Investment Plan

I currently have money in a Roth IRA, specifically Vangaurd's Target Retirement 2040 (VFORX). It places 81.66% of its capital in stocks, 9.78% in bonds, and has 0.82% in cash. I picked this plan because I liked the funds that it invests as it has good exposer to international stocks as well as a diversified amount of domestic stocks. I didn't want bonds but I could not find a fund like this one that had no bonds in it. Now I plan on investing more buy I want more hands on decisions. I am following Fool.com's advise and will be investing in small amounts over time to take advantage of dollar cost averaging. If you buy stock consistently over time you will end up buying stock at lower prices more often than when the stock price is high. Sharebuilder allows investors to easily start an investment plan so that at a specific date money is taken out of their bank account and invested in a stock. The problem with this is they charge $4 for each order you buy and I $15 each time you sell. BTW Sharebuilder has some great promotions. I made $50 by setting up an account. So how do you get around those fees? Set up a Direct Investment Plan. In this way you can buy shares directly from the company. Usually you have to own a share to qualify for the plan, but that can be done at Moneypaper easily. Many great companies won't charge buy fees (but they will sell fees at $15), and most will pay for the fee to buy the shares. I have been looking at some of different companies to invest in, and taking a look at their direct investment plans. I'll talk more about the first company I pick when I discuss what I am looking for in a company.