[cd34]

I have a Simple IRA set up through my company through Etrade and have a taxable account with them as well. They aren't the cheapest, but, at the time I set up the Simple IRA, not many online brokers would deal with it. In terms of research available, I prefer Etrade over the others.

I had an account with Datek, who was purchased later by Ameritrade. In terms of trading costs, I prefer Ameritrade. Ameritrade's interface is a little different than etrade, and their research lacks a bit. Either one gives real time quotes, so, if you're not doing your research through your broker, pick the cheapest one that guarantees trade executions, etc.

I know that buyandhold.com is pretty well regarded if you aren't trading frequently. I don't believe you can do limit orders, and they buy at market prices once or twice a day and charge minimal fees.

I know someone that uses scottrade.com that likes their services. At $7/trade (including limit & stop orders), they are pretty darn competitive. I've been told that their online research tools are pretty good.

I know a person that has a Merrill Lynch Cash Management Account (ml.com) which allows them to do a number of things online.

If you are doing the research yourself, I don't think you need a full service brokerage. If you wanted to dump a chunk of cash somewhere and wanted someone to invest that for you, a full service brokerage -- and possibly the CMA would be the right account for you.

If you want to play with stocks, I would take a look at scottrade.com. I haven't seen the inside of their account management system, but, from what I have been told, their online research rivals what I can get with etrade.

If you are looking for bottom line cost and are reading the newspaper and aren't trying to time the market, buyandhold.com is probably the one.

Any of them can do periodic withdrawls from a checking account and will put the money into a money-market interest bearing account until you make a decision where to invest it. Keep in mind, they pay paltry interest rates.

If you were looking to do something that you didn't want to manage, fidelity.com and their mutual funds are a decent hands-off method of investing. They have some of the lowest fees around for mutual funds as far as no-load and management, and, will easily set up a monthly withdrawl from your account. In this case, you would not be able to buy individual stocks, but, you could invest in an S&P tracker that over its 'lifetime' (not recent years) has returned an average annualized 12.2%.

With that said, if you don't have a Simple IRA or SEP IRA set up for your company, you might want to talk with your accountant about a company sponsored retirement program. I don't recall the limits for last year's Simple IRA contributions, but, I believe it was $10000 in 2005 and is $10000 in 2006. This is tax deferred money that you are putting away -- and if you set up with one of the online brokerages, you can then invest that money where you choose -- including many mutual funds.

I don't think any of the accounts are prone to security issues, and you are pretty well protected against that anyhow. Its no different than online banking.

With that said, and with this being the new year, everyone should really earmark a % of their income and bank it in a savings account until you have 90 days worth of living expenses stored away. At that point, you should start investing it in higher yield products. You don't need to add a ton of risk and can stick with investments that won't lose cash like laddering CDs, i.e. buy 1 CD that matures in 12 months every month. When you hit that 1 year point, you start investing in 2 year CDs and let your existing 1 year CD rollover.

And if you don't have an accountant or company structure set up where you can defer taxable income, you should speak with an accountant.

Compound interest over time is actually quite impresive. Taking larger risks with stocks can really inflate (or deflate) your $$. Make sure you know the risk you can afford to take.