Fidelity as a one stop shop

[anon_investor]

I avoided this because in the future I doubt I will manually buy FDLXX every month or every deposit and want to have a good yielding default automatic sweep

This is not that much trouble. It takes at most 10 seconds to do on the mobile app. I do it twice a month on pay day. Other bill payment and mega backdoor Roth activities I have to do every paycheck are more burdensome.

[wenchleaf]

I avoided this because in the future I doubt I will manually buy FDLXX every month or every deposit and want to have a good yielding default automatic sweep

This is not that much trouble. It takes at most 10 seconds to do on the mobile app. I do it twice a month on pay day. Other bill payment and mega backdoor Roth activities I have to do every paycheck are more burdensome.

Sure, it's a personal preference. All of my financials are on autopilot, I sometimes go months without even checking mint or any financial statement. I also don't get the privilege of mega backdoor Roth.

[anon_investor]

I avoided this because in the future I doubt I will manually buy FDLXX every month or every deposit and want to have a good yielding default automatic sweep

This is not that much trouble. It takes at most 10 seconds to do on the mobile app. I do it twice a month on pay day. Other bill payment and mega backdoor Roth activities I have to do every paycheck are more burdensome.

Sure, it's a personal preference. All of my financials are on autopilot, I sometimes go months without even checking mint or any financial statement. I also don't get the privilege of mega backdoor Roth.

How do you catch fradulent account activities?

[wenchleaf]

How do you catch fradulent account activities?

With a several month latency. As far as I can tell, cards have no issue doing chargebacks or reporting fraud for old statements. I've also had much more of the opposite problem, where cards mark normal charges as fraudulent.

I suppose I've been lucky but I have had very little fraud with credit cards, I use paypal/google pay for most things online and virtual credit cards on any non-major website. I have had some attempted debit card fraud, but those were rejected as my debit cards are locked by default.

[datascientistdude]

Did you change it so the brokerage account shows up under cash for Mint? IIRC I had to change the category on Fidelity's end to do so

How do you change the categorization of the brokerage account on Fidelity's end?

[wenchleaf]

Did you change it so the brokerage account shows up under cash for Mint? IIRC I had to change the category on Fidelity's end to do so

How do you change the categorization of the brokerage account on Fidelity's end?

On the portfolio view, at the top of the left sidebar, click "Customize" and change the account's group to "Spend & Save Accounts"

[anon_investor]

How do you catch fradulent account activities?

With a several month latency. As far as I can tell, cards have no issue doing chargebacks or reporting fraud for old statements. I've also had much more of the opposite problem, where cards mark normal charges as fraudulent.

I suppose I've been lucky but I have had very little fraud with credit cards, I use paypal/google pay for most things online and virtual credit cards on any non-major website. I have had some attempted debit card fraud, but those were rejected as my debit cards are locked by default.

Just be careful, I think most credit cards have a limited reporting window for fraud, the same goes for bank accounts (and I assume brokerages too).

[chassis]

I just ACAT'd out of Schwab, into Fidelity. Now I am 100% with Fidelity except for legacy 401ks. All daily tactical cash management is with Fidelity CMAs, plus taxable brokerage and an IRA.

[jalm1]

So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

[SnowBog]

So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

Depends on if you have state taxes... If so, FDLXX might end up being better...

But FZEXX (best "tax-free" option) doesn't have a high enough rate, even in the top federal tax bracket. So, if you don't have state taxes, then FZDXX is likely the best option [rate wise].

[jalm1]

So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

Depends on if you have state taxes... If so, FDLXX might end up being better...

But FZEXX (best "tax-free" option) doesn't have a high enough rate, even in the top federal tax bracket. So, if you don't have state taxes, then FZDXX is likely the best option [rate wise].

No state tax. Was hoping to avoid federal tax, but even the TEY on FZEXX is significantly lower than FDLXX.

[SnowBog]

So i guess even being in the top (or nearly) marginal tax bracket, FZDXX is still the best option for holding cash?

Depends on if you have state taxes... If so, FDLXX might end up being better...

But FZEXX (best "tax-free" option) doesn't have a high enough rate, even in the top federal tax bracket. So, if you don't have state taxes, then FZDXX is likely the best option [rate wise].

No state tax. Was hoping to avoid federal tax, but even the TEY on FZEXX is significantly lower than FDLXX.

Yep - last I checked (around 3/9) - even at the 35% bracket, TEY on FZEXX was 3.6% vs. 4.46% on FZDXX... No comparison...

[Lyrrad]

Yep - last I checked (around 3/9) - even at the 35% bracket, TEY on FZEXX was 3.6% vs. 4.46% on FZDXX... No comparison...

FZEXX generally tracks the the SIFMA municipal swap index, which is volatile and is generally is released on Wednesday. It went up slightly today.

It could make sense to swap in and out when the TEY yields of FZEXX are higher than other options, though the benefits may be marginal.

Electron created a chart comparing FTEXX and the Swap index. viewtopic.php?p=7156764#p7156764

I used FZEXX from around February 8-March 1 this year when the yield was higher.

[jalm1]

Yep - last I checked (around 3/9) - even at the 35% bracket, TEY on FZEXX was 3.6% vs. 4.46% on FZDXX... No comparison...

FZEXX generally tracks the the SIFMA municipal swap index, which is volatile and is generally is released on Wednesday. It went up slightly today.

It could make sense to swap in and out when the TEY yields of FZEXX are higher than other options, though the benefits may be marginal.

Electron created a chart comparing FTEXX and the Swap index. viewtopic.php?p=7156764#p7156764

I used FZEXX from around February 8-March 1 this year when the yield was higher.

Thanks, both.

[crg11]

I'm in the process of moving everything to Fidelity from Vanguard and a couple other banks.

One question I have is how to best handle moving my assets in my Vanguard Brokerage account over to a Fidelity Brokerage account. I have a good amount of money in VTSAX currently. If I understand correctly, I could just do a transfer of my VTSAX over to Fidelity and keep it in that, correct? Any downsides, fees, etc.?

Or should I sell at Vanguard and then buy the equivalent Fidelity fund? But that would trigger a taxable event, I believe?

[datascientistdude]

I'm in the process of moving everything to Fidelity from Vanguard and a couple other banks.

One question I have is how to best handle moving my assets in my Vanguard Brokerage account over to a Fidelity Brokerage account. I have a good amount of money in VTSAX currently. If I understand correctly, I could just do a transfer of my VTSAX over to Fidelity and keep it in that, correct? Any downsides, fees, etc.?

Or should I sell at Vanguard and then buy the equivalent Fidelity fund? But that would trigger a taxable event, I believe?

I believe you can transfer over fine, but if you ever want to sell or buy more VTSAX in Fidelity, you'll get hit with a transaction fee. If you want to avoid the fees, one other option is to call Vanguard and have them convert VTSAX to VTI for free (no taxable event) and then transfer VTI into your Fidelity account.

[MrJedi]

You can sell non-free mutual funds at Fidelity for free. The fee is when you want to purchase a non-free mutual fund.

[anon_investor]

You can sell non-free mutual funds at Fidelity for free. The fee is when you want to purchase a non-free mutual fund.

Dividend re-investment should also be fee free.

[Jim85]

crg11 - I just did this. Called Vangaurd to have several mutual funds converted to equivalent ETFs (VTSAX to VTI was one). They did it close of business that day. Told me the cost basis data would take a couple days to post. Very easy then to move the ETFs to Fidelity. No fees to buy/sell any of the ETFs. It's the way to go in my opinion.

[Bronco Henry]

I have a Fidelity Investment brokerage account with cash invested in FZDXX and I used the account and routing number from the Fidelity brokerage account for direct deposit. SPAXX is set as the Core Position.

New cash deposits and transfers are purchasing SPAXX in the Fidelity Investment brokerage account.

Question: Can FZDXX be set as the Core Position in a Fidelity brokerage account so that new deposits or cash transfers into Fidelity automatically purchase FZDXX or do I manually need to purchase new shares of FZDXX after the deposit or cash transfer in received?


I have a Vanguard Brokerage account and I used the account and routing number from the Fidelity Investment account to add the Fidelity Investment account as a Bank Account at Vanguard.

I've initiated a transfer in Vanguard to the Fidelity Investment account and the transfer process was completed with the funds deposited into SPAXX. I later used those funds in the Fidelity Investment brokerage account to start a position in FZDXX and reduced the SPAXX to $0.

Questions: What is the best method for me to transfer cash from my Fidelity Investment account into Vanguard? Can I initiate the transfer from the Fidelity Investment account within Vanguard and if so will Fidelity automatically use the FZDXX position to fulfill the transfer or do I need to manually sell FZDXX to put the money back into SPAXX before I initiate the transfer at Vanguard? Or is there a better way to transfer money from Fidelity to Vanguard?

[chassis]

Question: Can FZDXX be set as the Core Position in a Fidelity brokerage account so that new deposits or cash transfers into Fidelity automatically purchase FZDXX or do I manually need to purchase new shares of FZDXX after the deposit or cash transfer in received?

No. With respect, this question has been asked dozens of times in this thread.

You need to manually purchase FZDXX.

[JoMoney]

...
Questions: What is the best method for me to transfer cash from my Fidelity Investment account into Vanguard? Can I initiate the transfer from the Fidelity Investment account within Vanguard and if so will Fidelity automatically use the FZDXX position to fulfill the transfer or do I need to manually sell FZDXX to put the money back into SPAXX before I initiate the transfer at Vanguard? Or is there a better way to transfer money from Fidelity to Vanguard?

The best way is to consolidate to Fidelity as a "one stop shop" so you have no need transfer the money to another bank/brokerage account.

I am confused with what you're trying to say with : "Can I initiate the transfer from the Fidelity Investment account within Vanguard"
But, if you've linked your Fidelity account as a bank in your Vanguard account, then you can initiate a transfer for Vanguard to pull funds from your Fidelity account. Last time I checked, Vanguard doesn't offer the bank-like ACH routing/account numbers to be able to push/pull funds to, so I think that's the only way to do the transfer at Vanguard.
As has been mentioned numerous times, a non-Government Money market account is not eligible to be your "core" settlement fund.
If your "core" MM fund is at (or drained to) $0 balance, and you have cash in another MM (like FZDXX) that is "available to withdraw", then Fidelity will attempt to use those funds to satisfy an ACH direct-debit like the request to transfer cash to Vanguard.

[LadyGeek]

...If your "core" MM fund is at (or drained to) $0 balance, and you have cash in another MM (like FZDXX) that is "available to withdraw", then Fidelity will attempt to use those funds to satisfy an ACH direct-debit like the request to transfer cash to Vanguard.

You can see this by viewing the "Balances" tab in your portfolio. Click on the "i" (info button) above "Available to withdraw".

Cash available to withdraw

Amount collected and available for immediate withdrawal. This balance includes both Core and other Fidelity Money Market funds held in the account...

[Loandapper]

search.php?keywords=Zelle&t=266538&sf=msgonly

So the Fidelity debit card isn't accepted by Zelle? Is this still the case? Are there known workarounds?

I keep an Ally bank checking account and debit card for any Zelle needs. You can keep a $0 balance with Ally. Transfers from Fidelity to Ally are usually completed same-day if you request them in the morning or early afternoon.

(I also use that Ally account for anyone who demands a Plaid connection. This protects my Fidelity CMA account from being "scraped" for information.)

[prettybogle]

I am opening fidelity account- i am confused which of the below account types i should go with:
1. starter pack (fidelity account + fidelity cash management account)
2. Fidelity account
3. Fidelity cash management account

My goal is to use for fdic savings and also money market fund for extra yield and index investments as well.

[JoMoney]

I am opening fidelity account- i am confused which of the below account types i should go with:
1. starter pack (fidelity account + fidelity cash management account)
2. Fidelity account
3. Fidelity cash management account

My goal is to use for fdic savings and also money market fund for extra yield and index investments as well.

You are able to use the CMA account to buy stocks, ETFs, and other funds in - it is a brokerage account, so one could just use that one account... HOWEVER, if you do trading in the account like selling a stock or mutual fund, the money from selling the old investment has a settlement period and takes a few days before it's "available for withdrawal." You can trade/buy new securities with the money, but not withdraw it until it settles. If you also have money that is "available for withdrawal" (that you're relying on to pay bills with) and you make a new security purchase in the account, the "available for withdrawal" money is used first, and you might find yourself in a situation where a bill-pay or withdrawal fails when you thought money was available. For that reason, you should probably keep your "cash management" and your securities trading account separate.
If you were only using it like a bank account, and/or placed very few trades and made sure you kept an eye on your "available to withdraw" cash (keeping that in mind when you do make trades), you could probably get by ok using just the CMA account.

[chassis]

I withdrew EUR 150 today in Germany and will report on any fees, if any, that are charged.

No fee charged. The money was converted at exactly the relevant exchange rate. If there is a small (eg 1%) fee it isn’t visible and I don’t care if it’s there or not.

Full satisfaction with Fidelity’s international ATM cash withdrawal feature. The procedure is no different in Germany than it is in the US.

[MrJones]

search.php?keywords=Zelle&t=266538&sf=msgonly

So the Fidelity debit card isn't accepted by Zelle? Is this still the case? Are there known workarounds?

I keep an Ally bank checking account and debit card for any Zelle needs. You can keep a $0 balance with Ally. Transfers from Fidelity to Ally are usually completed same-day if you request them in the morning or early afternoon.

(I also use that Ally account for anyone who demands a Plaid connection. This protects my Fidelity CMA account from being "scraped" for information.)

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

Good to know about the transfer times, and good idea. I already have an Ally account I was going to close, but will keep it open instead. Thanks!

[anon_investor]

search.php?keywords=Zelle&t=266538&sf=msgonly

So the Fidelity debit card isn't accepted by Zelle? Is this still the case? Are there known workarounds?

I keep an Ally bank checking account and debit card for any Zelle needs. You can keep a $0 balance with Ally. Transfers from Fidelity to Ally are usually completed same-day if you request them in the morning or early afternoon.

(I also use that Ally account for anyone who demands a Plaid connection. This protects my Fidelity CMA account from being "scraped" for information.)

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

Good to know about the transfer times, and good idea. I already have an Ally account I was going to close, but will keep it open instead. Thanks!

I made a Plaid account so I could delete any links.

[radiowave]

I am opening fidelity account- i am confused which of the below account types i should go with:
1. starter pack (fidelity account + fidelity cash management account)
2. Fidelity account
3. Fidelity cash management account

My goal is to use for fdic savings and also money market fund for extra yield and index investments as well.

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

[MrJones]

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

Good to know about the transfer times, and good idea. I already have an Ally account I was going to close, but will keep it open instead. Thanks!

I made a Plaid account so I could delete any links.

Interesting, would you care to elaborate? Is this a way to avoid the privacy intrusion?

[anon_investor]

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

Good to know about the transfer times, and good idea. I already have an Ally account I was going to close, but will keep it open instead. Thanks!

I made a Plaid account so I could delete any links.

Interesting, would you care to elaborate? Is this a way to avoid the privacy intrusion?

Here is a post about it:
viewtopic.php?p=7039018#p7039018

[MrJones]

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

I made a Plaid account so I could delete any links.

Interesting, would you care to elaborate? Is this a way to avoid the privacy intrusion?

Here is a post about it:
viewtopic.php?p=7039018#p7039018

Good to know. How Plaid sells your data is every bit as horrible as I'd imagined. Thankfully, I've never ever given my credentials out to a Plaid demand from a third party, and hope to never. I'm concerned it's becoming harder though. For instance, a certain Paypal business account wouldn't accept a routing/account number pair, and demanded Plaid.

So I didn't sign up for a Plaid account, but good to know the option exists.

[anon_investor]

Ah yes, those annoying, privacy violating Plaid hard-demands have been growing of late.

I made a Plaid account so I could delete any links.

Interesting, would you care to elaborate? Is this a way to avoid the privacy intrusion?

Here is a post about it:
viewtopic.php?p=7039018#p7039018

Good to know. How Plaid sells your data is every bit as horrible as I'd imagined. Thankfully, I've never ever given my credentials out to a Plaid demand from a third party, and hope to never. I'm concerned it's becoming harder though. For instance, a certain Paypal business account wouldn't accept a routing/account number pair, and demanded Plaid.

So I didn't sign up for a Plaid account, but good to know the option exists.

I did because I had used it for Venmo apparently (PayPal owns them, so no surprise). I deleted info Plaid had on me.

[RunLong]

I'm headed towards using Fidelity as my one-stop shop... but a couple of things make me hesitant.

1. I recently made my backdoor Roth contribution by transferring the money in from Ally. It took a full week to process completely. I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, and it was finally available to push to my IRA on the following Saturday. I've seen comments about Fidelity being faster than this for transfers, but this seems slow. Obviously, less of an issue if we move our primary account there, but still something that's not ideal if I need to move money around.

2. What's the best setup for a savings account? I have the CMA account, and the brokerage account. For savings, should I create another CMA and just put it in one of the standard MM funds? Is there a better strategy here?

Following up on this. I decided to move ahead with switching to Fidelity. I initiated a transfer of the majority of my balance with Ally on Wednesday afternoon, and it isn't scheduled to clear until this Thursday. Thankfully I didn't transfer everything, or I'd be in a cash-less limbo.

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

[MrJedi]

I'm headed towards using Fidelity as my one-stop shop... but a couple of things make me hesitant.

1. I recently made my backdoor Roth contribution by transferring the money in from Ally. It took a full week to process completely. I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, and it was finally available to push to my IRA on the following Saturday. I've seen comments about Fidelity being faster than this for transfers, but this seems slow. Obviously, less of an issue if we move our primary account there, but still something that's not ideal if I need to move money around.

2. What's the best setup for a savings account? I have the CMA account, and the brokerage account. For savings, should I create another CMA and just put it in one of the standard MM funds? Is there a better strategy here?

Following up on this. I decided to move ahead with switching to Fidelity. I initiated a transfer of the majority of my balance with Ally on Wednesday afternoon, and it isn't scheduled to clear until this Thursday. Thankfully I didn't transfer everything, or I'd be in a cash-less limbo.

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

New links tend to take about a week to clear. You can usually invest in the mean time though. Many banks do the same thing for new ACH links. I know Ally will use 3 day transfers for new links but then will give you 1 day after some type of criteria is met.

Now that I have seasoned ACH links in Fidelity I can withdraw back out from those transfers within a day or so.

Are these new Fidelity accounts? New transfer/ACH links setup within the account?

[JoMoney]

I'm headed towards using Fidelity as my one-stop shop... but a couple of things make me hesitant.

1. I recently made my backdoor Roth contribution by transferring the money in from Ally. It took a full week to process completely. I initiated the transfer on a Saturday, and it was finally available to push to my IRA on the following Saturday. I've seen comments about Fidelity being faster than this for transfers, but this seems slow. Obviously, less of an issue if we move our primary account there, but still something that's not ideal if I need to move money around.

2. What's the best setup for a savings account? I have the CMA account, and the brokerage account. For savings, should I create another CMA and just put it in one of the standard MM funds? Is there a better strategy here?

Following up on this. I decided to move ahead with switching to Fidelity. I initiated a transfer of the majority of my balance with Ally on Wednesday afternoon, and it isn't scheduled to clear until this Thursday. Thankfully I didn't transfer everything, or I'd be in a cash-less limbo.

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

Strange... my experience has had much faster transaction times. I just initiated a transfer at Fidelity to pull money from my Wells Fargo checking account this morning (Monday) to my CMA. It's immediately available as "Cash available to trade" in my balances. I expect by Tuesday or Wednesday it will show as "Available to withdraw". I will update with the actual timeline ...

[vtMaps]

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

I think it's been mentioned somewhere in this thread, and I can personally confirm that this is correct:

If you want the money to be immediately available at Fidelity, push it into Fidelity from Ally.
If you want the money to be immediately available at Ally, push it into Ally from Fidelity.

--vtMaps

[RunLong]

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

I think it's been mentioned somewhere in this thread, and I can personally confirm that this is correct:

If you want the money to be immediately available at Fidelity, push it into Fidelity from Ally.
If you want the money to be immediately available at Ally, push it into Ally from Fidelity.

--vtMaps

This is good to know, and I wish I had done it that way. Given all I've heard about fast Fidelity transfer times, I assumed initiating from Fidelity would be the best bet. Lesson learned.

To answer the previous question: These aren't new account links. I've transferred from this Ally account a few times over the last year. Each time I did this from Fidelity. A portion of the transferred amount is available for trading, but I tried to use the debit card last night and it was declined... the rep said "yeah, that's because there's no money in the account yet."

[JoMoney]

I initiated a chat with Fidelity help and was told "Yeah, we just got your money today and it'll clear on the 23rd. We're not a traditional bank, so it just takes us longer." Definitely not happy with that answer, and it has me questioning my decision.

I think it's been mentioned somewhere in this thread, and I can personally confirm that this is correct:

If you want the money to be immediately available at Fidelity, push it into Fidelity from Ally.
If you want the money to be immediately available at Ally, push it into Ally from Fidelity.

--vtMaps

It depends on what you want it "immediately available" for.
If you want it to be immediately available for trading at Fidelity, you need to initiate it by "pulling" the money from Ally on the Fidelity side... but it will not be available for withdrawal for a few days.

If you want it to be immediately available for withdrawal at Fidelity, you can't do that, but if you "push" it from the Ally side to the Fidelity account it will be available for withdrawal as soon as it arrives (however long it takes Ally to transfer it.)

[mookie]

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

[JoMoney]

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

That works too, just know that you don't get ATM reimbursements from the regular brokerage account.

[muffins14]

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

That works too, just know that you don't get ATM reimbursements from the regular brokerage account.

I actually think two things:

1) if you have over 250k total assets, the regular brokerage gets free ATM withdrawals too. It works for me

2) I actually think you no longer need 250k. I asked about this for my partner, who I think did not have 250k at the time, and they said there would be no fees

I think it’s worth calling to confirm this for your case

[muffins14]

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

I don’t see the point of doing two brokerage accounts instead of a) just a single brokerage account, or b) one brokerage and one CMA

[MrJedi]

I've been using a second brokerage account to keep my tbill autorolls separate, since a pending autoroll messes up the cash available to trade and withdraw on my account where I make monthly ETF buys and occasional withdraws.

For brokerage account ATM usage, IIRC the debit card is issued by PNC and doesn't get charged ATM fees in the PNC network. You may want to double check that, as I don't use the debit card but I recall hearing that before.

[JoMoney]

...
I actually think two things:

1) if you have over 250k total assets, the regular brokerage gets free ATM withdrawals too. It works for me

2) I actually think you no longer need 250k. I asked about this for my partner, who I think did not have 250k at the time, and they said there would be no fees

I think it’s worth calling to confirm this for your case

FWIW, I have "Private Client" status (but no assigned rep) when I called and asked I was told that "Yes" I would qualify for ATM reimbursements on the regular brokerage account... so I opened one, and after using it, did not get the fees reimbursed. When I called to find out why not, after a bit of a run-around and them having to check with others (because they thought I should) they came back and the explanation I was given that I would have to have a rep assigned, and that they would have to specially code the account in order to receive the ATM reimbursement on the brokerage account... I just went back to using the CMA.

...
I don’t see the point of doing two brokerage accounts instead of a) just a single brokerage account, or 2) one brokerage and one CMA

I'm with you, but you do need to keep an eye on your "available to withdraw" amounts and understand how that works if you're also trading in the account. I find it a nuisance having multiple accounts and needing to transfer money from one to another for different things.... but whatever works you, there's no cost to having an additional account.

[mookie]

The convention here at BH - if you have time to look through the entire thread, is to have both a CMA and separate brokerage account. CMA for cash management and brokerage for taxable long term funds like total stock. From a cash flow standpoint, the CMA or multiple CMA (below) accounts take care of the day to day income/expenses. I use a separate second CMA as an ATM cash only account and keep only a couple hundred at most in there and NOT linked to the other CMA or brokerage account. That isolates my debit card I use only for ATM withdrawal, from my main CMA that is attached to bill pay, and the brokerage. Others on this thread advocate for ability to link CMA/brokerage accounts . . . I'm in the keep; them separate in case one gets hacked group. Not a right/wrong approach, just being security conscious. So any surplus cash not needed in next 2-3 months goes into treasury account or stays in money market, or into the brokerage account where I buy up total stock funds. The breaking point whether I keep the cash in short term cash instruments vs. total stock mutual funds is when will I need the money.

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

I don’t see the point of doing two brokerage accounts instead of a) just a single brokerage account, or b) one brokerage and one CMA

a) The idea behind keeping checking and investing accounts separate is that if your checking account gets hacked, the hacker won't have access to your investment funds.
b) The downside of the CMA for checking is that the default core position is cash, whereas in a brokerage account, you can set SPAXX as your default core position, which has a higher yield.

[Eno Deb]

Instead of one CMA and one brokerage account, is there any downside to having one brokerage account for checking/ATM activities, and a second brokerage account for investing? That way, as cash arrives, it can automatically sit in a MMF (e.g. SPAXX).

That's what I do and it works well for me. Compared to using just one brokerage account, it makes it easier for me to keep track of checking transactions (because they aren't intermingled with things like dividend reinvestments in my main investment account), contains the damage in case of fraudulent or erroneous checking withdrawals, and prevents cash availability issues e.g. if you hold treasuries on auto-roll. I frankly don't see a reason to have a CMA (although I still have one too that I don't really use anymore).

[muffins14]

a) The idea behind keeping checking and investing accounts separate is that if your checking account gets hacked, the hacker won't have access to your investment funds.

I'm not sure that two accounts really helps here. What kind of example am I missing?

If the hack if that they have your online password and 2-factor somehow, you'd need two separate logins in order to not be "hacked" right? Since usually Fidelity aggregates your accounts under one login, are you saying you'd have two separate log-ins online?

If the hack is that they initiate a transfer via ACH or wire with your routing and account number, Fidelity won't liquidate your non-money market investments anyway, so you'd be OK there

I'd assume with two accounts, you have 2x the probability of being hacked, but 1/2 the risk when you do get hacked, so it would sort of average out

[Eno Deb]

If the hack is that they initiate a transfer via ACH or wire with your routing and account number, Fidelity won't liquidate your non-money market investments anyway, so you'd be OK there

I do sometimes have larger MMF positions in my investment account, whereas I keep the balance in my "checking" brokerage account low.

I'd assume with two accounts, you have 2x the probability of being hacked, but 1/2 the risk when you do get hacked, so it would sort of average out

An account you use for checking is potentially vulnerable to check fraud, debit card fraud, and fraudulent ACH debits. My investment brokerage account has no checks and no debit card, and I never give the account number out.