Charles Schwab is lowering the barriers for would-be investors by reducing its management fees and minimum balance requirements for opening an investment account.

Many investment houses charge up to $3,000 to open an account -- and that includes Clark's beloved Vanguard. But Schwab is now requiring just $100 to open an account. This is great news for kids of any age who have some pocket change from a summer job and want to invest.

In addition, the expenses on Schwab's funds have now been dropped to a level that's even lower than Vanguard. For example, the Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund and the Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund now come with a tiny expense ratio of .09%

When you consider that the typical mutual fund has annual expenses of about 1.5%, Schwab's move makes it nearly free to invest. And that means more money in your pocket down the road.

Meanwhile, as longtime listeners know, Clark absolutely loves index funds because they allow you to buy little slices and dices of the entire marketplace.

Syndicated financial writer Scott Burns recently did an analysis of Standard & Poor's Indices Versus Active funds scorecard. The results show that the performance of 12 out of 13 sample index funds trounced that of traditional manager-run funds.

That's why Clark is obsessive about buying the entire marketplace instead of buying an individual fund manager's "expert" picks.