Hi everyone, I’m starting to be more intentional about saving and investing, and I’d really appreciate your input. My goal is to put aside money gradually, keep it accessible if I ever need it, and have it grow responsibly over time. I hear a lot about Fidelity, but I’ve also seen frum.finance recommend M1. For someone starting out with little to no investing experience, can anyone explain the practical differences between the two and share which they’d recommend and why? I appreciate any thoughts, experiences, or advice you’re willing to share. I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Let’s break this down into simple pieces, like slices of a pizza. M1 is like a smart robot helper for your money. It helps you invest by letting you pick what you want, or you can use pies that experts made. Each “pie” is just a way to split your money into different parts, like stocks or funds. You can start with just $100. M1 lets you buy tiny pieces of investments, even if you only have a little bit of money. You can set it up so money goes in every month without you having to remember. M1 will also help keep your investments balanced, so if one part grows faster than the others, it will use new money to even things out. This is called “automatic rebalancing.” There are no trading fees, but there is a small $3 monthly fee unless you have $10,000 or more invested. Fidelity is another big company where you can invest your money. It’s good for beginners and has lots of choices. You can open an account with no monthly fee and start investing in many different things. But with Fidelity, you usually have to buy whole shares (not tiny pieces), and you might need more money to get started in some funds. You have to do more things yourself—like remembering to invest each month and keeping your investments balanced. Here’s what’s different: • M1 helps you do things automatically (like investing every month and keeping your pie balanced). • M1 lets you buy small pieces of investments. • M1 charges $3 a month if you have less than $10,000. • Fidelity doesn’t charge a monthly fee but doesn’t do as much for you automatically. • With Fidelity, you might need more money to buy some investments and have to do more work yourself. Which would I recommend? If you want something super easy that helps you build good habits and does most of the work for you, M1 is a great choice—even with the small fee. You just set it up once, and it keeps going like a robot helper. If you want no monthly fee at all and don’t mind doing more things yourself (like remembering to invest and keeping everything balanced), Fidelity is also a good choice. Takeaway: If you want simple, automatic investing with small amounts of money, pick M1. If you want no monthly fee and are okay doing more work yourself, pick Fidelity. The most important thing is to start saving and investing—either one will help your money grow over time!

I think this is not right, in fidelity you CAN buy fractional shares and you CAN have auto investments. Regarding the balancing it is right, unless you buy one of their target date funds

If you are investing less than 10k, even frum finance says to stick with fidelity.

Thanks, yes, I am doing less than $10K for now, so I will start with Fidelity. What type of account do i open, Brokerage account? What other info do I need? Is it simple to navigate?

I would follow my roadmap...

Can you please share what you mean by my roadmap?

Step 9 here, but also look at all the previous steps https://frum.finance/start/

I would also suggest reading The Simple Path to Wealth about what to invest in

right, i would definitely read the book before doing anything at all (like my steps say)

How does tuition assumptions work? Both K-12 and post-HS?