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Schwab Lowers Expense Ratios, Mother’s Day, and More!

Posted By Madison On In Roundups | Comments Disabled

I do my best to make sure that we are getting the lowest possible expense ratios on our index funds, maintaining a 0.148% overall expense ratio [1].

So I was pleased to see that another broker is cutting expense ratios in Schwab Brokerage Lowers Expense Ratios, Beats Vanguard [2].

I currently use a combination of Vanguard, Fidelity Spartan, and Barclays Global Investors index funds to get the lowest fees.

Schwab now offers [3] a 0.09% expense ratio on their total stock market fund [4], just beating the 0.10% expense ratio for the Fidelity Spartan Total Stock Market Index [5] and 0.18% for the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index [6], both of which we hold.

In addition, Schwab is offering the 0.09% expense ratio on their S&P 500 index fund [7].

I just finished balancing our asset allocation two weeks ago, so I’ll have to revisit it again to see if I can improve on our expense ratio. Of course, it becomes complicated when I’m trying to get the lowest expense ratio and maintain our asset allocation with various 401k, Roth 401k, 403b, 457, solo 401k, Roth IRA, and traditional IRA accounts.

Announcements

Stamp increase. On May 11, 2009, the USPS first-class postage rate will change to $0.44 from $0.42. Don’t forget to add some extra postage next week, or buy the “forever” stamps this week.

Mother’s Day. Sunday, May 10 is Mother’s Day! If you want to kill two birds with one stone, why not order new stamps with your real photos [8] on them to give to your mom. Or better yet, have the kids send a letter to mom with the stamp photos. Practical, and sweet at the same time! If you are looking for some more creative gifts, try Mother’s Day Gift Ideas [9].

Money Saving Tips. Check out some of my money saving tips featured in 9 cash-saving tips that pay big bucks [10] at Bankrate. My tips are number 5) communicate cheaply (using Vonage [11]) and number 9) negotiate.

Limited Free Money Friday offer. Just a heads up that tomorrow’s Free Money [12] offer will be limited to the first 5 people. The post goes live at 8:30 central, so if you subscribe by email, you’ll want to check the site directly [13] tomorrow morning!

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