Thank you for raising this question about getting started with Roth IRAs with the FF. I have a question about this topic, and want to extend it a little further.

If I understood the advice in the MF book correctly, it was advised that starting off with small amounts of money (eg the first 2K of a Roth IRA for oneself and one's spouse) in stocks would be a killer on commissions.

My situation is that I have about $20K to invest. If I were to reproduce the FF in 2 Roth IRAS ($2K ea) and one regular brokerage account (with the $16K left over), that'd mean 12 commissions at one go--8 of which would come out of a pot that was only $4K to begin with (the 2 IRAs). Is this incorrect? Then I thought about somehow dividing the whole $20K into 4 lots to lessen the commissions, but that would've meant each IRA would have been invested in one security which didn't seem right either ... My 2 dum questions are:

1. What are the relative merits of, say, doing the no-load index fund thing with the IRAs for a few years until there's enough in each IRA not get nailed on commissions, versus just plunging in as the courageous Leaner2 has done?

2. Is the correct strategy to reproduce the FF in _each_ of the three accounts I want to open?

Thanks