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Financial Planning at Fido etc

Motivated by Lynnbolin's review of Vanguard advisory I poked around at Vanguard and Fido planning and advisory groups.

I did not know of Fido's free financial plan process, but it is very robust and useful.

It will calculate income, expenses, investment returns and RMDs and you can tweak your asset allocation specifically by each of your accounts including non Fido ones.

I do not know what assumed rate of returns they use for each asset class, and unfortunately they don't seem to tell you, although they will suggest an allocation for you based on the usual risk tolerance questions.

It is worth taking a good look at. The only think similar I know of ( without a fee) is Quicken's old planning feature, but they have not updated the RMD dates yet.

I don't know if Vanguard or Schwab offer similar services but will take a look. From what I can see Schwab offers a plan for $300 and $30 a month.

Comments

  • You can also find Fido's mutual fund and etf screens from the menu, rather than having to rely on an external search engine as with Vanguard.
  • @sma3
    I started out many years ago using Vanguard's free financial planning tool. I think it might have been Financial Engines. I later created my own spreadsheet financial planning tool.

    My employer moved our accounts to Fidelity, and I started using their financial planning tool many years ago and really liked it. Several years ago, I began using Fidelity's services from my employer which was essentially a financial planner for providing advice, but not managing my accounts. To my surprise, he used the same Fidelity Planning tool that I had already set up. Now that I use Fidelity Wealth Management, we have still reviewed the financial planning tool.

    Yes, there are a few unknowns about it. It provides estimated end of plan assets but does not display tax planning options such as Roth Conversions. I still use my planning spreadsheet which takes into Roth Conversions and accelerated withdrawals, but it supplements Fidelity's tool.

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