Starting My Investment Portfolio Using Fee Free Loyal3
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I have a 401K plan as well as a pension through my employer, and my wife and I are looking at finally opening that Roth IRA this year. What we don’t have is any kind of private investments.
That’s about to change thanks to a fee free stock trading platform called Loyal3.
Did I pique your interest with the phrase, “fee free?†It certainly got my attention and is what drew me to taking a closer look at Loyal3. Where other platforms charge around $10 per transaction, Loyal3 charges nothing. Buy and sell at your heart’s content and pay absolutely nothing.
The lack of fees is what initially drew me to their website, but as I took a closer look there were other features that really sold me on signing up.
- Low minimum investment amount : Users can get started, and continue to invest in increments as small at $10.
- Automatic Investment: Users can schedule automatic monthly withdrawals from a checking account to help users incrementally grow their portfolio.
- Easy to use: I signed up and made my first purchase in less than ten minutes. Users pick their stock from a list of over fifty easily recognized company icons, then enter the desired amount, and that’s it. You’re done.
Users are limited to a maximum investment of $2500 per month (I’m not in any danger of exceeding that anytime soon), and the stocks available for purchase are limited to a current list of 50+ stocks. But the advantages listed above make Loyal3 a perfect platform for investing beginners like me to start building a portfolio.
I started out with a $60 investment in the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain. I LOVE the food at BWWs, plus I recently read an article suggesting it may be poised for both short term and long term growth. I plan on contributing more funds each month, increasing both my investment in BWW, as well as diversifying across other companies as well.
I thought it would be fun to report here on CleverDude once a month as to how I’m growing my portfolio, as well as how my investments are doing.
So follow along each month, and watch my money (hopefully) grow!
Do you manage your own investments using an online stock trading platform? How much in fees do you pay?
Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
LOYAL3 is fantastic! I have been using monthly automatic investments for the past 5 months. Great way to invest small chunks of money.
Don’t forget about earning credit card rewards as another possible benefit!
Dude, I had totally forgotten about the credit card rewards angle! Thanks John!
@John – Great to hear you like Loyal3, John….good to hear from someone who’s been using it for awhile. Good call on the credit card rewards – getting a “bump” for investing…nothing wrong with that!
@James – that’s what I love about blogging and interacting with other bloggers and readers….the exchange of great ideas!!
Can’t wait! I hope I can do the same!
By the way, is this a website background change? 🙂
@David – Looking forward to your thoughts on how I’m doing! I assume by “background change” you mean a sense of direction of the content? Sort of…I mean I’m definitely continuing to write about ways of saving money, getting the most for my money as well as family and family finances. This is just adding the new angle of investing and planning for retirement that everyone *should* be thinking about. Thanks for reading, looking forward to having you come back around!
That sounds great that you are able to begin investing through this no fee service.
I would raise one point of caution. Just about all investing and finance books suggest that you create an investment portfolio that is properly allocated for your goals and well diversified. It sounds like with Loyal3, you aren’t really getting either of these…. While it’s a good start, I would look to branch out as you get more and more money to invest. The last thing you will want is to have your money in 5 or 6 US only companies only to have one or two of them blow-up and torpedo your whole account.
Just my 2 cents…
@MoneyAhoy – Great advice, my friend. This is just my starting point to play around with investing a little. As I wade deeper into the investing pool I may need to look at additional options as well.
Regarding Loyal3, you can only build a semi-diversified portfolio with Loyal3.
Consumer Retailers such as Wal-mart and Target
Food & Beverage – Pepsi, Coca-cola, Modelez
Consumer Staples – Unilever
Technology – Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook
Restaurants – Buffalo wildwings, Burger King, McDonalds
Entertainment – AMC, Disney, 21st Cent
Clothing Retailers
Communications
There is only 1 conglomerate on the list and that is Berkshire Hathaway of which is semi-diversified across some different industries and retailing and stock investments.
So there are some gaps in some industries and major companies. But I think with some diligence you can build a partial diversified dividend portfolio with Loyal3. I consider Berkshire part of that as it makes free cash flow like a dividend payer but Warren Buffet choose to reinvest it into other companies rather than pay a dividend. I also chose to weight Berkshire a little more in my Loyal3 portfolio to diversify it.
@Ron – True, but then again, it’s not supposed to be an “end all, be all” investment platform. It strikes me as a beginning tool with the emphasis on simplicity and ease of use. Thanks for your thoughts!
Hello,I hadn’t seen this previously and looked it up, I think I’ll take a further look at that one and wanted to know how you go about deciding what to purchase.