Low Cost Investing Brokerage Accounts
Whether you are new to investing or a seasoned vet, you should always look for new opportunities to save money and cut costs. Below is a list of investing brokerage accounts that anyone can use to reduce your fees and allow more of your money to work for you. Majority of these brokerage accounts below are for long term investing, which allocates your money into low costs index funds or exchange traded funds (also known as ETFs). I also included two brokerage accounts for investing in individual stocks, if you are interested.
Check out some recent related posts:
- Saving Accounts with MORE than 0.01%
- Fees – Who Needs Them? Buy Individual Stocks for ZERO Fees
- Start Investing Your Spare Change or $1 Per Day
- Saving for Retirement – Which account do I invest in?
- Compound Interest and Saving for Retirement
The Quick List
Index Funds and ETFs |
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Stocks |
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If you want a little more detail for each account, check out the detailed list below. Each brokerage account has the following information:
- Summary – Highlevel overview of the brokerage account
- Fees – The fees associated with the brokerage account
- Minimum Opening Balance – How much money you need upfront to open an account
- Deposits – The deposit functionality, whether or not you can set it and forget and automate your investments
- Type of Investor – Whether or not the brokerage account is tailored for a beginner or novice investor
- Security Protection – How much of your money is protected
Index Funds & ETFs
- Summary: A great investment platform for any type of investor looking to add money to their traditional investment accounts, retirement accounts (i.e. IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, Rollover 401ks), as well as College Savings (i.e. 529 College Savings Plan).
- Fees: First $10,000 Free, 0.25% Annually
- Minimum Opening Balance: $500 Minimum
- Deposits: Weekly, Bi-Weekly (1st and 15th), Monthly, Quarterly
- Type of Investor: Long Term, Advanced and Beginner
- Security Protection: SIPC up to $250,000
- Summary: great investment platform for the novice investor looking to perform a little more homework then other platforms. Betterment provides the ability add money to traditional investment accounts, retirement accounts (i.e. IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, Rollover 401ks), tax loss harvesting strategy, as well as Trusts.
- Fees: 0.25% Annually
- Minimum Opening Balance: No Minimum
- Deposits: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly
- Type of Investor: Long Term, Novice Investor
- Security Protection: FINRA and SIPC up to $500,000
- Summary: A mobile app, built on investing your spare change in vanguard index funds for a traditional investment account. Acorns takes advantage of your spending habits, for example if you link your credit cards and debit cards, every time you make a purchase, say $5.50, acorns will round up the $5.50 to $6.00 and take the $0.50 to deposit it in your investment account. This model can quickly add up and lets you automate your investing strategy with little to no impact on your daily spending. You can also set up drip deposits each day to take advantage of dollar cost averaging with a set it and forget it strategy.
- Fees: $1.00 per month for accounts under $5,000. Accounts greater than $5000, 0.25% Annually. Free for students with valid .edu account (up to 4 years)
- Minimum Opening Balance: No Minimum
- Deposits: Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly (1st and 15th), Monthly, Quarterly
- Type of Investor: Long Term, Advanced and Beginner
- Security Protection: SIPC up to $250,000
- Summary: A mobile app, built for the beginning investor. It is easy to use and offers the “Stash Advisor”, which is a educational service that provides tips and insights on investing strategies as you grow your account. Investment portfolio’s are built into theme’s like clean energy, enjoy yourself, global citizen, etc, which invests in certain companies tailored towards that theme. Allows you to automate your investments with as little as $5.00 similar to Acorns with a set it and forget it strategy.
- Fees: $1.00 per month for first $5,000 invested or accounts greater than $5000, 0.25% Annually.
- Minimum Opening Balance: $5.00
- Deposits: Weekly
- Type of Investor: Long Term, Beginner
- Security Protection: FDIC, FINRA and SIPC up to $250,000
Stocks
- Summary: A free mobile app for investing in stocks. It is easy to use and offers the the ability to buy stocks without any transaction fees. Robinhood is great for the average investor looking to purchase individual shares of different companies to build a healthy diverse portfolio at your own will. You are in full control of your account and manage it however you like. If you are looking to get a little more sophisticated with your investments in Robinhood, there is a paid feature that allows you to buy/sell stocks in pre-market (9:00AM EST) and post market (4:00PM-6:00PM EST).
- Fees: $0
- Minimum Opening Balance: $0.00
- Deposits: Daily, Weekly, Monthly deposits into your account, but cannot buy individual stocks automatically.
- Type of Investor: Anyone
- Security Protection: FINRA and SIPC up to $500,000
https://www-us.computershare.com/
- Summary: Computershare is an investment company that manages employee stock purchase programs. Look into an employee stock purchase program at your company, to see if they use a service like Computershare. Depending on your company, computershare can offer a variety in fees.
- Fees: Vary depending on your company, some offer $0.00 transaction fees.
- Minimum Opening Balance: $0.00
- Deposits: Each Paycheck
- Type of Investor: Employees of a company offering employee stock purchase programs
If you would like to add any information to the list above, let me know in a comment and I’ll be sure to update this post!