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Is it best to have all retirement money invested through the same company (e.g., Vanguard, Fidelity, TIAA-CRFF, etc)? I'm trying to play catch up on retirement investing and plan to open a 401k account that is offered through my employer and a 403b account that is offered through my husband's. We also plan on investing money in IRA accounts. I would really like to use Vanguard for everything, but it would not be easy to do through my 401k plan. I can only do my investing through Charles Schwab. Although I can access some Vanguard mutual funds through Schwab, they charge transfer fees which would eat away at my money. If I used Vanguard for hubby's 403b and our IRAs and found some lower cost investments through Schwab for my 401k money, would this be an okay way to do this? Or am I better off finding another investment company with low costs to invest all of our dollars with - I can access TIAA-CRFF through the 403b and 401k plans. Any thoughts on this would be most helpful. This is the first time I have ever posted here.
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It likely doesn't matter. It would be easy for you to just login and check all your accounts at once. That'd be nice.
But it's not worth paying a transfer fee to transfer out of your 401k each pay period to another institution. You should be able to purchase any Vanguard fund at Schwab with no issues - or choose a low fee option from the options available in your plan.
You seem to really be set on the Vanguard idea, so I see nothing wrong with having your 401k at Schwab and everything else at Vanguard. Just 1 more login.
It shouldn't have any effect on your investment returns.
Though I believe the employer controls the terms of where the 401k/403b is opened. So I don't think you'd be able to 'choose' Vanguard for your husband's 403b. You'd likely have to invest where their plan is set up.
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