Roth IRA funds

[mr weasals]

It looks like for certain funds there is a ~40 dollar transaction costs to get in.

If I make a contribution every year, will i be eating $40 per fund per year to add to the position? That would suck.

Some on the forum like the Vanguard funds. I assume I can make a reasonable mix of assets choosing only from their offerings? Might it be lower cost to open an account directly with Vanguard?

I'm mostly interested in the expenses, as I don't have an exotic mix of assets I want.

I will be contributing the maximum $4000 each year for the forseeable future.