Fidelity is my one stop shop
I recently consolidated all of my banking and investing with Fidelity to streamline depositing paychecks, paying bills, transferring money between accounts and investing. It saves me a ton of time – for example moving money between checking to brokerage accounts to buy stocks, and I can pay my bills through Fidelity BillPay. Follow the steps below to create the same setup
Step 1 – Setup a new Fidelity checking account. It’s super easy and takes about 5 minutes. You can also request a debit card and checks. I added link here: Open Account
Step 2 – Setup direct deposit to allow your employer paychecks to deposit into your checking account automatically. Once you setup your cash account in Step 1, type in direct deposit in the Fidelity search bar and you will find a link to the banking and routing info. Provide that info to your employer and you are done!
Step 3 – Add the Fidelity BillPay feature to your checking account and add payees so you can pay through your checking account. In most cases Fidelity will already have your payee setup information, e.g. Visa, however there is an option to setup payees manually too. Fidelity Bill Pay
Step 4 – Setup a Fidelity savings account (optional). For some folks, having a separate account helps to encourage saving for unexpected expenses. If this is your style, go ahead and setup a savings account by repeating Step 1.
Step 5 – Rollover your prior 401k account to Fidelity. Fidelity rollover options
Step 6 – Setup a Brokerage account, which allows you to purchase stocks, ETFs and other types of investments. Fidelity Brokerage
Step 7 – Setup a 529 Plan to save for your child’s future education expenses. Your investments grow tax free as long as the funds are used for qualified educational expenses. Fidelity 529 Plans
Step 8 – Setup a Health Savings Account “HSA.” In my case, my employer uses Optum Bank, so I filled out a transfer form to move my HSA investments from Optum to Fidelity. Note – if you don’t already have a HSA account, check with your employer whether they offer it as there are certain qualifications that need to be met. Read more her Fidelity HSA