How do I buy a no load mutual fund for my Roth IRA?

How do I buy a no load mutual fund for my Roth IRA?

It seems like any of the financial companies that you go to are hawking there products and not giving a straight answer on buying a non load mutual fund.

Also-how can I find out what types of returns a particular no load fund is providing?

Thanks.

Go to yahoo finance http://finance.yahoo.com/funds

Use there screener to look up no-load funds, you can also see returns as well.

Just remember past performance is not an indication of future performance :)

Go to a discount broker. TD Ameritrade, Schwab, E-trade you can select from a thousand no load funds. They also have tons of free research on their websites for their customers.

If you want advice from a pro, then you will most likely buy a load fund. This is how they get paid and there is nothing wrong with that. Here is a break down of different load funds .

Class A - upfront charge, lower annual fee
Class B - No upfront charge, but deffered sales charge if you sell it with a certain amount of years
Class C- No upfront charge, one year deffered sales charge of about 1%.

Do a web search for "discount broker". Then look around at those sites and see what mutual funds they have with no transaction fee. That should tell you the history of the funds, expense ratio, minimum opening or addition amounts, and minimum holding time to avoid a short term holding fee. The performance figures or charts should already have the expense ratio factored in.

I happen to have my Roth IRA and most of my IRA at Fidelity, but there is Vanguard or others. Note that some brokers with cheapest stock trade fees do not pay as much interest on cash waiting to be invested.

Go directly to any of the major fund houses like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price or Fidelity and open your IRA there. Morningstar.com is an excellent source to review or screen funds.

You have to remember that they are working as well, and in turn need to be compensated for their work. Remember that even a no load fund has fund fees that are charged, you'll never see these, because it is not a commission, but a management fee, Usually 1-2%. One option is to go direct to a no load fund and open an account. Most funds have internal custodians that handle the accounts.