retired investment advisor. He's got an article about why Vanguard is a great option.

He's also got a nice article about diversification that he backs up with math and figures. He calls his plan "the Ultimate Buy and Hold Strategy"

He also has specific recommendations for funds to own to fit his strategy specific to Vanguard, Fidelity and T.Rowe.

Or if you want to use ETFs instead of mutual funds... again, specifics for Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab

I'm not associated or making money, just think it's a bunch of good info.

I am with Vanguard. Good choice. Stay out of bonds right now, as was already mentioned.

1 more happy Vanguard account holder.
Been with them for years.

Roughly 1/2 of my retirement is in Vanguard index funds and has been since 1998. Very pleased.

Over the past 10 or so years I have moved both my traditional and Roth IRA's to Vanguard from the Edward Jones American Funds. You can do it all on-line and it is very easy to do.

Vanguard Fees are lower.
I can do everything I need to do on-line.
Don't have to deal with a broker who is basically a glorified salesman.

There's no tax consequence if you just transfer it all over. But be sure to mention taxes to the vanguard repr. If you change the 'nature' of the accounts there could be tax consequences. OTOH, some types of accts. can be changed into others with no taxes. Just let them handle it.