* Many wonderful companies charge fees on DRIP investments. You should evaluate the effect of those fees based on your investing style—how much and how often you intend to invest.

For instance, this company deducts $5 from the amount you invest. That means that if you intend to invest the minimum allowed by this company, which is $50, the amount that will be used to purchase shares will be only $45 (a guaranteed loss of 10% of your investment amount).

However, if you intend to make larger investments, that $5 fee will have less impact. Because the fee is deducted from the amount invested, $5 taken from a $50 investment will have a huge impact, while $5 taken from a $1,000 investment is not significant (0.5%). We recommend that investors avoid such fee-driven plans unless they intend to make investments of $500 or more. (a 1% fee is tolerable--and even less is better). You might invest $500 quarterly, instead of $50 several times a month.