Pylon's Investment Corner

You might remember me talking about the evils of loaded mutual funds. Loaded funds are basically mutual funds that come with a commission. If you sign up with Edward Jones they will only offer loaded funds. If you feel you MUST have a broker manage your portfolio then this is not the thread for you.

Quick back story. When I was a young fucker, I'm talking my first job flipping burgers at McDonalds, I started an IRA through Edward Jones. My parents didn't know any better, they were just impressed this 16 year old kid was starting a retirement fund. Anyway, Edward Jones offered me some Putnam funds. I can't remember exactly what I put my money into to start out with but I know it had these loaded fees. 5% is the usual going rate that goes right to the broker.

The next group that got a cut of my sweet ice cream cone making compensation was the fund managers. These are shown in expense ratios and management fees. "Active funds" have high expense ratios. It's basically to pay some guy that admittedly knows his shit to pick what stocks your fund will be investing in. I tend to stay away from these "active funds". They will over time be a drag on your nest egg. I like to put a majority of my money into passive index funds. These funds try to mimic the market as much as possible. I currently have a majority of my 401k and IRA in VINIX. It has kicked ass for a year and has low fees.

Now, back to my mismanaged early age IRA. I basically let is just sit and grow at Edward Jones for years once I got a job that offered a 401k. Luckily, my former job had their 401k program through Fidelity. Their tools on their website are freaking awesome. They break down the nuts and bolts of every fund you have through them. After wising up a bit I finally rolled over my IRA from Edward Jones into Fidelity.

In case you're unaware, an IRA through a non-commision based brokerage like Fidelity allows you to move you money into all sorts of different options. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs. The best part is, you don't have a broker trying to funnel you into a few different options that his boss is making him sell. You can put everything into Ty's ridiculously volatile USLV if you want. It's your choice!

Anyway, this has gone on longer than I was expecting. Here is a kind of dry article on why active funds kind of suck.

Most Funds Are Priced To Fail

tl;dr Don't pay for fees when you can avoid 95% of them.

the fuck was this? and did you buy a house with that ira or not nigel? otherwise wtf save for retirement at 15 when you dont have a pot to piss in

.....and buy natty gas right now. approacbing 12 month lows and that shit is seasonal

That went to hell quickly.

I guess I forgot what kind of board this is. Oh well.

Blanch is a total thread-killer.