Sharebuilder

[Deleted]

I'm sure that this is too small potatoes for most of you, but has anyone else used them? In the late 1990s, I started reading a site called the Motley Fool. I don't even know if they are still around, but I stopped when they became subscription based.

Anyway, I started doing Sharebuilder through them. My first stock was Yahoo. Lol. After the tech crash, I did Costco. That's been ok. Then I got married and my new DH suggested GE. That has really been better than ok.

Anyway, I was thinking about taking my SS reduction and put it into Sharebuilder. I've never thought about this as anything more than play money ($50 a month) . . . sort of like playing the lottery. But I could also put it in Vanguard.

I have 17 days to decide, I guess.

[Sum Dum Gai]

My IRA is through Sharebuilder. Motley Fool is indeed still around and has some pretty good articles on their site. I don't pay for a subscription though, so I don't know about their stock adviser newsletters and whatnot.

Even though Sharebuilder targets new and small time investors in their advertising, they're still a pretty reasonably priced budget broker, and unlike Vanguard and some of those, they aren't constantly trying to sell you their own products.

[phil5185]

The complaint I've seen is the high cost. In your case, if you add to a single stock every month, it will be $4/m for your $50. So $48 for a $600 investment. That's 8%, so even if you hit a home run and your stock grows 12%, you only keep 4%.
Maybe you could save up the $600 elsewhere and then pay the one-time $10 for a single purchase?

[Deleted]

I know you are basically right, Phil, but then you have to add the concept of "dollar cost averaging" in there. GE, for example, was really cheap (less than $10 a share) when I started throwing my few dollars at them.

Like I said, it's always been "play money" until now. But I was thinking of adding the $100 a month SS reduction, and it became REAL money for me. Remember I'm just a school teacher. Lol.

[jkapp]

I use Sharebuilder and love it...but I only do one time $9.95 bulk purchases manually, not the $4 per transaction automatic investment tool. If you are automatically investing a good chunk of money each time, then it's definitely worth it. But as others have said, those fees are massive when dealing with smaller investment dollars.

But I always say do what makes you comfortable when it comes to personal investments...being secure in your investments trumps larger fees IMO

[The J]

I use sharebuilder for my Roth. I tend to do bulk contributions, when I contribute to it (the vast majority of my retirement savings are in my 457), so the purchase cost isn't an issue for me.