I was assigned a Schwab rep. The guy is a pro with vast knowledge, has Series 7, 63, 66 Securities Licenses
From Schwab: "Dedicated Financial Consultants are generally made available to clients with $500,000 or more in assets at Schwab and more complex investing needs."
https://www.schwab.com/invest-with-us/professional-advice
From FINRA: "The Series 7 exam ... assesses the competency of an entry-level registered representative to perform their job as a general securities representative."
https://www.finra.org/registration-exams-ce/qualification-exams/series7
Regarding Series 63, "The Series 66 is a combination of Series 63 and Series 65 and allows securities industry professionals seeking to transact securities business as a broker-dealer agent and provide investment advice for a fee as an investment adviser representative."
https://mastercompliance.com/2022/11/understanding-the-difference-series-63-series-65-or-series-66/
Much as an AA degree can be just a stepping stone to a BA, it sounds like a series 63 license can be a stepping stone to a series 6 license.
In any case, most assigned reps at Fidelity and Schwab have Series 7 and 66.
https://digital.fidelity.com/prgw/digital/faa/0/connect-with-an-advisor
https://client.schwab.com/public/consultant/find
As to free services, it really depends on what you want and how you use the services. For example:
- Schwab charges at least $15 for an international wire; at Fidelity they're free. I typically send a small number of international wires a year. Most people don't.
- Fidelity gave me free Turbotax (this year it's $5 to download). Its value more than compensates me for the few $5 auto-purchase fees I pay. Other people trade more frequently and have said they cut deals with Schwab.
- OTC trades are free at Fidelity; at Schwab they cost $6.95. But I trade stocks infrequently and never trade penny stocks. This may matter to others.
Medallion stamps - Schwab would send my paperwork over to the next county to stamp; Fidelity stamps my papers while I wait. This is another infrequent need.
Schwab and Fidelity are both fine organizations. IMHO these differences are just noise around the edges. If Schwab works for you, that's great. If you're happier with Fidelity, more power to you. If you want to split the difference and have accounts at both places, go for it.
Trekkie vs. trekker, more than you ever wanted to know:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Trekkie
And get a life (Shatner, SNL):
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmagzq

[snip]
Saw this one LIVE here, last night. A great evening.
Money is not everything.

Visited Pagliacci here, last night. A great experience.
No clowning around!
Pizza is not everything but...
https://www.pagliacci.com/order/products/113

Photo & Article from this Week’s Barron’s
“Last week’s Investors Intelligence sentiment survey showed the highest percentage of self-described bulls since the summer of 2021. Market strategists have been raising year-end price targets for the S&P 500. The Cboe equity put/call ratio is about as low as it gets historically, meaning more bets on rising stock prices than falling. Fund flows have been strong, even with the S&P 500 trading at a demanding 20.5 times 12-month forward earnings.”
”The Stock Market Is Melting Up. Prepare for a Short-Term Correction.” - Nicholas Jasinski
Barron’s 2/19/24

Never have had a mortgage. I'll be 70 in July.
Portfolio: I survived yesterday. A juicy ET dividend due on Feb. 20 has already appeared in the brokerage acct--- still in TRP. A week and a half longer, and the expected PSTL divvie will come. I'll drop that puppy, after that money settles in the account.
Performance: down on the day on Friday, up for '24 by just a fraction, still. Just about "even-Steven" from the end of '23.
Would you kill for love? Saw this one LIVE here, last night. A great evening.
Money is not everything.

I have noted them all. Thank you very much, @Sven. Yes, don't want to be in that stuff AGAIN at the wrong time, exactly. (I got into junk at their high, before they all fell, in TUHYX, at start of '22.) Initiated PRCPX at the RIGHT time. It's about 50% of the size of TUHYX in the portfolio. Lately, I added "Fallen Angels" FALN. Previously I.G. stuff which got downgraded. It's been a good ride. I'll keep an eye out for the rate cuts.

@Ivyman, easy answer. Set at Schwab a transfer from TRP for 2-5 shares IN-KIND and see the results within days, you have nothing to lose.

But I am getting tired of people complaining about 6-7% mortgage rates. My first mortgage, in 1975, was 8.5%.

Heh, I remember being at 12%. Of course, the house

did only cost $32,000!!

My first house, with the 8.5% mortgage, was a 6 bedroom old farmhouse -- cost me $22,000 in 1975.
I bought a new '78 base Chevy pickup, sticker was a bit over $4,000. Oh well, I was earning big money then as a journeyman moldmaker at $9+ per hour.
I remember going to diners for lunch in the early-mid '70s, and a standard meal (burger or sandwich with drink) was around $1.50-1.60. We'd leave $2 and that covered the tip.
Nothing has really changed except the value of the dollar.

Yep. 11.5% in the 80s The first house we bought ($35,000) however we assumed an FHA mortgage. The house was not our first choice, on a busy street etc, but we didnt want to hock our souls and then some to the Bank
Sold it two years later for $55,000. Only house we made much on. In CT we sold our house for 30% more than we paid for it, after 30 years. ugh

But I am getting tired of people complaining about 6-7% mortgage rates. My first mortgage, in 1975, was 8.5%.

Heh, I remember being at 12%. Of course, the house did only cost $32,000!!

The mortgage on our first house was 10.5% in 1986. Our second house had a mortgage about 8%, but we refinanced to a 15-year loan at 6% a couple years later. We eventually paid it off at that rate.

With CDs maturing, it is a bit surprising (at least to me), that CDs have started ticking back to the 5+% level for the 1 year and 18 month durations. Along with 5+% level MMs, that gives a pretty attractive and safe array of investing options, with very minimal risk. I had expected to be pushed into bond oefs again, but now I am in no hurry to do that, with the principal from maturing CDs.

Doing quite well... the CDs and Treasuries keep dribbling out money like a broken slot machine. I like money!

I’m loving the higher yields. I’m in no hurry for the Fed to drop rates. Every time a CD or Treasury matures, I just buy some more — often at higher yields.

I tell people that if you don't like high (normal, actually) interest rates, then don't borrow money -- loan it. That's a bit tongue-in-cheek of course, because everybody cannot do that.
But I am getting tired of people complaining about 6-7% mortgage rates. My first mortgage, in 1975, was 8.5%.

The graphic is set for the 5 days ending February 16, Friday; for the best to worst % returns in select etf categories. One may then also select the one month column to align the one month return best to worst; or for the other listed time frame columns.
ADD an etf performance of your choosing, if you desire.
*** Requested ADD: For the week and YTD
--- EWW = -.18% / -.81% (I Shares, Mexico)
MMKT note: Fidelity mmkt's yields remained nominally steady this week, with core acct's yields at 4.97% (SPAXX) and 4.96% (FDRXX).
NOTE: Growth equity found some downward pricing, being the tech. area; as well as Blue Chip, quality/non-tech. Most U.S. bonds (funds) found higher yields this week, which, of course; results in lose of pricing performance.
Remain curious,
Catch

More where that came from @Old_Joe

Good useful summary, although the example of worse case losses being 2% a year seems a bit optimistic. Averaged over 10 years it comes closer.
He doesn't mention the importance of the source of the withdrawals, ie taking money from bonds when stock market down etc.
Delaying the inflation adjustment also saves the suggested portfolio in several other examples ie "The All Weather Retirement Portfolio" by Randy Thurman.
One of the most complex discussions of allocations and withdrawal rates I have read is "Living Off Your Money" by Michael McClung. It has dozens of allocations and methods of withdrawal, almost too many. But they are all back tested with 40 to 50 years of data

@crash,
If the market slides into recession, junk bonds will go with it. Given the low employment and strong growth, recession risk is declining in my opinion. PRWCX in your portfolio has about 10% bank loan/floating rate bond, thus I would not add more since you have high weighing with PRWCX. BL/FR tracks closely to FED rate and they fall accordingly when the FED cut rate some time this year. March 2022's drawdown of BL/FR were over 10% and eventually recovered after several months.
Some suggestions in the order of credit and duration risk:
1. OSTIX (Kaufman) and RSIIX (David Sherman). Short duration high yield/multi-sector bonds, experience managers. Our MFO contributor, @Devo, also mentioned them in his February commentary.
2. PIMIX/PONAX (Ivascyn and Murata) - flexible multi-sector mandates. In many way, the fund is even better than Bill Gross's PTTRX.
3. DODIX, consistent performance and team managed.
4. Treasury floating rate bond (USFR) and corporate floating rate (FLOT, FLRN, and FLTR) were suggested on this board. They have lower credit risk than junk corporate bonds and BL/FR while yielding 5-7%. These are lower risk, short duration bonds.

@Observant1 said: The increasingly narrow concentration of the upside part of the market is what most concerns me. How much longer can that go on? History suggests it will not be forever. And, then, what comes next? I am rooting for the inflation rate to continue to decline and for a soft landing for the economy in 2024. But I am not holding my breath!

Same here. I listen to Schwab podcast to get more details on their earning assessment. Mostly earnings are ok (after reduced expectation) but the % of out-performance is declining and that is unhealthy. At some point, the Magnificent Seven trend will widen. The spread between SPY and RSP (equal weighed S&P500) is still wide and favoring SPY. Thus, we are adding equity selectively to those funds with lower % of Mag 7.
Some cracks are happening to Tesla with disappointing earning and lower sale, especially in China where the Chinese EVs are much cheaper and they are coming to the West.
In light of the economic data on inflation, we think there are more opportunities on bonds, active managed ones.

Thought I'd bring this fund up again. I bought into this hedged equity fund, PHEFX, back in Dec. JHQAX is one of my larger holdings so I thought I'd compare return so far.
...............YTD 3MO Inception 7/6/23
PHEFX 5.0% 10.5% ~14.3%
JHQAX 3.6% 5.7% ~ 9.2%
SPY 1.6% 15.9% ~15.3%
PHEFX is definitely a more aggressive and volatile fund than JHQAX. I can see that in watching day to day returns. But it's return has been quite good. It remains to be seen how it holds up in a down market, a positive JHQAX has had.
FWIW

I checked the link just now. "Data is unavailable at this time. Please try again later."
Must be time sensitive !!

Received HTTP 502 error (bad gateway error) when attempting to access the web page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_502

FMILX - one manager, 1.3 yrs tenure, $100-500K invested
From M*: "The strategy underwent an entire portfolio management team change about a year ago".
Not quite your classic LCV fund!
The portfolio was LCV through 2021 and LC Blend in 2022. It's just the recent strategy change that overhauled the portfolio. M* generally uses a three year lookback in classifying funds, to ensure that a fund's classification isn't whipsawed because of momentary changes in portfolio style. Arguably M* should make an exception when there's a complete change of strategy and management.

Fund categories are much more stable, designed to avoid such noise by putting each fund into a peer group that best represents what its portfolio has looked like over the long term and is likely to look like in the future.
...
There are no hard-and-fast rules, but generally if a fund's style box has consistently differed from its category for three years or more, we'll consider moving it to a new category that's more in sync with its portfolio.

https://www.morningstar.com/articles/306244/why-is-my-funds-style-box-different-from-its-category
Who remembers what this fund was originally supposed to be? It was started in 1992 as a fund focused on new trends and a promise to close before it became another hulking Fidelity fund.
From the 1996 prospectus:

The fund's management style focuses on identifying future beneficiaries of social and economic change. FMR examines social attitudes, legislative actions, economic plans, product innovation, demographics, and other factors to learn what underlying trends are shaping the marketplace. Based on its interpretation of these trends, FMR tries to identify the industries and companies that will benefit, and then analyzes the fundamental values of each potential investment. ... The fund's strategy can lead to investments in small and medium sized companies, which carry more risk than larger ones. Generally, these companies, especially small sized ones, rely on limited product lines and markets, financial resources, or other factors. This may make them more susceptible to setbacks or downturns.

That hardly describes a fund holding the largest companies in the country.
And it did close as promised, while it was still small. I don't know of any other fund that Fidelity closed like that. "Effective the close of business on May 15, 1996, the fund was closed to new accounts."