Please try to organize your questions better in the future, makes it easier to respond. I'll pick some out:
Q: I'm wondering if fidelity is trustworthy? We keep talking ER on the forums but aren't there hidden fees to look out for as well? I'm not sure if Fidelity has more of these hidden fees than vanguard. I looked at prospectus for FSTVX but have no idea how to interpret it.
A: Vanguard doesn't have any hidden fees, I don't expect Fidelity will either. Just ask them, Fidelity is regulated, they won't lie to you.
Q: I'm also wondering how much to have emergency savings.
A: This is a personal decision. I follow YNAB's recommendation to live on last month's money, so I have at least 1 month worth of expenses in my checking/savings account.
Q: Do you count taxable investment account as part of your emergency fund? How liquid is that money?
A: You can count that in my opinion. The money is very liquid, and can be back in your bank account in 1-2 business days. Put the emergency on your credit card and it will be in your account well before the credit card bill is due.
Q: I'm interested in dividend investing
A: Worst idea ever. You will end up with higher risk, and lower returns, the opposite of what anyone should want. When you receive a dividend, it is mathematically the same as selling a portion of your portfolio. Why would you want that? More specifically, why would you want a
less diversified, and more
higher fee portfolio in order to get it?
Q: I'm also confused as to what exactly the difference is between ETF and index fund. From what i understand, ETF is a more narrow selection of stocks focused on a sector that trades like stock? What does it mean trade like stock? Like how w/index fund price only updates at end of whole day and can only trade index fund at end of day and not in seconds? Boglehead said you can make portfolio similar w/index fund using ETF? So why not use ETF instead of index funds which we all recommend?
A: An ETF can be an index fund, here's an example:
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0970&FundIntExt=INTWhat you probably mean is ETF vs Mutual fund. Here are some links on that, which you may have read already,
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/ETFs_vs_mutual_fundshttps://investor.vanguard.com/etf/etf-vs-mutual-fundIn short, I choose mutual funds over ETFs, because they are better for automatic investments, I can buy in fractional shares, and I don't have to deal with the spread.
Q: Also what would be the impact of a rise in interest rates? Supposedly that's going to hurt bonds somehow but there's so many different types of bonds, short, intermed, long, TIPS, not real sure what this interest rate hike is going to do? How will it affect stocks? I know this sounds like market timing but the rate hike sounds like it'll happen sooner or later. And what does cheap oil mean for economy? some argue it'll help stimulate, others say it hurts s&p oil stocks, is this temporary or something to ignore and just invest?
A: Yes, this is market timing. Don't worry about it, and you will end up way ahead of your friends who did.
Some comments, I recommend watching the Boglehead videos if you haven't already. Yes the guy is over the top, but the information is spot-on:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Video:Bogleheads®_investment_philosophy
Why do you have any money at all in PTRAX at 0.71% ER, when you have access to the amazing VINIX at a 0.04% ER? I'd move that over ASAP. You also have a bunch of money sitting around not invested, I'd get on that too :) Since you're already familiar with Boglehead, you've probably seen this already, but this is my recommendation:
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=88005Good luck!
