<prompt> Human: I already read the wiki but dont feel comfortable with the examples here OR the place my friend gave me. How do I start my own research? This is one of those things where I dont know what I dont know and am not sure if Im asking the right or useful questions. I was about to pick charles schawb heard from a friend and hope its the right choice but saw that I can dump 100,000 to start? I thought the limit was 5,500. Nothing makes sense... I guess what Im interested in is how YOU picked your IRA. What do I need to look into besides the expense ratio?Whats the ELI5 for: Fund types Share classesWiki - Assistant: Im young, only 23, but I opened one last year, and can tell you what I know. I chose a bank I and my family have had other accounts with, so the trust was already established. I chose a roth ira, as it will be taxed before it gets to the bank. This is in contrast to the traditional ira, where the tax is taken out when you withdrawal the money decades later. There is something about making contributions when you first open the account, I dont know much on that, but the allowable limit per year is 5,500.Again, Im no expert, and if someone can correct me please. But I hope this helps! Human: I can already tell your trusty family bank is happily charging you high fees andor stashing your contributions in over-priced underperforming funds that kickback a nice commission fee to the adviser. Move your IRA to Vanguard or Fidelity. Assistant: Why is that? How does vanguard or whoever make money compared to the bank? Whats the difference? Wont both be equally greedy for profits?  <response>: Vanguard is technically owned by Vanguard funds, which are in turn owned by investors. This is different from a big bank which is publicly traded and owned by shareholders whose interests are paramount over interests of investors of bank mutual funds, creating a nasty conflict of interest. So thats why you have the insane debacle going on with Wells Fargo right now. Vanguard charges low fees for its funds, around 0.18 while other brokerage firms and banks routinely charge well over 1. Vanguard can charge low fees because their funds are passively-managed index funds. They dont need a huge team of managers and researchers to figure out how to beat the market. They just follow an index. 