Investing For Beginners – Which Brokerage To Use?

I’ve been investing for more than 10 years now. And let me say, it’s been incredibly rewarding. The biggest reward of all has been the independence.

Having wealth and passive income unlocks freedom. This has given me the ability to do the things I like with the people I like. But we all have to start somewhere, right?

And one of the most important things to consider as a new investor is which brokerage to use. The great thing for investors these days is that there are so many quality options.

Back when I started, it wasn’t like that at all. It’s so much easier to invest nowadays compared to 10 years ago. The amount of information today’s investors have is awesome.

YouTube back then was all Chocolate Rain and cat videos. Plus, I used to pay $7/trade!

Now you have free research, free trades, and plenty of brokerages to choose from. However, more choices means more comparisons, which can be even more confusing.

Today, I want to tell you how you can select a brokerage, and I’ll give you my top two brokerages. Ready? Let’s dig in.

The first and most important thing to look at with a brokerage is its reputation.

Reputation is everything. It can take decades to build one up and only seconds to destroy it.

When I’m entrusting my money with someone, I have to see a world-class reputation. A brokerage shouldn’t gain your trust easily. This is your hard-earned money we’re talking about here. You don’t want some fly-by-night operator that just sprung up out of someone’s second bedroom. You want a world-class institution with decades of experience.

What’s a good reputation? What should you look for? Well, here are some key aspects of a brokerage’s reputation.

Research and consider how long a brokerage has been in operation, its customer reviews, whether or not it’s in good standing with regulators, how it handles customer issues, availability of and access to customer service hotlines, whether or not there are physical branches where you can actually talk with someone, and insurance it has above and beyond SIPC limits.

One of the most important things for me is whether or not I can actually reach out and talk to someone if there’s a problem.

If you have thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars wrapped up in an institution, I think it’s incredibly important to make sure there’s always someone there to talk to in case of an issue. That means a phone number. A branch. Lightning fast email. Some of these digital-only platforms that just popped up a few years ago simply don’t have that kind of excellent customer service that I regard as highly valuable. Some don’t even have a phone number to call, let alone a physical branch you can visit.

The second thing to look at is the platform itself.

Every brokerage has a different platform. And each platform offers different pros and cons.

You should be considering what kind of investor you are and how much you value certain aspects about a platform. Is it research you value the most? Extremely fast access to trading software? More detailed reporting? What about fractional shares or slices of stock? Platforms naturally vary from brokerage to brokerage.

Of course, cost is always a consideration. But this has been eliminated. When I first started investing, it would cost $7 a trade. Nowadays, it’s almost always free to trade stocks.

This is a huge advantage. I can’t stress that enough. I used to be so limited in terms of my capital deployment, aiming to save more than $1,000 per transaction in order to limit trading fees of $7/pop. Investors can now trade with as little as a few dollars and pay no fees. That’s amazing. With that in mind, cost isn’t really a differentiating factor any longer. Every major brokerage I know of allows for free trades, even with fractional shares.

Brokerages usually allow you to open an account with no minimums, which gives you an opportunity to “test drive” the platform and see if it fits you.

I’ve used a lot of different platforms over the years. Some fit like a glove. Some seem a bit clunky. It’s really an individual call. But if you’re going to be using a brokerage for years on end to build up a significant portfolio, the platform will be important in terms of robustness, ease of use, features, etc.

So in my more than 10 years of experience, what are my favorite brokerages?

I have two brokerages that I recommend. I have personal experience and my own money with both of them.

The two brokerages that I’ve had experience with and can recommend are: Charles Schwab and Fidelity. Both of these brokerages offer no minimums, excellent reputations, top-notch customer service, physical branches, robust platforms, no trading fees, access to fractional shares, tons of research, quality reports, and anything and everything a long-term investor could possibly want. I honestly can’t think of anything I’d improve with either one.

I’ve been using both Schwab and Fidelity for years and years. I think they’re well-suited to both new and experienced investors alike.

Schwab’s corporate history dates back 50 years. Fidelity has been around since 1946. These aren’t fly-by-night brokerages that suddenly sprung up on Twitter or Tik Tok or something. They’re world-class institutions managing trillions of dollars. I sleep well at night knowing that my own hard-earned money is with top-flight organizations.

Both brokerages offer no minimums to start, so there’s nothing holding you back from trying out either one.

If I had to pick only one, I must say that I slightly prefer Schwab’s platform. It just suits me better for some reason. But honestly, I love both and am extremely pleased with both. The fact that investors nowadays have no minimums, free trades, fractional shares, and access to tons of research is such a huge advantage. Don’t let this advantage go unused.

— Jason Fieber

P.S. If you’d like access to my entire six-figure dividend growth stock portfolio, as well as stock trades I make with my own money, I’ve made all of that available exclusively through Patreon.