Antony Holmes


I write most of the posts because this is my site.

That's me posing by the Hudson River for no particular reason.


CEO, CTO, employee #1, all of the above

Schwab is a great one-stop-shop for all your banking and investing needs. Let's see why.



# Investing

Schwab lets you buy basically any stock and ETF available, certainly all of the key total stock and total bonds you should be [using](/blog/2021-12-09-the-vanilla-investor) in your portfolio.

It's just a pity you can't buy fractional shares except for some stocks in the S&P 500, which seems like an artificial limit to me. Fidelity offers fractional shares on pretty much everything, so why can't Schwab?

# Banking

Schwab has a banking division that offers a checking account that with a debit card and is functionally equialent to a checking account.

I'm surprised more people don't use it and instead stick with tranditional banks like Chase or Bank of America.

It offers amongst other things:

- Free debit card
- Free ATM withdrawls worldwide from any ATM so you don't have to worry about going out of network
- Free transfers between accounts at other institutions.
- Early deposit of direct deposits. Get your paycheck a day early.

# Credit Card

Schwab offers an unlimited 1.5% cash back credit card through American Express. It's a fine card, but doesn't offer much over a normal American Express card. They also offer a branded version of the Platinum American Express card, but it has the mostly the same fees and rewards structure as the regular Platinum card.



_Do you have a Schwab account? What were your experiences?_

Should you talk to chuck?

Mint Mobile is a great low cost wireless provider.



It operates on the T-Mobile networks and gives discounts if you pay upfront for periods of time ranging from 3 to 12 months with the discount increasing the more time you buy.

I use their 10GB monthly plan for which I paid for the 12 months upfront and with taxes and fees, that works out to around $22 a month in the state of New York so your price will vary a little bit from this depending on where you live.

I think it's a good deal and they throw in services like hotspot for free that the big three carriers normally charge for.

I've never had cause to complain about the cell service nor 4G speeds, so all in all I highly recommend them if you are looking to save money on your wireless plan.

_Do you use Mint Mobile? What were your experiences?_

Mint Mobile

Fidelity is a great one-stop-shop for all your banking and investing needs. I currently use them as my primary bank. Maybe you should too after reading this.



# Investing

Fidelity lets you buy basically any stock and ETF available, certainly all of the key total stock and total bonds you should be [using](/blog/2021-12-09-the-vanilla-investor) in your portfolio.

They were the first major brokerage to switch to fractional share trading on basically all stocks and ETFs. This is great because you can buy shares in dollar amounts instead of waiting until you have enough to buy single shares.

Fractional shares also mean you can ditch mutual funds and replace them with ETFs, but maintain the best of both. ETFs are usually tax efficient and portable between brokerages and since you can buy in dollar amounts you have essentially the same features of a mutual fund, which the added advantage of being able to trade them whenever you like instead of the end of the day.

# Banking

Fidelity offers a Cash Management account that comes with a debit card and is functionally equialent to a checking account.

I'm surprised more people don't use it and instead stick with tranditional banks like Chase or Bank of America.

It offers amongst other things:

- Free debit card
- Free ATM withdrawls worldwide from any ATM so you don't have to worry about going out of network
- Transfers between banks often occur same day. Much faster than the 3 or 4 day window at most banks.
- Early deposit of direct deposits. Get your paycheck a day or 2 early.

I've been a Fidelity convert for several years. It surprises me more people aren't given the nickel and diming and inconvenience of the most of the brick and mortar banks.

# Credit Card

Fidelity offers an unlimited 2% cash back credit card. It doesn't seem to get a lot of advertising so I'm not sure how prevalent it is (I've never seen anyone else with the card), but if you have a good/great credit score, it is an excellent card to have if you have a Fidelity account. The only criticism I have is the rather basic and not very user friendly website you have to use to manage the card, but this is more a fault of US Bank that Fidelity uses to manage the card.



_Do you have a Fidelity account? What were your experiences?_

Should you talk to chuck?

Mint Mobile

Hi, Fidelity