I'm 33 and just opened a Fidelity Brokerage account. I've never invested before outside of a work 401k and a managed Roth. I've been doing some research on funds and allocations and have decided on a 70/30 stock/bond split with the stocks being a mix of US and international total market indexes.
The funds I was looking at were:
FZROX - Fidelity® ZERO Total Market Index Fund
FSKAX - Fidelity® Total Market Index Fund
FZILX - Fidelity® ZERO International Index Fund
FSPSX - Fidelity® International Index Fund
FNSOX - Fidelity® Short-Term Bond Index Fund (my portfolio report from them kept throwing this one out at me, not sure what the difference is between this and fxnax.)
FXNAX - Fidelity® U.S. Bond Index Fund
The questions I have are:
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What is the difference between the zero and regular funds? I see the buy price on the regular funds is higher, they've been around longer and there is a small fee. But I'm not sure what that all means in regards to my investment strategy. I've heard the dividend payout is less on the zero funds, but again, I'm still not quite sure what that means for my long term goal.
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These are all mutual funds. I was reading that while mutual funds reinvest your dividends (and you want this), etf's are ultimately better for a taxable brokerage. Is there a basic answer for why that is? If I should invest in etf's instead, what are some comparable etf's to the mutual funds I found? Is there anything else I need to be aware of in regards to etf's vs mutual funds?
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Is there a way to have fidelity automatically invest in the funds I want with my preferred allocation percentage? It looks like my only choices are to buy in dollars or shares, which means I need to figure out the proper dollar amount myself to get the split percentage I want? I feel like this may get more complicated when I add more money into the account and need to figure out the split again unless I'm overthinking it.
Thanks in advance for your help. There is a lot of information available online and I'm just trying to drill down to the basics to get myself started.
Submitted August 07, 2021 at 11:59AM by Nolegrl https://ift.tt/3fC05Yr
