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Not only does Ally Bank offer one of the best online high-yield savings accounts on the market, they also offer a great discount brokerage for investors via their Ally Invest service. With a $0 account minimum and some of the lowest trading fees available (only $3.95 per stock trade), Ally Invest is one of the best places for an investor to get their start. They have a wide range of investment options, great customer service, and a rich suite of investment research tools. I’ve had an account for over 10 years (they’ve changed names over time, I think my original account was with “Zecco”) and I couldn’t be happier. If you’re ready to begin your financial independence journey, Ally Invest is a great place to start.
Open your Ally Invest account today and get a cash bonus up to $3,500!
One of the largest investment brokers on earth with literally TRILLIONS of dollars under management, Vanguard is also one of the most customer-centric firms around. They offer all of the investment tools and resources needed for anyone aiming for early retirement. They have a large variety of fund offerings with costs that are some of the lowest in the industry. Vanguard is my broker of choice and I plan to move close to 100% of my invested funds to my Vanguard account over the next few years. If you're interested in a solid, full-service investment broker that you can stick with for the long term, look no further than Vanguard.
Note: If you already have an investment account with another broker but would like to try Vanguard, you can quickly and easily execute an "in-kind" transfer of your current holdings to a Vanguard account. This transaction has no tax consequences, doesn't require any buying or selling, and can be initiated online in a few minutes, so its simple to switch.
Though I think being knowledgeable enough to manage your own investments should be your ultimate goal, there are many people who would prefer to have some professional help. I'm mostly against using traditional personal advisors because of their high fees and (typically) unimpressive results, but I think the relatively new field of "robo-advisors" is a great alternative. Of the robo-advisor services that I have tried, I think Wealthfront is the best. Wealthfront starts with a short questionnaire to assess the best investment plan for your specific needs. Once your account is created all you have to do is deposit money and Wealthfront handles the rest. Your deposit will quickly be invested in a diversified portfolio of low-cost funds which is actively managed by sophisticated, automated software. Account rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting are performed regularly and automatically. If you're interested in trying out a robo-advisor, I'd recommend starting with Wealthfront.
Open your account today: Wealthfront.
An intuitive, quick to set up, and easy to use personal finance tool that allows you to both view your overall financial picture as well as dig into the small details of individual transactions. Empower Personal Dashboard offers a broad array of powerful analysis tools to help you plan out your finances. You can quickly and easily sync all of your retirement, bank, credit, and investment accounts and you’ll be instantly able to generate charts and graphs of your financial data. I use it on a regular basis to keep an eye on spending, analyze investments, determine fees, measure investment growth, and to track our overall net worth. In addition to the free analysis tools, Empower Personal Dashboard also offers a hybrid robo/personal advisory service. They will create a detailed investment plan specifically tailored to your financial situation and then do all of the work of implementing it for you. Of all the tools I have used, Empower Personal Dashboard is by far the best service of its kind.
Sign-up for free: Empower Personal Dashboard
