Thanks to all the fantastic replies , I went ahead and opened a SEP
with Fidelity. Based on my business income I calculated I can invest
8k per year. I would like to put in something aggressive as my 401k is
conservatively invested and I want to diversity. The problem is
fidelity has hundreds of mutual funds, CD's, bonds etc to choose from!
How do I go about finding a simple index fund that is aggressive?
Seems like with so much choice I just feel overwhelmed and do not do
anything.

In article
acd6cf5f-8dfd-43c1-9300-cdeb0f36d49c@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
nonsense@mynonsense.net wrote:

Thanks to all the fantastic replies , I went ahead and opened a SEP
with Fidelity. Based on my business income I calculated I can invest
...
How do I go about finding a simple index fund that is aggressive?

I'd consider putting the bulk of it into low fee funds. Index
funds would be a good choice. The task then is which index to
follow.

Beyond that, pick a few sectors that you want to be in, like
big cap, mid-cap, small-cap, international, etc. Look for

You are never going to be able to predict the future, so

spread it around a bit, and spread individual sectors across
2 or more funds in the event that one fund messes up.

Until you have enough to pass the minimums in several
funds, that can be tricky. You can start with something
very highly diversified, like the Fidelity Four-In-One
Index fund, which has 0.08% expenses and invests in
a larg-cap index, a small cap index, an international
index, and (15% in) a bond index.

[ ...]

Vanguard's indices have $3,000 minimums, but if you buy
them from inside a Fidelity account, you'll pay horrible
transaction costs. To get them without those costs, you
have to buy them directly from Vanguard which may be a
bit of a hassle. (Vanguard's ETFs, of course, are as
easily accessible from a Fidelity account as from anywhere
else).

BreadWithSpam@fractious.net> wrote in message
news:yobfxofsoq0.fsf@panix2.panix.com...
Until you have enough to pass the minimums in several
funds, that can be tricky. You can start with something
very highly diversified, like the Fidelity Four-In-One
Index fund, which has 0.08% expenses and invests in
a larg-cap index, a small cap index, an international
index, and (15% in) a bond index.

An excellent suggestion, and I like the fund. However, do keep in mind the
costs. They're not huge, but are several times the 0.08% you suggest.

0.08% is the fee that Fidelity layers _on top of_ the underlying index

Just as important is that until you get over $10K, you've got an
annual fee of $10, which on the $8K SEP account amounts to an
additional 0.125%, for a total expense ratio of around 0.33%.

FWIW, once you own a transaction fee fund at Fidelity (i.e. pay $75!
for the first purchase) , you can buy more shares for a $5 fee
(which is less than the ETF commission fee). You do this by setting
up an "automatic periodic purchase" of the shares, and then cancel
after a single purchase. If you're interested in actively managed

"Mark Freeland" <nNeEwTs@nyc.rr.com> writes:
BreadWithSpam@fractious.net> wrote in message
news:yobfxofsoq0.fsf@panix2.panix.com...
Until you have enough to pass the minimums in several
funds, that can be tricky. You can start with something
very highly diversified, like the Fidelity Four-In-One
Index fund, which has 0.08% expenses and invests in
a larg-cap index, a small cap index, an international
index, and (15% in) a bond index.

An excellent suggestion, and I like the fund. However, do keep in
mind the costs. They're not huge, but are several times the 0.08%
you suggest.

0.08% is the fee that Fidelity layers _on top of_ the underlying
index

Of course, you're right. My mistake. (And Morningstar's,
for what it's worth - they show it as 0.08 and a footnote
claims that it *includes* underlying fund expenses, which
surprised me, but not enough to make me double check it).
But Fidelity themselves shows the composite ER at 0.23%.

And now that I think of it, the minimum in FFNOX is
$10,000 also. It's Vanguard's fund of index funds,
their STAR fund, which has the very low minimum of $1000
(and a similar expense ratio, but more conservative
asset allocation)

Just as important is that until you get over $10K, you've got an
annual fee of $10, which on the $8K SEP account amounts to an
additional 0.125%, for a total expense ratio of around 0.33%.

Again, more good details and thanks for adding them. Of course,
if he goes this route rather than, say, ETFs, he'll pass that $10k
mark pretty quickly and after that have no $10 or per-transaction
costs at all. FFNOX looks better and better, at least as a
core holding which can be supplemented with some smaller
additional ones later on if he wants to modify his asset
allocation weights or add other asset classes unrepresented by it.

FWIW, once you own a transaction fee fund at Fidelity (i.e. pay $75!
for the first purchase) , you can buy more shares for a $5 fee
(which is less than the ETF commission fee). You do this by setting
up an "automatic periodic purchase" of the shares, and then cancel
after a single purchase. If you're interested in actively managed

Tricky, a little messy, but smart. I got hit twice with that
$75 fee a while back.

[snip excellent observations about international funds, etc]


my current Fidelity IRA selections are: