There is some good information buried in this thread but I don't understand why some of you are so hostile to what this guy wants to do.

The suggestion to hire a certified financial planner is right on. What you want is someone that charges a set fee rather than a commission, since they are most likely to give you impartial advice. Once you know what you want to invest in, etrade or ameritrade can execute your trades as good as your broker can and more cost effectivley. So I don't understand the hostility.

I wanted to give you an update regarding E*TRADE. Some folks have pointed out that there is a $50 fee to close an account. This is not entirely accurate. There is such a fee if you transfer the entire balance of an account out of E*TRADE, such as to another brokerage. But one advantage of E*Trade in my opinion is that they make it easy for you to take money out--they give you free checks to write against your brokerage account. So when you want to close your account, just write a check against the funds in that account (assuming you have already sold.) Alternatively, you can request a certificate, although there is a charge for this (but everyone will charge you to get a cert. since it is imposed by the transfer agent and just passed along by the brokerage house).

So my point is that the fee can be avoided in many cases. Of course, the tax aspects of selling first could make this a poor strategy, but if you have a loss on your stocks you would want to sell anyway for tax purposes.

And the point about teh savings bonds is a good one--if you have a good point earning credit card, you could probalby do better by buying bonds with the credit card than opening a brokerage account just for miles. But if you are going to open a brokerage acccount anyway, why not get miles!

I'm happy to refer anyone to Etrade, since I'll get 5,000 miles. Send me an email at [email protected]. Etrade will give you United, Delta, or Northwest miles, so let me know which ones you want.

Personally, I like ameritrade's site a little better, but still give the edge to etrade because they give you checks for your brokerage account (avoids having to wait for someone to cut you a check). If this is not a big deal, ameritrade's site is a litter better plus a little cheaper. Regarding points, they only offer points on United.

I'm limited to 10 referrals in a year, so its not like I'm going to be raking in the points off of this post. I just want to share the benefits of my experience.