I’m a complete newbie. The only “investing” I’ve ever done is use HYSAs. Obviously the yield there, while pretty good, isn’t as good as investing in say, the S&P 500. So I want to invest a chunk of my savings into that and just leave it there until I retire. I’m not really looking into daily/active trading or anything. The problem is I don’t know how fees work with brokers.
I saw this graph a while ago so I was thinking of Fidelty. It also helps that I already have an account there for my employer RSUs and my 401k. On the other hand, a colleague of mine suggested Schwab and said they don’t have any fees.
Can anyone suggest the best broker (minimal/no fees, easy-to-use, set-and-forget) that I should go with if I just want to invest in the S&P 500?
A recommendation from the “Boglehead” community within personal finance circles is this book, which is a good primer for getting started with investing. https://www.bogleheads.org/blog/portfolio/the-bogleheads-guide-to-investing/
It includes a discussion highly germane to Americans, but it may also be broadly applicable in aspects such as managing risk and timescales, especially the difference between younger investors with the capacity and time horizon to save, versus late-starters with less time available for compound interest to work its magic.
This is the book I lend to friends, and would recommend.