I've been putting off getting my finances in order for a while.  I'm thinking of going with the Vanguard Group. Any insights?

I have an account at my local liquor store, they manage my funds quite nicely.

I use Vanguard. I have no complaints. I can't really offer any advice though in our current market environment. Try checking Fabianlive.com for indepth fund management.

Vanguard is great for their index funds. I use them for that reason, as well as Price, Kaufmann, Janus, RSIM, Fidelity, and a couple others I bought into a while back. I usually start by figuring out how I want to diversify, and then pick the best funds in the categories I selected keeping in mind things like manager tenure, turnover, fees, etc.

Putnam

Vanguard index funds.  Their expenses are the lowest.  Their former director John Bogle wrote a book explaining the index investing theory and I though it was very persuasive.

I also have some money in the Strong Growth fund; for an actively managed mutual fund, their expenses are relatively low, and the fund manager is quite good.

Check the prospectus for the funds you are thinking about; the things I look for are low expenses and low turnover (high turnover often triggers capital gains).

I believe the core of ones investments should consist of index and tax-managed mutual funds.  Vanguard does an excellent job in this area.