good online trading site?

[bluemoon2]

I currently have a 401k w/ matching contributions by my employer up to 5%. Someone suggested I start investing money in excess of the 5% in a ROTH IRA. I'm interested in trying this, but don't know what the best online broker is to get an account with.

 

I'm interested in one that has low fees and allows a small initial investment, that will be easy enough for a novice/beginner investor.

 

Any Suggestions?

 

Thanks!

[Izmunuti]

Some thoughts:

 

You could consider putting more than 5% into your 401K. 5% just maximizes your employer match but isn't the maximum.

 

I happen to use Fidelity (www.fidelity.com). I've never had any trouble with them and their web site is great. With Fidelity, though, you need $2500 to open an account unless you sign up for a monthly contribution. I think those are called Simple Start IRA's or something and it's $200/month. Other than that, there aren't any fees as long as you stick to Fidelity funds.

 

My employer uses Smith Barney for their stock purchase plan. S.B.'s web interface is terrible. I don't know how their brokerage interface is but I don't plan to find out.

 

Iz

[bluemoon2]

thanks for the great advice, i'll take a look at fidelity.

 

I'm currently contributing 7% to my 401k, and my employer matches 5%, so 12% of my salary a year is deposited into my 401k one way or another. Someone suggested I invest any amount over 5% of my money into a ROTH IRA so it isn't taxable when I retire. So I would be depositing 5% into my 401k and 2% into an IRA each paycheck (I would probably contribute more than 2%).

 

Thanks again!

[Dwayne]

I'm currently contributing 7% to my 401k, and my employer matches 5%, so 12% of my salary a year is deposited into my 401k one way or another.

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Your employer matches 5%, so it's still only 7% of your salary per year going into your 401K that's coming out of your own pocket. The other 5% is coming out of your employer's pocket.

 

I've heard great things about Fidelity as well as Vanguard.

[jumar112]

My employers 401(k) is through Edward Jones. I really like them.

My DH and I also have a ROTH through them and it was just 100 to open and 25.00 a month to put into account.