Pardon my french, but being a cheap ass helps

Although I tend to regularly splurge on my not so cheap "hobbies" - when it comes to investing, I admit I am the biggest cheap ass around. I simply hate paying for things that don't need paying for (on the other hand I'd gladly be willing to shell out a couple of hundred bucks or more to play a round at Pebble Beach :-)). That's just me.

In the investing world, here are some "unnecessary" costs to watch out for

1) Wire transfer fees, check ordering fees, minimum balance fees - these fees can kill you and for no reason. Set up your banking accounts in a way so as to eliminate these fees. Digital Credit Union has worked great for me in the past 10 years. No minimum fees, transfer fees, free check ordering with direct pay - so on and so forth. If I do really need to wire money, they have low rates. Online banks like Emigrantdirect or Money Market accounts like Vanguard Prime work good too.

2) Trading costs and account maintenance fees - have you compared rates for your brokerage costs? If you buy Mutual funds using a brokerage - a lot of times they will ding you with a fee (and pretty sizable at that). And this gets worse if you are investing a small amount every month (DCA). You can avoid these fees if you invest directly with the Mutual fund companies. Also, watch out for the account maintenance fees that mutual fund companies charge. For example, Vanguard charges a $15 fee for any fund that has a balance of less than $10K. But there is a way around it - sign up for e-statements and they waive the fee.

3) Mutual fund Expense Ratios and loads - These are real killers over the long term. Stay away from high ER and load funds. You can do the math or visit Morningstar to research how high ER/load funds eat into your long term returns - its staggering. Pick no load/low ER funds as much as possible.

So lets raise our glasses to more folks joining the "cheapass club"!