Fidelity · Roth IRA · FXAIX
Your S&P 500 setup
Every step from opening a to buying , an , and putting it on autopilot. Check off each step as you go; your progress is saved in this browser. Tap any underlined word for a plain-English explanation.
Open your Roth IRA
About 15 minutes. Have your , driver's license, address and employer info ready.
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Optional, but it's a short and clear explainer of how a works.
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Choose the regular , not . Fidelity Go is a managed account that charges an once you pass $25,000.
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It makes transfers, buying and checking on your account much easier.
Link your bank
Connecting your checking account lets you move money in for free with an .
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In your account, go to Transfer and add a bank account. Online setup needs a checking account.
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Fidelity sends a small test transaction, which can take 7 to 10 . After that, each transfer takes 1 to 3 business days.
Fund it and buy FXAIX
Money that lands in the account sits as a until you buy the fund.
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Any amount works. has no minimum.
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Go to Trade, then . Search , choose Buy, enter a dollar amount and submit. Its is just 0.015%.
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Check your positions the next . FXAIX should show , not just a .
Put it on autopilot
Set this up once and it runs every month.
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Go to Trade, then , then Mutual Funds, then FXAIX. Use $625 a month (or about $288 every payday) to reach the $7,500 .
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means each payment of buys more FXAIX instead of sitting as cash.
When the job starts
These go through your employer's HR benefits portal, not fidelity.com.
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Set your contribution to 24.5% of pay to reach the $24,500 , and never go below the 6% that gets the full . Pick the plan's .
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Pick the and send about $150 per paycheck to your through . That money skips the 7.65% .
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Name a on your 401(k), HSA and Roth IRA. It takes five minutes.
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If your employer's HSA charges high fees, you can move the balance to a Fidelity HSA once a year and invest it.
After your emergency fund is full
Once your is full, extra money beyond the retirement accounts goes into a regular .
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Choose “The Fidelity Account” (individual brokerage).
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In a taxable account, an like or usually creates fewer each year than .
Glossary
Every underlined word on this page, in plain English. Words inside these explanations are tappable too.
- Advisory fee
- A yearly charge for managing your money, often 0.35% to 1% of your balance. Over decades it can cost far more than it sounds.
- Beneficiary
- The person who gets an account if you die. Naming one keeps the money out of court (probate).
- Brokerage account
- A regular investing account with no limits and no age rules. There's no tax break: you pay tax on each year and on gains when you sell.
- Business day
- Monday through Friday, not counting bank holidays.
- Cash balance
- Where money waits inside your account before you buy something. It earns a little interest but isn't invested in the stock market yet.
- Dividends
- Small cash payments that companies share with their owners. The S&P 500 pays roughly 1% to 1.5% a year.
- EFT
- Electronic funds transfer. A free move of money between your bank and Fidelity, like a digital check.
- Emergency fund
- Cash, about 6 months of expenses, kept in a savings account for a job loss, car repair or hurricane evacuation. It isn't invested in stocks.
- Employer match
- Free money your employer adds to your when you contribute. “100% up to 6%” means that if you put in 6% of your pay, they add another 6%.
- ETF
- Exchange-traded fund. Like a , but it trades all day like a stock. ETFs usually create fewer , so they're handy in a .
- Expense ratio
- The yearly fee a fund takes, as a percent of your money. 0.015% means $1.50 a year for every $10,000. It comes out automatically, so you never get a bill.
- Fidelity Go
- Fidelity's robo-advisor. It picks investments for you and charges a yearly once your balance reaches $25,000.
- FXAIX
- Fidelity's that tracks the . It's a with a 0.015% and no minimum, so you can start with any amount.
- HSA
- Health Savings Account. It pairs with an . Money goes in before tax, can be invested, and comes out tax-free for medical costs. It never expires.
- HSA-eligible health plan
- A high-deductible health plan (HDHP): lower monthly premiums and a higher deductible. You need one to put money into an .
- Index fund
- A fund that automatically copies a list of companies (an “index”) like the , instead of paying people to pick stocks. That makes it cheap and simple.
- IVV
- iShares' (BlackRock's) S&P 500 . Nearly identical to , with the same 0.03% fee.
- 401(k)
- A retirement account through your employer. Money comes straight out of your paycheck, often before tax, and many employers add a .
- Mutual fund
- A pool of many people's money invested together. You buy it by dollar amount, and its price is set once a day after the stock market closes.
- Payroll
- Money your employer takes out of your paycheck and deposits for you before you ever see it.
- Recurring investment
- An automatic order that pulls money from your bank and buys a fund on a schedule, like every month.
- Reinvest
- Using your to automatically buy more , so that money keeps growing too.
- Roth IRA
- A retirement account you open yourself. You put in money you've already paid tax on, and it grows tax-free and comes out tax-free after age 59½. You can take your contributions (not the growth) back out anytime. The 2026 limit is $7,500.
- S&P 500
- A list of about 500 of the biggest U.S. companies, like Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. “Investing in the S&P 500” means buying one fund that owns all of them at once, so your money grows when big U.S. businesses grow.
- Self-directed
- You choose and buy the investments yourself. There's no .
- Social Security & Medicare tax
- Also called FICA: 7.65% taken from every paycheck. money sent through skips it; money doesn't.
- SSN
- Your Social Security number. Every investment account needs it for tax reporting.
- Taxable gains
- Profit you owe tax on. In a , a fund sometimes pays out gains you owe tax on even if you don't sell. do this less.
- VOO
- Vanguard's S&P 500 . Its is 0.03%, and it owns the same companies as . You can buy it at Fidelity for $0 commission.
- Yearly max
- The most the IRS lets you put into an account each year. For 2026 that's $7,500 for an IRA, $24,500 for a , and $4,400 for a self-only .