Disclosure: We scrutinize our research, ratings and reviews using strict editorial integrity. In full transparency, this site may receive compensation from partners listed through affiliate partnerships, though this does not affect our ratings. Learn more about how we make money by visiting our advertiser disclosure.

The most important part of your portfolio is its “core”—the central investments you plan to hold over the long term. Whether you address your core with individual securities or investment funds, these holdings will typically align with some of the most basic strategies investors are told to own.

When you first start investing, you’ll start with the core. Going forward, you’ll likely spend most of your time tinkering at the periphery with “satellite” holdings, but it’s still a good idea to keep an eye on your core investments, rebalancing and optimizing where you can. That’s true no matter what your age—20, 40, 60, or 80.

One important step in tending to your core is making sure the stocks and funds you’ve selected are still the best ones for the job. For instance, mutual funds you bought when you were younger and less experienced might still do the job, but there also might be better-performing, more cost-efficient replaces.

Let’s look at some of the best basic index funds from Fidelity. Fidelity’s mutual funds typically charge well-below-average fees, are often respectable performers within their respective categories, and require no minimum initial investment. That means you can start buying them for as little as $1.

Editor’s Note: Tabular data presented in this article is up-to-date as of April 15, 2026.

Featured Financial Products

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.

What Is an Index Fund?


a business person draws two virtual pie charts.
DepositPhotos

If you want to understand index funds, it helps to understand actively managed funds first.

Actively managed funds are run by one or more fund managers, who collect money from investors, then allocate that money to stocks, bonds, or other assets. With active funds, the managers are often tasked with beating some sort of benchmark index, but they’ll generally have a lot of discretion as to what they can buy and sell to accomplish that. Once upon a time, this is how all mutual funds were run.

Index funds, which came into being about 50 years ago, are passive. The fund manager isn’t actively looking to “beat the market” or “beat an index.” They’re simply looking to mimic a stock market index—like, say, the S&P 500—enjoying that underlying investment exposure.

Let’s use the S&P 500 as an example.

The S&P 500 holds the stocks of 500 companies, but it doesn’t hold equal amounts of each—it “weights” each stock by size. The larger the market capitalization (stock price times number of shares outstanding), the larger the percentage of the index is allocated to that stock. As I write this, the S&P 500’s heaviest weights go to tech stocks Nvidia (NVDA, ~7%), Apple (AAPL, ~7%), and Microsoft (MSFT, ~5%). So an index fund mimicking the S&P 500 should have 7% of its assets invested in NVDA, another 7% in AAPL, and 5% in MSFT.

An active manager, on the other hand, doesn’t have those constraints. Their research might lead them to allocate the same 7% to AAPL, but 15% to NVDA and none to MSFT. It’s up to the manager’s discretion.

The primary advantage of actively managed funds is that a talented manager can potentially outperform over time and might be adept at navigating a difficult period such as a bear market. But you pay for that possibility in the form of higher fees and often worse tax efficiency.

Index investing generally comes with much lower costs in terms of management fees and trading expenses. It’s also more tax efficient, and performance often ends up being better than that of many active managers.

If you believe the stock market will generally rise over time, an index fund is the easiest and most direct way to get exposure.

Related: The 7 Best Gold ETFs You Can Buy

Why Fidelity?


a fidelity investment's building sign up against a dark blue sky.
DepositPhotos

Fidelity is a leader in investment funds—both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Today, this premier mutual fund company has a whopping $18 trillion in assets under administration. That’s in large part because it has adapted with the times. The company rose to fame on the backs of its star active managers, such as Peter Lynch, the long-time manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund (FMAGX) who averaged an incredible 29.2% per year between 1977 and 1990. But over the past three decades, Fidelity has evolved into a leader in low-cost index funds and even broke new ground by offering zero-fee index funds via its Fidelity ZERO line.

Apart from its mutual fund management business, Fidelity also operates one of the biggest brokerage houses in the United States. It’s also the largest record keeper of 401(k) plans, and one of the largest providers of 403(b) plans for nonprofit organizations. Fidelity provides more than 26,000 companies with defined-contribution and defined-benefit plans.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the very best Fidelity index funds for the everyday investor. They run the spectrum in terms of styles and strategies, but all of the best Fidelity index funds share one thing in common: They’re extremely cost-efficient ways for investors to quickly diversify.

Do you want to get serious about saving and planning for retirement? Sign up for Retire With Riley, Young and the Invested’s free retirement planning newsletter.

7 Great Fidelity Index Funds That Cover the Basics


I’m not trying to call out the seven absolute best Fidelity index funds in existence, nor am I trying to create a comprehensive portfolio.

Instead, I’m presenting a list of Fidelity index funds that can act as a starting point for beginner investors, or as a “most used” list for investors who want to rebuild part of their core. These funds cover all the major bases, providing exposure to U.S. stocks, developed- and emerging-market equities, and government and corporate bonds. Put differently: This list represents most of what the average investor needs in a basic portfolio.

So without further ado, let’s look at the best Fidelity index funds for beginners.

Best Large-Cap Index Fund: Fidelity 500 Index Fund


  • Style: U.S. large-cap stock
  • Assets under management: $714.9 billion
  • Dividend yield: 1.2%
  • Expense ratio: 0.015%, or $15¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
  • Minimum initial investment: None

I will virtually always start a list of a fund provider’s best products with an S&P 500 index fund if they have one available. Why? Because even professional mutual fund managers—literal experts who are paid to try to beat the large-cap* index—consistently struggle to get over the benchmark. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices data from the end of 2025, only 14% of all actively managed large-cap funds were able to out-return the S&P 500 over the trailing 10-year period. That number drops to just 10% over the trailing 15 years.

“The S&P 500 is so hard to beat,” says Daniel Sotiroff, Senior Analyst for ETF and Passive Strategies at Morningstar. “I know guys that rate active managers in all these categories, and even they’re like, ‘I’m not buying actively managed large blend; I’m just indexing,’ because it’s so brutally tough to beat a dirt-cheap index fund in the large blend category.”

Related: The 7 Best Index Funds for Beginners

If the pros can’t beat it, that’s a pretty good indication that we should just join it—which we can do by investing in a simple S&P 500 Index fund like the Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX).

FXAIX exposes you to all the market sectors, though not equally. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest chunk of the fund’s assets (roughly a third) is invested in tech stocks like Nvidia and Apple. Some sectors, like utilities and real estate, only account for about 2% to 3% each.

Still, if you believe in the American growth story, then buying a basket of America’s biggest and most recognized companies only makes sense. Even Warren Buffett himself (considered by many to be the greatest investor in history) has said on multiple occasions that most investors, most of the time, should simply invest in an S&P 500 index fund and let it run.

A few other considerations?

The Fidelity 500 Index Fund has a razor-thin expense ratio of 0.015%. That’s virtually impossible to beat. It’s even cheaper than S&P 500 ETFs. No wonder, then, that FXAIX has attracted an incredible $715 billion in assets under management.

Related: 7 Best Fidelity Retirement Funds [Low-Cost + Long-Term]

A few other considerations?

The Fidelity 500 Index Fund has a razor-thin expense ratio of 0.015%. That’s virtually impossible to beat. It’s even cheaper than S&P 500 ETFs. No wonder, then, that FXAIX has attracted an incredible $715 billion in assets under management.

Also, S&P 500 index funds’ turnover (the percentage of a fund’s holdings that are bought and sold in a given year) tends to be low, at just a couple percent in any given year. Why does it matter? Because mutual funds have to distribute net capital gains from trading back to shareholders; those gains are taxable, with long-term gains taxable at more favorable capital gains rates, and short-term gains taxable at even worse ordinary income tax rates.

In short: Low turnover makes S&P 500 funds an extraordinarily tax-efficient way to invest. So, if you find yourself with limited IRA or 401(k) funds available to invest, don’t worry—you can stuff a fund like FXAIX into your taxable brokerage account, too.

* There are different ways to define “cap” levels. We’re adhering to Morningstar’s definition, which says the largest 70% of companies by market capitalization within a fund’s “style” are large caps, the next 20% by market cap are mid-caps, and the smallest 10% by market cap are small caps.

Featured Financial Products

Best Small-Cap Index Fund: Fidelity ZERO Extended Market Index Fund


A hand places a pair of small wooden blocks with a zero and a percent sign.
DepositPhotos
  • Style: U.S. mid- and small-cap stock
  • Assets under management: $2.2 billion
  • Dividend yield: 1.2%
  • Expense ratio: None
  • Minimum initial investment: None

You’ll pay low fees on virtually any Fidelity fund you own. But with a select few, you’ll actually pay no fees.

Yes, you read that right. The Fidelity ZERO Extended Market Index Fund (FZIPX) plugs investors into a broad universe of U.S. mid- and small-cap stocks, and it does so with an expense ratio of 0%. Cero. Nulle. 영. Not even a penny.

Large-cap stocks are often relied upon to generate not just capital gains, but also some level of stability and dividend income. However, investors who want to generate outperformance often try to allocate some of their portfolio to smaller firms. Generally speaking, small- and mid-cap companies have more growth potential than larger firms. And as these stocks become noticed by institutional investors and fund managers, or begin qualifying for certain indexes, they can begin to enjoy large-scale investments that drive their prices even higher.

Related: The 7 Best Vanguard Index Funds for Beginners

But smaller stocks tend to be more volatile. That’s because their underlying companies might be dependent on just one or two products or services, which means a single disruption (be it the economy, a competitor, what have you) could have massive financial consequences. They also have less access to capital than their larger peers, so they’re less likely to get a lifeline should they suffer from broader economic headwinds.

We can defray some of that risk by investing in hundreds or even thousands of mid- and small-cap stocks via funds like the FZIPX.

Fidelity ZERO Extended Market Index Fund tracks the Fidelity U.S. Extended Investable Market Index, designed to reflect the performance of U.S. mid- and small-cap stocks. In this case, Fidelity defines that as the largest 2,500 U.S. companies by market capitalization excluding the largest 500. It’s float-adjusted market cap-weighted, so the larger the company (based on its publicly available shares), the more assets FZPIX dedicates to holding it. To further keep costs down, the fund uses statistical sampling to replicate the returns of the index.

As of right now, only one of SanDisk’s 2,000 or so holdings has a weight of more than 1%. That diversification means the fund’s overall performance isn’t beholden to a select few names.

Related: The 12 Best Vanguard ETFs for 2026 [Build a Low-Cost Portfolio]

While mid- and small-cap stocks historically deliver more growth than their larger peers, they’ve significantly lagged since 2022. The good news? They’ve started to outperform again in 2026. And FZIPX allows people to capture that growth for the absolutely unbeatable price of free.

There is one condition to the zero fees in the ZERO line of funds, however: They’re only available in Fidelity brokerage accounts. That might not be a problem, as Fidelity brokerage accounts are generally well regarded and competitive with the other major online brokers. But if you do not already have a Fidelity account, you’d need to open one.

Can’t access FZIPX? That’s OK. The Fidelity Small Cap Index Fund (FSSNX) is a respectable fund I’ve highlighted in other articles.

Make Young and the Invested your preferred news source on Google

Simply go to your preferences page and select the ✓ box for Young and the Invested. Once you’ve made this update, you’ll see Young and the Invested show up more often in Google’s “Top Stories” feed, as well as in a dedicated “From Your Sources” section on Google’s search results page.

Best Total Market Fund: Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund


  • Style: U.S. all-cap stock
  • Assets under management: $32.4 billion
  • Dividend yield: 1.1%
  • Expense ratio: None
  • Minimum initial investment: None

If you’re looking to tailor your portfolio, you can use large-cap funds like FXAIX and small-cap funds like FZIPX to adjust your allocations to different-sized stocks. However, if you want to take it easy, a “total” stock market index fund will provide investors with one-stop access to large, medium, and even small companies.

Related: 5 Best Stock Recommendation Services [Stock Tips + Picks]

There are plenty of total-market funds out there. However, Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund (FZROX) is a rarity in that it provides broad exposure to the entire universe of U.S. stocks for absolutely zero expenses and no investment minimum.

FZROX tracks the Fidelity U.S. Total Investable Market Index, which is a float-adjusted market cap-weighted index designed to reflect the performance of the full U.S. equity market (in other words, large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks). Admittedly, “total” is a bit exaggerative; to keep costs down, the fund will use statistical sampling techniques to replicate the returns of the index without necessarily having to own every underlying stock.

Related: 15 Best Long-Term Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever

Still, at more than 2,520 stocks currently, FZROX is as close to owning “the market” as you’d realistically need to get. he fund holds virtually every public U.S. company you’ve ever heard of—and likely thousands you haven’t. Just understand that the cap weighting means you’re still getting very heavy exposure to large caps, and less to mid- and small caps.

If you don’t have a Fidelity brokerage account, the Fidelity Total Market Index Fund (FSKAX) charges a thin 0.015% in annual expenses and also has zero minimum initial investment.

Do you want to get serious about saving and planning for retirement? Sign up for Retire With Riley, Young and the Invested’s free retirement planning newsletter.

Best International Fund: Fidelity ZERO International Index Fund


international currency money large
DepositPhotos
  • Style: International large-cap stock
  • Assets under management: $9.8 billion
  • Dividend yield: 2.6%
  • Expense ratio: None
  • Minimum initial investment: None

America isn’t the only game in town.

Yes, the U.S. is the world’s premier idea factory and the engine that makes the global economy go. But there are hundreds or even thousands of quality companies in other developed markets (established, slower-growing) and emerging markets (less stable but faster-growing) outside America’s shores.

And while U.S. stocks have bested their peers over the past decade, there are long stretches when foreign stocks outperform, such as between 2000 and 2008. More recently, while U.S. equities performed admirably in 2025, international stocks simply crushed it.

Related: The 10 Best Fidelity ETFs for 2026 [Invest Tactically]

So if you are an American investor, it makes sense to keep the bulk of your investments in American companies. But it also makes sense to diversify and allocate at least a small portion of your funds into non-U.S. stocks.

For exposure to developed and emerging markets, the Fidelity ZERO International Index Fund (FZILX) is a solid option. Like its sisters in the Fidelity ZERO funds family, the fund offers zero expenses and no minimum investment. The fund tracks the Fidelity Global ex U.S. Index, a float-adjusted market capitalization-weighted index designed to reflect the performance of non-U.S. large- and mid-cap stocks. At the moment, that’s a basket of more than 2,150 stocks with significant holdings in companies domiciled in Japan, the U.K., Canada, and China, among other countries.

If you don’t have a Fidelity brokerage account, the Fidelity International Index Fund (FSPSX) charges just 0.035% in annual fees and has no minimum to invest.

Related: 15 Dividend Kings for Royally Resilient Income

Best Sector Fund: Fidelity Real Estate Index Fund


  • Style: Sector (Real estate)
  • Assets under management: $2.9 billion
  • Dividend yield: 2.8%
  • Expense ratio: 0.07%, or 70¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
  • Minimum initial investment: None

Real estate is one of the world’s oldest asset classes and a preferred store of value for the world’s wealthy since the dawn of civilization. Having a portion of your assets dedicated to real estate investments only makes sense, and Fidelity makes it easy via the Fidelity Real Estate Index Fund (FSRNX).

This Fidelity index fund tracks the performance of the MSCI US IMI Real Estate 25/25 Index, which results in a portfolio of about 155 real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Related: The 16 Best ETFs to Buy for a Prosperous 2026

REITs are a special class of company that owns and sometimes operates real estate. They enjoy special tax considerations in exchange for distributing at least 90% of their taxable income to shareholders as dividends. The index has certain limits in place—no holding can exceed 25% of the index’s assets, and all holdings that are weighted above 5% cannot collectively exceed 25% of the index’s assets—that keep the fund diversified and prevents it from being concentrated in a small number of mega-cap REITs.

Real estate has traditionally been a good inflation hedge, as many commercial leases have automatic rent increases tied to inflation. So, if inflation lasts longer than we hope or expect, having a little money in real estate will likely pay off nicely.

If you prefer the convenience and liquidity of an ETF, Fidelity offers the Fidelity MSCI Real Estate ETF (FREL). FREL tracks a different index, but one that still holds REITs, and it charges a skinflint 0.084% in annual expenses.

Related: 8 Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Sites + Platforms

Best ESG Fund: Fidelity U.S. Sustainability Index Fund


blocks spelling "ESG."
DepositPhotos
  • Style: U.S. large-cap stock
  • Assets under management: $4.9 billion
  • Dividend yield: 1.2%
  • Expense ratio: 0.11%, or $1.10 per year for every $1,000 invested
  • Minimum initial investment: None

While it’s not as popular among older generations, younger investors passionately believe in ethical investing. They want to do well by doing good, allocating their capital to companies that meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.

Every investor’s definition of “ethical” will be a little different, so no mutual fund will ever be perfect. But if you’re looking for a single solution that should get you close, the Fidelity U.S. Sustainability Index Fund (FITLX) is a good option.

Related: Best Target-Date Funds: Fidelity vs. Schwab vs. T. Rowe vs. Vanguard

This Fidelity fund tracks the performance of the MSCI USA ESG Index, which represents the performance of stocks of large- to mid-cap U.S. companies with high environmental, social, and governance performance relative to their sector peers, as rated by MSCI ESG Research. As a practical matter, this means excluding companies in the tobacco, firearms, adult entertainment industries as well as many energy companies deemed to be heavy polluters. FITLX will also exclude companies with a history of bad labor relations or poor corporate governance.

Past that, though, FITLX and its nearly 270 holdings are going to look a lot like your standard large-cap fund, including top holdings such as Nvidia (NVDA), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Visa (V).

Related: Best Fidelity Retirement Funds for a 401(k) Plan

Featured Financial Products

Best Bond Fund: Fidelity U.S. Bond Index Fund (FXNAX)


  • Style: Intermediate core bond
  • Assets under management: $69.0 billion
  • SEC yield: 4.3%*
  • Expense ratio: 0.025%, or 25¢ per year for every $1,000 invested
  • Minimum initial investment: None

As 2022 taught us, no one should have 100% of their investable capital in stocks. Stocks can be wildly volatile. Having a portion of your capital in safe short-term bond funds can lower your overall portfolio volatility.

Bond funds are pretty diverse. You can leverage short-term bonds to collect a little yield while shielding your investments. You can try to collect a high income from corporate “junk” or emerging-market debt. You can even skirt federal tax on the income from municipal bonds.

Related: The 9 Best Dividend Stocks for Beginners

But if you’re just looking for blanket bond exposure, it’s difficult to beat the Fidelity U.S. Bond Index Fund (FXNAX).

This Fidelity index fund tracks the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (or “the Agg”), a premier debt index. You could consider it the S&P 500 of bond indexes.

FXNAX owns more than 10,000 different investment-grade bonds across a variety of issuers and maturities. U.S. Treasuries are tops at 45% of assets, followed by investment-grade corporate bonds and pass-through mortgage-backed securities (MBSes) at another 25% or so each. The remaining sliver of assets is sprinkled around other government-related debt, U.S. agency bonds, and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBSes), among other issues. Maturities run the gamut, from more than 20 years to less than one year, though the average remaining maturity is about 8 years

Related: The 10 Best Dividend ETFs [Get Income + Diversify]

In short, these are moderately-dated bonds, and ratings agencies have determined investors have a high chance of receiving their money back from them. (Hence “investment-grade.”)

One bond-fund metric to look at is duration, which is a measurement of risk. FXNAX currently has a duration of 5.8 years, which implies that if interest rates grew by 1 percentage point, the fund should suffer modest short-term capital losses of about 5.8%. (And vice versa: A 1-point hike should mean a gain of about 5.8%.) That’s a moderate amount of risk, and you’re getting a nice yield of more than 4% in return.

* An SEC yield reflects the interest earned across the most recent 30-day period. This is a standard measure for funds holding bonds and preferred stocks.

Related: Buy ‘The Future’: 5 Tech Stock ETFs You Should Own in 2026

What Are Fidelity Zero Funds?


Fidelity ZERO Funds are a line of zero-minimum, zero-expense index funds launched by Fidelity in 2018. Currently, there are four Fidelity ZERO funds:

  • Fidelity Zero International Index Fund (FZILX)
  • Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund (FZROX)
  • Fidelity Zero Extended Market Index (FZIPX)
  • Fidelity Zero Large Cap Index Fund (FNILX)

The ZERO funds are true to their name: Investors literally pay nothing in management fees. But there are conditions. The Fidelity ZERO funds are only available in Fidelity brokerage accounts. That might not be a problem, as Fidelity brokerage accounts are generally well regarded and competitive with the other major online brokers. But if you do not already have a Fidelity account, you’d need to open one.

Related: 8 Low- and Minimum-Volatility ETFs for Peace of Mind in 2026

Fidelity ZERO Funds are, strictly speaking, index funds. But they are based on customized indexes that Fidelity has created in-house. The typical large-cap index fund tracks the S&P 500 or another recognized index, but they have to pay licensing fees to the index creator. Fidelity avoids the licensing fees by creating their own indexes, which allows them to pay the savings on in the form of zero fees.

The Fidelity indexes tend to be very similar to popular indexes such as the S&P 500, but they are not the same. So, if tracking a specific index is a priority for you, you should take that under advisement.

Like Young and the Invested’s content? Be sure to follow us.

Should You Use An Active or Passive Fund Strategy?


an investor looks at multiple screens showing stock charts.
DepositPhotos

The primary advantage of actively managed funds is that a talented manager can potentially outperform over time and might be adept at navigating a difficult period such as a bear market. But you pay for that possibility in the form of higher fees and often worse tax efficiency.

With index investing, you generally get much lower costs in terms of management fees and trading expenses, better tax efficiency, and performance that often ends up being better than that of many active managers.

If you believe the stock market will generally rise over time, an index fund is the easiest and most direct way to get exposure.

Do you want to get serious about saving and planning for retirement? Sign up for Retire With Riley, Young and the Invested’s free retirement planning newsletter.

Mutual Funds vs. ETFs


Mutual funds and ETFs are similar vehicles that have a few key differences. But also confusing the conversation is that many people use the term “index funds” interchangeably with “exchange-traded funds (ETFs),” and “actively managed funds” with “mutual funds.”

While there’s a lot of overlap, they’re not the same thing. So, we’ll tackle the differences between mutual funds and ETFs, and explain why people are so quick to automatically equate them to index or actively managed products.

Mutual Funds


When you invest in a mutual fund, you (or your broker) actually send money to the fund company, which in turn uses the cash to buy stocks or other investments. When you want to sell, the fund company will sell off a tiny piece of the securities the mutual fund owns and send you the proceeds. Money generally enters or exits the fund once per day.

Mutual funds are the traditional vehicles of choice for 401(k) plans or other situations when an investor is dollar-cost averaging, which means investing in regular installments. If you have a specific dollar amount to invest each month, whether it’s $100 or $10,000, a mutual fund will generally be able to accommodate you easier than an exchange-traded fund.

But the key here is that you don’t need a specific amount based on the price of a share. Once you meet the minimum initial investment (a certain dollar amount you must invest when you first buy the fund), you can generally invest just about any amount.

The thing is, most mutual funds are actively managed, which is why people conflate “mutual funds” and “actively managed funds.” But there are numerous index mutual funds.

The best Fidelity mutual funds tend to be some of the cheapest in the business in terms of fees, many of them indexed. And there are Fidelity index funds for virtually every stock market index you can imagine.

Like Young and the Invested’s content? Be sure to follow us.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)


ETFs are quite similar to mutual funds, but their differences are significant … and make them superior in certain situations.

Like traditional index mutual funds, an ETF will hold a basket of stocks, bonds and other securities. These can be broad and benchmarked to a major index like the S&P 500, or they can be exceptionally narrow and focus on a specific sector or even a specific trading strategy. For the most part, anything that can be held in an exchange-traded fund can also be held in a mutual fund.

However, unlike mutual funds, ETFs trade on major exchanges—such as the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq—like a stock. If you want to buy shares, you don’t send the manager money; you just buy shares from another investor on the open market.

The need to buy shares can be problematic when dollar-cost averaging. As an example, let’s say you have exactly $100 to invest, but the shares of the ETF trade for $65. You can only buy one share, and you’re stuck with $35 in cash uninvested.

Related: 8 Best Schwab Index Funds for Thrifty Investors

Why Should You Consider ETFs Instead?


a virtual checklist.
DepositPhotos

But ETFs have their own advantages. For one, they have intraday liquidity—that is, if you want to buy or sell in the middle of the trading day (or multiple times throughout the trading day), you can.

The second advantage is tax efficiency. In a traditional mutual fund, redemptions by investors can generate selling by the manager that creates taxable capital gains for the remaining investors who didn’t sell. This doesn’t happen with ETFs, as the manager isn’t forced to buy or sell anything when an investor sells their shares.

Like we said, many investors use “ETF” and “index fund” interchangeably. That’s because most exchange-traded funds are index funds—but not all. Some are actively managed.

As is the case with index funds provided by Fidelity, their ETFs tend to have some of the lowest costs in the business.

Related: The 9 Best ETFs for Beginners

Why Does a Fund’s Expense Ratio Matter So Much?


a chart showing how different fund expense ratios can affect fund returns.
Young and the Invested

Every dollar you pay in expenses is a dollar that comes directly out of your returns. So, it is absolutely in your best interests to keep your expense ratios to an absolute minimum.

The expense ratio is the percentage of your investment lost each year to management fees, trading expenses and other fund expenses. Because index funds are passively managed and don’t have large staffs of portfolio managers and analysts to pay, they tend to have some of the lowest expense ratios of all mutual funds.

This matters because every dollar not lost to expenses is a dollar that is available to grow and compound. And over an investing lifetime, even a half a percent can have a huge impact. If you invest just $1,000 in a fund generating 5% per year after fees, over a 30-year horizon, it will grow to $4,116. However, if you invested $1,000 in the same fund, but it had an additional 50 basis points in fees (so it only generated 4.5% per year in returns), it would grow to only $3,584 over the same period.

Like Young and the Invested’s content? Be sure to follow us.

What Is the Minimum Investment Amount on a Fidelity Fund?


Every Fidelity fund has its own minimum investment amount specific to that fund. But Fidelity has been a trailblazer in making its funds available to beginning investors with ultra-low minimums, and many Fidelity funds have no minimum investment at all.

Part of our criteria in selecting the best Fidelity index funds was accessibility, and every fund selected here has a minimum investment of zero, meaning you can literally start your investment with as little as $1.

7 Mega-Yielding Funds You’ve Never Heard Of

You’ve assuredly heard of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But how much do you know about closed-end funds (CEFs)?

If the answer is “not much,” don’t worry—they get a fraction of the attention of those other investment funds. But you should also learn more about them. That’s because CEFs have a host of enticing characteristics, including that they frequently pay mammoth yields. Check out our list of the best CEFs, many of which pay in the high-single and even double digits.

Related: 10 Dividend Stocks That Pay Us Each and Every Month

The vast majority of American dividend stocks pay regular, reliable payouts—and they do so at a more frequent clip (quarterly) than dividend stocks in most other countries (typically every six months or year).

Still, if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “it’d sure be nice to collect these dividends more often,” you don’t have to look far. While they’re not terribly common, American exchanges boast dozens of monthly dividend stocks.

Please Don’t Forget to Like, Follow and Comment

Young and the Invested MSN closing slide instructions
Young and the Invested

Did you find this article helpful? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment with the box on the left-hand side of the screen and share your thoughts.

Also, do you want to stay up-to-date on our latest content?

1. Follow us by clicking the [+ Follow] button above,

2. Subscribe to Retire With Riley, our free weekly retirement planning newsletter, and

3. Give the article a Thumbs Up on the top-left side of the screen.

4. And lastly, if you think this information would benefit your friends and family, don’t hesitate to share it with them!

Charles Lewis Sizemore, CFA is the Chief Investment Officer of Sizemore Capital Management LLC, a registered investment adviser based in Dallas, Texas, where he specializes in dividend-focused portfolios and in building tax-efficient alternative allocations with minimal correlation to the stock market. He is also a Portfolio Manager of the Blue Orbit Capital Fund I, LP and the Blue Orbit Multi-Strategy Fund, LP.

Charles is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business News, has been quoted in Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, and is a frequent contributor to Forbes, GuruFocus, MarketWatch, and InvestorPlace.com.

He holds a master’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance with an International Emphasis from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and as a Phi Beta Kappa scholar. Charles is a CFA Charterholder in good standing.

Charles lives with his wife Maria Jose, his sons Charles and Ian, and his daughter Gabriela and enjoys regularly traveling to his wife’s native Peru.