<prompt> Human: Each time I make a contribution to my Roth IRA American Funds, I am charged a 5 sales charge. I have it set up to make a 100 automatic contribution every month, so every month I am paying a 5 fee. This seems pretty excessive based on what I have read here. Is it? Or is this normal?  <response>: American Funds is one giant rip off. You should never pay a fee to buy a mutual fund or ETF, especially in your IRA. Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab all allow you to purchase numerous different funds for no commission, let alone a freaking sales charge. 