What does everyone here use for savings and investing? I’m using Marcus for savings at 1.05%… we keep about 10-12 mos if emergency funds (little over cautious)… i then use Wealthfront for our 529 and invest 1k a month into the investing… then we use vanguard for Ira and Roth. Wondering what others do?
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Sounds like an awesome strategy to me!
I have almost everything with Fidelity. I like their technology, support and assortment of accounts. My accounts look like this:
- Fidelity Checking account: Worldwide free ATMs… like every ATM in the world is free.
- Fidelity Brokerage account: Cash sits in SPAXX or FZDXX. Everything else in index funds or a California municipal bond fund
- Fidelity Roth IRA, Traditional IRA: More index funds
- Fidelity HSA: Some cash, more index funds
- Fidelity Visa: 2% cash back on everything. Deposited monthly back to my checking account. No bells or whistles. I prefer to just spend less than to play carnival games with a credit card.
I also have a Vanguard account, mostly for educational purposes. And I have a local credit union account with a small amount of cash for when I need to do larger cash transactions (like depositing cash after selling a car or something)
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We use a local credit union for checking/savings
Vanguard for my Roth.
Wife’s Roth is at Edward Jones along with a regular IRA.
401Ks are thru work (Aon and Fidelity I believe)
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Hey Jeremy,
Thanks for your details breakdown of your accounts! Looks very similar to mine, whats the reasoning behind having both the Roth and Traditional IRA’s? Do you do like a $4000 to $2,000 split on your annual contributions?
Thanks!
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Ah, no not at all. It’s only there for historic reasons. I’ve always put contributions into a Roth. The Traditional only exists from rolling over previous employer 401ks. When I have low income years, I have been converting Traditional to Roth.
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So Jeremy,
For your emergency fund, you said you keep the cash in spaxx in your brokerage account? Is this a better choice over a high yield savings, or are they about the same!
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About the same. I do it purely for convenience so it’s with the rest of my money. The tiny difference in interest rates (one way or the other… not sure who pays a few cents more right now) isn’t worth adding a bunch of hassle to my life, and it’s definitely not going to move the needle on anyone’s financial situation.
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Bank of America: checking, savings, credit cards
Ally: HYSA
Fidelity: Roth IRA, brokerage
Vanguard: 403b
Schools First Credit Unions: summer saver for school employees (I’ll likely discontinue and just use a HYSA).
I opened a betterment account for HYSA and then switched to Ally. I’m also curious if I move from Bank of America to use only Betterment/Ally and Fidelity, how will that impact my credit score? Since BoA is where I opened my first account and credit card. I’ve been meaning to move my money from them but anyone have info or advice?
Interested to see what others do as well.
I keep a spreadsheet of accounts to keep track of my total net worth and update it monthly.
As far as accounts I have checking accounts with US Bank, Chase, and Citizens. I opened the Chase and Citizens accounts for promotional bonuses and found uses for them afterward. Chase is my house account (pays mortgage, utilities, and receives rent payments), Citizens savings is to pay my credit card (paid off monthly) and US Bank as my main savings (6-8mos. Savings). I have part of my weekly pay check deposited into each account.
I also have a Roth IRA rolled over, a traditional which I max out annually, a Robinhood account that I throw $25/ week into for speculative investing.
Imo it does not matter where your money is, as long as you are aware of any fees that you may be getting charged. You get what you measure, so I’m now focusing on increasing that net worth number.
For the local credit union piece, why would you choose that over a larger bank? Just curious.
They’re less likely to dick you over on fees. They have a more altruistic business model.
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401K: Fidelity
HYSA: Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Brokerage and Roth IRA: Vanguard
Checking: Chase
IMO Vanguard is the best option out of the brokerages due to their commitment to slash costs (see Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins for more on why he chooses Vanguard). Fidelity has the slickest UI and mobile app. You can’t really go wrong with either.
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This strategy is giving me a headache 
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BofA: checking
Ally: HYSA & brokerage
Fidelity: Roth IRA, HSA
Vanguard: Rollover IRA
American Funds/Capitol Group: workplace 401k
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- USAA: Checking, Vacation Fund (I auto-transfer $150 every two weeks to a savings account to give us $$ to go on vacation with every year!)
- SoFi: High Yield Savings Account (I love that they have free career coaching & personal finance coaching included) (I auto-transfer $200 every two weeks to this account to grow it)
- Vanguard: Roth IRA & Roth 401K
- Fidelity: HSA (from a previous employer)
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