Buy Your Mutual Funds Directly:
Just go to the source! If you want
to buy a mutual fund from one of the big
companies, like Fidelity or Vanguard,
just go to their website, grab a phone
number, give them a call and say, "Hey,
I want to buy one of your mutual funds."
They'll be thrilled and will open an
account for you right away. You
should be able to take care of
everything pretty quickly and
painlessly.
Mutual Fund Supermarkets:
If you want to buy mutual funds from a
lot of different companies, going
through what's called a "fund
supermarket" is a major convenience.
Why?
Because, they'll keep track
of all your investments for
you and send you a single
statement each quarter --
it's easier for taxes at the
end of the year too.
Some companies (like
Fidelity) will even give you
free investment advise.
OK, so you're smart enough
to know that nothing's
really free, right?
What's the catch? The
supermarket may charge you a
fee. They'll often
have a list of funds that
you can buy for no charge
(because the fund company
pays to be on that list -
and, yes, this goes into the
fund's expenses).
Then,
they'll have a list of funds that you
can buy for a small fee. If you
can find mutual funds that you like on
the "free" list, that's the way to go...
But, either way, it's still worth it
because it makes the paper-work end so
much easier.
You can
search for a good mutual fund broker using our Google "safe
search" option. Or you can search for a different
topic on Finance FREAK. A new window will open
with your results.
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