When Schwab purchased TD Ameritrade, they were not going to give our FA’s group the discounts they had negotiated, but Fidelity would - so we have personal and Broker managed funds all visible with our Fidelity login.
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I just find Fidelity so much easier to navigate than Schwab, however, I don’t spend a lot of time on my Schwab account. My children had Roth accounts at Vanguard when they first started out, but the website was so unintuitive that they moved their accounts over to Fidelity.
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Hmmm. I think opposite but I’m on Schwab 100 times more. Both obviously have substantial followings. Schwab is great for muni bonds. My nephew says interactive brokers is best !! All favor differently.
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Schwab research seems excellent but my complaints/pet peeves are:
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No YTD tax info. Annoying if attempting to remain below certain tax thresholds at year end. I can download all transactions but then need to go in and pull out the negatives (reinvestment of dividends). Fidelity maintains continually updated YTD info with almost all the info that will be reported on the 1099. Of course, this will not be of interest to those who only hold retirement or HSA accounts at Fidelity.
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And this is a MUCH bigger complaint. When a Treasury matures, the proceeds are deposited in an account that barely pays interest. They don’t use a sweep account the way Fidelity does. I am embarrassed to admit how many months the proceeds of a Treasury sat earning almost nothing. Fortunately it was only $25K, but still frustrating.
Now, Schwab’s low balance MM pays better than Fidelity’s does: 4.19% vs 4.01%. Fidelity has higher yielding MMs but that is the yield on the sweep account I have. Retirement accounts can hold MM that yields 4.17%, but brokerage or HSA have a $100K min to buy the higher yielding MM.
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Many banks - J.P. Morgan, Schwab, Bank of America have paid fines on the sweeps thing. I think u need to manually do it but yep. You are correct. I think Fidelity too (first link but a slightly different issue maybe) but you’ve got it covered. I asked Schwab about the sweep and they said it’s manual. So it’s a cost of me doing business for sure.
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Thanks for the links.
I remembered another difference between the two firms (and I am sure there are many other differences I don’t even know about). Fidelity allows auto-roll of Treasuries, where you can request that when a Treasury matures, the proceeds are automatically invested in a new Treasury of the same terms. I have not used this feature, so I don’t know if you can request that a one year can be purchased when a three month matures, or if it only purchases the same terms as the maturing note or bill.
When a Treasury matured today, I could immediately purchase whatever I wanted manually. I think Schwab has a settlement period. I should probably go research that to be certain.
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We had a wonderful one for awhile and she gave us great advice, including “Don’t you dare touch your HSA money!!” as others have posted here. However, she retired and we haven’t found anyone new we trust yet: I don’t want someone who wants to try to sell us a bunch of annuities, etc. So, we’re just working with our employer-funded reps (Fidelity and Schwab respectively) and doing our own research for now until we find a new fee-only advisor. We won’t make any big financial moves until we do.
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We are in camp “ spend nothing from the HSA” (and keep it well invested).
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We’re of the camp to keep HSA invested until retired. I know it is more effective tax-wise to let it grow after retirement too. But as we age we are in the mode of reducing various accounts etc.
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I have investment accounts with both Fidelity and Schwab. They are both reputable companies. And either one will be fine for the vast majority of investors. The website interfaces are a matter of personal preference. I find that Schwab is more intuitive, but Fidelity offers more total features that interest me. Both will work fine for typical investing. Overall I prefer Fidelity.
Fidelity Advantages
My biggest issue with Schwab is also the lack of a decent yield sweep fund. With Schwab I instead keep cash in treasury ETFs. like USFR or SGOV, prior to making stock purchases. However, it is awkward to have to sell the treasury ETF to cash, each time I want to make an investment; and have funds sitting in an account earning little interest between transfers.
I also like the Fidelity has better support for purchasing fractional shares, as I prefer making my weekly investments in units of $, rather than units of shares, particularly with ETFs for which share price is several hundred.
Fidelity offers 0% expense ratio index funds, which I find useful for tax advantaged accounts (would not use it for taxable due to needing to take capital gains hit, if want to transfer elsewhere).
Fidelity also has better general banking functionality than Schwab for persons who like to use brokerage as primary bank. This includes the shortest average time for bank to bank transactions I have ever seen. There is no waiting for x to y business days. Fidelity always has it available the next morning. Fidelity also can be linked to a credit card with 2% cashback on everything.
Now that Mint is no longer available, my preferred replacement is Fidelity Fullview. I find it it is the best free alternative to Mint. I also have my 401k with Fidelity. It’s convenient to have everything in the same place.
Schwab Advantages
However, Schwab is not without advantages over Fidelity. I originally opened the Schwab account to cash out Amex points at rate of 1.1c/point – far better than I can get anywhere else, since I don’t spend much on travel. Schwab also offered me a decent bonus for opening the brokerage account… better bonus than Fidelity has offered.
While Fidelity offers a cash sweep, it has a high 0.4% expense ratio, as do most of their money markets. If you want to keep a lot of cash in money markets, you can get a better rate with Schwab, Vanguard, or numerous others.
I find that Schwab support is on average better than Fidelity. Fidelity support has given me critically incorrect information multiple times… misunderstanding some basic tax rules, such as pro rata. They admit their mistakes, but often need to transfer to a lot of people/departments before getting accurate information.
Fidelity website seems to be functionally limited and/or not working or buggy far more often than Schwab during the hours I want to use it, which includes late at night on weekends (may be standard time that Fidelity makes/tests website updates).
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I have Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard. Vanguard website stinks, but Schwab is as just as easy as Fidelity. I think you just get used to a certain format.
To add, though, Schwab’s sweep account pays really low interest, unlike Fidelity and Vanguards.
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Crickets here the last 10 days or so.
Just curious without becoming political, are you looking/thinking any different about your retirement savings, investments, nest egg, income - all the financial things - these days???
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I’m just being patient and watching. The WEP GPO repeal affects me…both of them. I’m patiently waiting for guidance from the SSA on what, if anything, I need to do. In the meantime…I’m just waiting.
This will affect our overall income. It’s a first world problem, which is why I’m just being patient.
No other changes…yet. We meet with our CFP in April.
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I am not looking forward to Monday.
My mom said it has been the best month for her because of volatility.
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Agree.
What’s happening Monday? PM, please, if saying what you mean wouldn’t be allowed here.
The market will absorb the news of the imposition of tariffs by various countries.
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That’s what I figured, but I am on a pretty severe news diet these days and wondered whether I missed something else. ¡Gracias!
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Back to retirement …
Right now, the plan is for dh to quit his more lucrative really part-time job at the end of May and keep the soul-fulfilling yet low-paid part-time job, maybe bumping up the hours. I was perfectly fine with that plan until recent national events. I’m a little nervous about losing that money, about $20k/year. That’s not make or break money, but that bit helps us not have to go into retirement savings at all, which feels comforting. In the current climate, I would rather he keep working, but I’m not going to renege on our agreement. And for all I know, he is feeling the same way for the same reasons. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
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Your comments are a good example of how people may be feeling and why I posed this timely question given the current situation in our country!
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