VOO

Odd-Wallaby-9867

No single stocks unless you are gonna work as an analyst and manage your positions. Even then, you’d probably beat with a major index fund like VOO/QQQ

Safe-Informal

Are fine with the valuations of the other 498 stocks in the S&P 500? VOO- Tesla 1.56% and SPCX 0% until 6/2027

ATPsynthase12

SPMO is performance chasing. It’s still concentrated in like 150 companies and exceptionally tech heavy. And as others may have said, you have no foreign market diversification so you are missing out on about 45% of the total world market. They are boring and not flashy, but statistically speaking, broad whole market index funds like VTI, VOO, and VXUS or SPY do better year on year and outperform stock picking or actively managed portfolios. Unless you’re Warren Buffett or insider trading, your portfolio will statistically underperform someone who simply bought index funds.

Arrowhead_Pride15

And that is exactly why you shouldn't sell. You are diversified in other, tax friendly accounts. The taxable account is where you can have fun with some "play" money and as much as I love my 401k invested in VOO/VTI etc those funds do not hold any TSM, very little NBIS, and by playing individual stocks you don't always beat the market, but i have a handful that I have held for years that absolutely HAVE outperformed (NVDA, GOOG, TSM, funnily I have NBIS too but wayyyyyyy too early to call that one...) and if you aren't buying individual stocks with your excess "fun" money then the odds of ever outperforming are Zero. You paid for the ticket on theses positions, take the ride!

Eazy12345678

ROTH IRA. portion every paycheck into VOO or FXAIX

IronicallyCanadian

VOO and chill for 35 years

newaccount202225

Honestly not too crazy. Wish I had your nerve. I'm a 90% VOO kinda person. Back when Google was at around 250 I bought a couple 2027 250c that I sold at 400. Could have retired if I had enough conviction to go all in. Do you see it reaching 400 again by EOY? That's what I'm hoping for.

FunFactTidbits

There's lower cost (expense ratio) like VOO (Vanguard). Over time the expenses eat into your earnings. Be aware of the holdings. The Mega cap stocks are heavily weighted in both while the RSP is equally weighted (also a high expense ratio). Don't know if Vanguard has something that mimics. Generally, Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is best. If in a taxable account try to hold for at least a year so it will be taxed as long-term Capital Gains (lower tax rate) vs Income. Good luck Note: I am no a fiduciary

uselesknowledgeadict

Just put it in VOO. Stock picking with only 200 doesn’t sound very promising. Keep piling into etfs till you have a more sizable account.

Gone-with-wind999

This thread is a “high risk” forum where people post about their bets in the market. Please don’t confuse the advice you would get here. My 2 cents. 80% of it in an index fund that tracks the S and P 500. VOO or SPYM. 20 % in some other areas that have more upside. Lots of interesting stuff here. 75% of professional hedge funds don’t beat the S and P which usually can get you 10 - 15 percent a year compounding over time. Sounds boring but deceptively good.

midhknyght

VOO and chill.

OG_Tater

You should call Fidelity or Schwab and ask them. Or walk in. The standard advice is to have 3-6 months cash in a high yield savings account. Then contribute 401k up to the match. Then contribute to a Roth up to the max. Then anything that’s left put in a taxable brokerage account and buy VOO

MatteoFlacco

VOO and that’s it

Flayum

Use an LLM to ask which companies in January 1st 2000 were household names, then see how they did vs VOO or VTI. People would be talking about the hype of Blockbuster, Yahoo, General Electric, Yahoo, Kmart, Pets.com...

Candid_Problem1109

the tax man doesn’t kick down your door because you bought VOO in a taxable account, so just buy and hold the same broad ETFs there and stop treating the brokerage like it’s radioactive

Clubpenguin8888

These kind of markets kind of make me forget how VOO can severely underperform

Clubpenguin8888

These kind of markets kind of make me forget how VOO can severely underperform

MeYouThemEveryone

To the regard shorting VOO, is there a woeld

Poopybuttsuck

Just gambled on buying 10 shares of VOO. Now I’m gonna hold it until January and sell it to fill my Roth.

deadfishlog

Always interesting to measure SPY/VOO vs RSP (S&P 500 equal weight). The RSP equal weight is down 1% over the past week.

noiserr

VOO and VTI as they have low cost, but Fidelity offers zero costs alternatives. FNILX and FZROX which are worth looking into.

Illustrious-Chip9735

Ah yes, shorting both VOO and SPY for extra diversification

PinOk5288

Shorting both VOO and SPY is just shorting the S&P 500 with extra steps.

Clearsky_Beyond

Yesterday, I lost money because I sold too early, and today, I lost money because I bought too early and sold too late. I just can't make any money. Should probably buy VOO.

reinkarnated

It's just an account. Even if you invest in nothing, Fidelity will pay you over 3% interest. VOO is a pretty safe investment with proven yearly growth of about 8% or more.

getonmalevel

I did something similar recently. Heard about a bunch of layoffs, and was pessimistic, i normally trade on VOO, but bought puts on SPY, which allows days more often then every 7 days.... needless to say, it was for the next day, logged in the next day was confused why my position was down 95% around 2 pm. It was ~10k as well. Pretty embarassing.

4thshift

I'm not great at investing, but had I simply put my money into an S&P 500 index fund (SPY, VOO, IVV or similar) and reinvested the dividends, I would probably have a lot more money today than I do from chasing 3x leveraged funds or trying to guess which healthcare or technology companies are going to be the winners. Those winners certainly exist, but they can fall just as dramatically. Nobody can tell you whether today is the best day to invest. There will be dips, crashes and periods where the market goes nowhere. But an S&P 500 index fund gives you ownership in 500 large U.S. companies rather than requiring you to guess which individual company is going to succeed. Dollar-cost averaging is one way to deal with the "is the market too high right now?" problem. Instead of trying to time the market, you invest a set amount at regular intervals. Sometimes you'll buy high and sometimes low, but you're not relying on yourself to predict the next dip. Most people aren't very good at doing that consistently. I'd also keep an emergency fund in a HYSA rather than putting every dollar into investments. An ETF is an investment, not cash. You can sell it during market hours, but the sale has to settle before the money is available to withdraw, and the market could also be down substantially at the exact moment you need the money. A HYSA is much more appropriate for money you may need in the short term. If you're in the U.S., I'd also look at retirement accounts before putting everything into a regular brokerage account. A Roth IRA lets you contribute after-tax money, and qualified withdrawals in retirement can be tax-free, including the investment growth. Traditional retirement accounts generally give you a tax deduction up front and you pay income tax when you withdraw the money later. There are contribution limits and rules for both, and retirement accounts aren't quite as flexible as a regular brokerage account. So if you're building money that you may need before retirement, a regular brokerage account can make sense too. And don't overlook taxes. In a regular brokerage account, selling investments can create taxable capital gains. How long you held the investment can make a substantial difference to the tax treatment, so constantly buying and selling is not necessarily your friend. In a regular brokerage account, holding an investment for more than one year can substantially change how the profit is taxed. And you need to keep track of your activities for tax reporting, which is a pain. I am not going to tell you what company to use, and there are many, but an well-known example like Schwab, offers retirement and simple brokerage accounts. You open it like any other internet bank account, basically. Send in the funds and then it just sits there, until you go in and select a Ticker symbol, hit the \[Buy\] button and decide how many shares and how you'd like it to go through ... LIMIT to a certain value, or just accept the MARKET of that moment, for example. Someone accepts your offer, mostly within a couple of seconds and then you are a stock/ETF owner. When you want to sell, you go back in and hit the SELL button and say how many shares you want to sell. If you want to get into the more high-stakes stuff like OPTIONS, that's beyond me. Do your homework. Consult with a professional at some point: Internet opinions are not very believable.

mattronimus007

What is VOO? I thought we were past the days of needing brokerage firms as middle men. Remember, I'm clueless.

der_physik

Look up Vanguard. They have some of the lowest rates on etfs. You deposit money into your account, then you select the investment you want to purchase. If i was your age I would start with VOO (S&P 500). It's that simple. Don't make the biggest mistake I made, which was selling when there was a market drop. That's actually when you want to buy more.

Icy-Sheepherder-7595

If you know absolutely nothing. Index funds and chill until you feel you at least know a little bit about investing and general risk management and tolerance. My biggest regret is messing around with single stocks for the first 2-3 years when I had no clue what anything meant and I didn't lose money but didn't make any either. So I missed out on the massive year the broader market did in that time and missed out on 60% gains in just 3 years (started in 2022 at the bottom of this current market cycle). Now I feel confident enough to pick a few myself, I still go in knowing beating the market is not guaranteed. And still have money set aside in funds. But I missed out on all that free money in that time which you get by doing NOTHING. That's probably the best part about index investing. You don't have to think about it, there's no math, no guess work, no sleepless nights because your worried the market may open tomorrow and your account suffers an instant 20% drop because you bought a stock some Redditor or friend or Jim Cramer told you to buy. Statistically the vast majority of "VOO and chill" investors outperform even wall streets brightest hedge fund managers. When you have some knowledge and can really think critically about certain moves you may want to make it is possible to maybe beat the market every now and then using your own strategy but long term we all know S&P wins. It's simply impossible for most people to replicate the consistent gains seen over the course of 30 years that you get when investing broadly like that. I

Gunk_Olgidar

Sign up with Fidelity or Schwab and create a brokerage account.   Transfer the funds and invest in VOO.  

Khaaaaan92

We’ve all been where you are right now, don’t worry. If I were to add anything, though, it would be that the usually reliable and safe ETFs like VOO etcetera will likely take quite a dive soon-ish as they are tech heavy and although tech looks terrific AI is overvalued as a product and service and is facing massive pushback, and separately hardware costs for GPUs will have to drop when people stop giving a fuck about replacing their workforce with the dumbest conversation simulator ever made, so obviously do research on what I’ve said as you may disagree, but they are not as safe as they were a few years ago. Hope this helps man, genuinely.

rumpler117

Open a brokerage account with Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab. Deposit money. Buy stuff. IVV, VOO, etc.

Pale_Drink4455

I got out of VOO in a 20 year old IRA back in late 2022 and bet it all on MSTR. Literally almost cost me my wife and kids at the time but I believed in corn but never wanted to fart with an exchange or wallet at my age. Rode it up to all time highs and got out and pivoted to GOOG where it’s currently parked. I should take all the loot to Divis too, but I’m going to ride it out for another year or so until I turn 50. Guess that makes me an old degenerate on this sub.

varietyviaduct

I have nothing but QQQ and VXUS, should I round it out with VOO or VTI

ThatFUTGuy

a lot of people neglect their pension and VOO and chill it, do that when you hit a million, gamble it like a degenerate first — Warren Buffet 🪑

Zyltris

[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Prioritizing\_investments](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Prioritizing_investments) I recommend you drop QQQM, as it provides 53% overlap with VOO.

SlickRick941

Why not just go all in to SPY/VOO, SCHD, and some other consistent players and just live off dividends? At very conservative 3%, you'd make $115k pre-tax every year in dividends alone, and likely would earn more every single year

Ble_h

VOO and chill would be the smart play but I am retarded and 0dtes are funny.

IputSwitchesOnGlocks

A whole lotta holding of VOO

__redruM

I’m not as concerned with the bubble, and I have VOO, VGT, and SMH. But I got in to SMH a couple years ago, and it feels late now. That has me up 20% YTD. And if there’s a correction, I have plenty of room before I’m loosing any money. I’d recommend VOO and QQQ, 60/40 or 70/30.

drbigtoe

Get off of this subreddit immediately unless you want to gamble it all away today on options. Buy VOO and chill. Buy more at every opportunity. Do not sell for 30-40 years.

Whole-Reserve-4773

Yep. I hedge with half VOO half QQQ for my Us allocation. I don’t give a damn what everyone keeps crying about a crash on here. People say it every year while the market moves up and up and up

betarhoalphadelta

The taxable is taxed, but that's not some horrible problem. You get taxed when you sell stock resulting in capital gains, or when your stocks/ETFs distribute dividend income. If you buy and hold long term you won't have to worry about capital gains taxes until some point in the future when you sell. It's not like the account itself is just being taxed every year because April 15 rolls around. It's \*only\* taxed at sale. And VOO throws off a \~1% dividend yield, but if you're a low-income college student, being taxed on that 1% yield will be at a low marginal rate. Just open a brokerage account and start saving your extra money there. You can do the exact same allocation as in your ROTH, or a different allocation, or whatever you like.

Fapados

> The economy is no longer about mcdonalds and coca cola its about tech and AI. In 2000, the economy was about the internet. Then SPY fell -56% and QQQ fell -83%. > Voo is for preserving wealth, qqq and vgt are for building wealth Neither are for preserving wealth. All of them are for building wealth. VT + BND is for preserving wealth. > why not add in alot of qqq alongside with voo? QQQ outperforms VOO. MAG7 outperforms QQQ. Semiconductors outperform MAG7. The higher the returns, the higher the risk. You have to draw the line somewhere.

RationalReturns

I’m 27. I’ve got 20% of my portfolio on QQQM and 80% in VOO

Unique-Ferret-612

Same VOO and VTI have been the goat for me. Sometimes I'll put individual stocks in my taxable account for less tax expenses than the dividends from VOO. Sometimes I wonder even if I should quit that and go with VOO or VTI in my taxable account?

Giorma13

I kept everything as it is and added 400$ to QQQM, QQQM become 53% and NVDA 46%, and thinking I will add 100$ to QQQM till NVDA becomes ~20% of portfolio and then I try to add something new, maybe VOO or some other stock. For now I'm keeping it as it is, reason I wanted semis is that the semi stocks were dropped and I was thinking it was great time to buy now.

Beginning-Fig-9089

wow today destroyed me, i guess im just going to VOO and chill. idk anything lmao

chaoticmosaic

This shit is ridiculous. VOO and chill till 🥭 out

Fabulous-Parfait2331

Here is my take, if you need income, roll it to income generating securities, otherwise hold VOO. 

__redruM

Before the current administration there was a lot of good advice here, but it turned political and now you get doom and bad advice. But reddit started me on VOO in chill years ago and it’s been golden advice.

greenpride32

I prefer SMH over SOXX because there is more weighting towards NVDA and TSM. SOXX carries too much weight in AMD and MU for my liking. Not anything against those companies, but AMD has very high price premium and they haven't quite found that NVDA like anchor in the AI space just yet. MU still carries that cyclical worry. But NVDA and TSM are more or less the bedrock of semi space AI buildout. I don't really see any issue with holding some weight of all of QQQM, NVDA and either SOXX or SMH. I'd probably suggest you add VOO in there as well. Disclosure: Own QQQM, NVDA, SMH, VOO

gopoohgo

Nah; Me and the Mrs both have 7 figure 401ks: VOO and chill.

Dependent-Leopard971

Looking at recently deposited funds (not taxable) of 1.8M sitting in a taxable brokerage account. Not sure whether to go with AUM for about .8% fees yearly or just managing funds myself with guidance from the same advisory firm on a per hour fee periodic advisory schedule throughout the year. USA based, age: 49, still working full time gross w2 wages of 120k, with about 575k in a pretax retirement account. No debt or mortgage and not interested in buying real estate at this particular time. Given my age, I'm tempted to be more conservative investing this large amount of liquid assets. Would SUTXX (minimum 1M be too boring? Reddit tends to suggest self management to avoid paying fees but because this is a large amount to work with, I'm tempted to just allow the CFP to make these types of choices as I am not a pro. But off the top of my head, that's what I was thinking .. SUTXX, and the balance at 40% market tracking funds (like VOO) and 60% other types of 5% type less volatile products or even safer than than for lower rates, again, just given my age. Thanks.

coopermug

To answer your question, my pick is SOXX. But I wouldn't go all in semiconductors for the next 5-10 years. I have a lot of nvda, but I'm trimming to move in VOO. If I have to pick 1 stock to go all in, I would pick Google. Nvda is strong but it's extremely vulnerable to capex spending. Any news about slowing capex, semis could plunge 10% or more. There's reason that Buffet picked Google.

JumbledClutches

honestly this is the best advice for new investors but they never listen till they lose money themselves i did exactly this with VOO and some random stocks i was sure would moon, spent months checking prices every hour like a crazy person. now everything just goes into the boring fund and i sleep way better sometimes you gotta touch the stove to learn it's hot

Gram_variable

In theory, could a hacker or AI hack into Vanguard and make VOO sell off all of it's holdings?

billocity

SOXQ has the lowest ER of the 3 you mentioned and has been outperforming SMH in the last year or so. Who knows if it will still continue. SOXQ is also not so top heavy with Nvidia like SMH. Chances are if you have VOO or growth ETFs you have chunk of NVDA.

IputSwitchesOnGlocks

My play would be VOO lol ima long term holder

NotOnApprovedList

invest in VOO, you get better return over time because the management fee is so much lower.

wishnothingbutluck

VOO

Waygzh

Bro I just dump all my money in VOO and UPRO IDK what you're talking about I'm just here for the memes.

Fun-Inspection-8196

VOO will beat BRK over the next 10 years. Mark it down.

whydontyouwork

just invest 100 dollars a week into VOO or similar. investing takes 10 plus years to get going.

EvictionSpecialist

VOO, keep buying until you’re 55 yrs old.

MiserableBag6969

Stick with VOO/VT, no need to take risks on individual stocks

bear_Prune8771

That’s why you invest in broad market indexes. SPY, VOO, QQQM, IXUS, VTV etc

Slap5Fingers

Looks like VOO is just doing its job, but whatever helps you.

DarthSwash

My brokerage account outside of RSUs from work is entirely VOO, QQQM, and SCHD. as my RSUs vest and short term capital gains tax falls off of them, I just sell and use that capital to buy more of those 3. Doing a 40/15/45 split, in that order. I am not a financial advisor and do not claim responsibility for your financial ruin, however. But it seems to be working out pretty well for me. 🤷‍♂️

Next-Paper-2068

I was 100% in stocks until recently. Just yesterday I sold my AMD position for a 392% gain. Thats going to my ETF fidelity basket. I still have SOFI and thats going to be sold once the market starts showing it the respect it deserves. That will also be going to my ETF basket. By the end of 2027 I should be 100% ETFs. VOO, VXUS, SPMO, and AVUV for anyone wondering which ETFs

gizmole

6 months' expenses in HYSA or something like SGOV. The rest, if for retirement, put in VT, VTI, or VOO. Depends on how much you want to divesify, and your investing beliefs. VT will give you world exposure, including the US. VTI/VOO is just the US. You can always change things up the more you learn. You may want to dabble in individual stocks (more risk/more reward), but learn how the market works and how to evaluate single companies first. Otherwise, you're just gambling. Don't trade. The majority lose. If you still want to consider it at some point, make sure to paper trade first for a while to learn what system works for you. Then, when you start with real money, risk management is the most important factor. Start with very small trades you can stomach losing until you can see if it's something you can even be good at. Psychology will be your biggest barrier to overcome.

Interesting_Drama173

Fuck VOO

Robdyson

This is such a regard take. 80-90% wealth in VOO 10% generating another 80% YTD. Tools -> scanners and basic chart setups and really fucking good risk management.

ratskin69

I made googl one of my top holdings in spring 2025. That pick alone is making me beat my holdings in VOO. Sometimes it pays to pick individual stocks.

ratskin69

I do better than the VOO with my individual stock picks, but thank you for the advice.

Sawyerthesadist

What if I invest in VMO and VDY but don’t touch VOO cause Yankee icky?

SxeySteve

Pro trader has a steady income and his own savings are just in VOO

Past-Option2702

I said the GOOGL owned inside VOO went up the same amount as BRK. I didn’t said VOO went up that much.

mightysockelf

Day trading isn't going to do anything for you with $10k. You need a large amount of capital to make any investments worthwhile. You'd be lucky to make 20 bucks a day if you hit on the right stock at the right moment. Plus, most brokerages wont allow you to make more than 3 trades in a day with less than $25k in your account. Don't even consider day trading at this point. For you, I recommend first maxing out your Roth to the annual $7.5K contribution, then invest within it with an ETF. I like Vanguard, so if you want the S&P, choose VOO. If you want international markets, choose VXUS. You can do a mix of those if you want to diversify, or even try a global fund like VT. Do some research so you know what you're getting into. But once you're in, just leave it. Don't buy and sell to try and corner the market or whatever - just let it reinvest and compound. Every year, add as much as you can to the Roth up to the contribution limit. With your remaining $2.5K, open a regular brokerage account with a firm like Fidelity, then invest in boring stuff like what I mentioned above. There are many other ETFs you can consider that encompass specific economies and business sectors if. Don't bother with stuff like JEPQ - $2.5K won't get you more than maybe $250 or so a year, and it's taxable income. Just invest in long term growth funds and keep on doing it over the years. It's not glamorous at 28, but when you're old and wrinkly you'll be glad you did.

mightysockelf

Good advice. I max it out, invest in VOO, and let the dividends reinvest themselves. Set it and forget it.

OrdinaryLatter

Get a Vanguard account, start auto investing with VFIAX (VOO equivalent), do the same with VUSXX (money market fund). Figure out an amount for both, consider it part of your bills, set it and forget it. Don’t do HYSA, they can collapse and you might be SOL. See More Perfect Union’s report on HYSA. Also: influencers recommend HYSA not because they’re good but because they get referral bonuses.

carlo_on_fire

I made that mistake.. arrive trading leads usually to losses. Stick to VOO and qqq, but yeah it can make you complacent and then give into get rich schemes or

phd2k1

VOO and chill

milkplantation

I think you're mistaken. BRK started their position in Google in Q3 2025 and VOO is up 14% in that time so BRKs position would have a 6.5% lead at this time

Past-Option2702

An investor who owns VOO is also up 21.5% on Google over the same period of time.

Calm-Session-4835

Kicking myself I was just $800 under at one point and just held. I should have sold then and reinvested into SCHD & VOO

milkplantation

What? I can't tell if you're a bot or just started investing. With the tariff dump from 14th of February 2025 to the 2nd of May 2025 VOO dropped -7% and BRK went up +12.5% over the same period for a difference of **+19.5% versus the wider market**. During the calendar year of 2022 VOO dropped -18.1% and BRK went up +4% for a difference of **+22% versus the wider market.** From 2000 to 2002 through the Dot Com bubble, the S&P dropped 37.6% and BRK went up 29.7% for a difference of **+67% versus the wider market.** This trend happens over and over throughout market history. When the market slumps BRK tends to have less steep declines or even moderate growth and tends to rip before the wider market has even recovered. **If you look at the 13 calendar years when the S&P was down, BRK outperformed the market in 11 of those years by an average of +15.7%**

IputSwitchesOnGlocks

greatest advice I ever heard was “time in the market beats timing the market” so I DCA every time I get paid bro same thing I do in my Schwab that holds my VOO

moSNAP

Brother, totally, specifically for this year 3/27, 3/30, 3/31 was the test. U literally are done trading for the year if u slammed it like a double down on the blackjack tables. A second day is July 28-31 which I call the Leopold day aka deleveraging event. Wall street ganged up and knew his port was levered in certain ways so the AI traded rotated out to AAPL, JPM, etc and he got margin called (but up 80% at least!) Cheers to the patient ones here waiting to pounce. Let's effing go! S&P and chill. FWIW: SPYM, IVV, VOO all have cheaper fees than SPY.

AgitatorSupreme

Since May of last year I have trickled down from $84k - $59k. $8k of that I lost in the first few weeks. My ability to trade as well as my luck has progressively gotten worse. I don’t even get risky.. my biggest problem is paper handing everything. But when I don’t cut my losses my position never bounces back. eventually I cut but then I miss the recovery. I have lost $10’s of thousands all because I thought the economy was going to keep eating shit after liberation day and I fucked up all those gains I could have made. It makes me want to eat a bullet with how bad I have done. The last few months it is like *every* move I makes immediately reverses the moment I get in. Shit will be flat or just a stable holding pattern or there will be a longer uptrend that looks reliable and the fucking moment I get a position the stock will tank. I could be watching a stock riding support for hours, see buy signals and as soon as I take a position it will lose support. You would be amazed at how often this happens vs not. And if I hold, it will keep going down. And down. And down… and I cut my losses and IMMEDIATELY it recovers. I even put almost everything into VOO and that shit just stagnates between $690 - $702. Before trump got in, before the AI thing blew up I could buy options and hold them for days, weeks and keep it controlled. I wouldnt *dare* hold options over night any more. Stocks shouldnt be moving 10% every day. My retirement is fucked. Im 47. I cant put $59k into index funds and retire…

Samtertriads

I know. I browse wsb for the comedy. And tragedy. Meanwhile I really do just buy and hold VOO (well really VT but it’s mostly VOO). And it has made me quite wealthy. But it’s too late. They already portrayed me as the drooling dog.

thetestyequator

21 and already got VOO, VHT, VXUS sitting there. You're doing better than 90% of people your age, no roast needed. With $4k to mess around, I'd look at sectors where you actually understand the product or use it yourself. Makes the research less boring and you'll spot trends before the suits do. Don't try to pick 20 different names, pick 3-4 max and track them closely. Spread too thin and you're just building another ETF with worse diversification. Biggest mistake I made early was selling winners too quick and holding losers hoping they'd bounce. Set a mental stop-loss even if you don't put one in the platform.

obnoxious_marco

you're 19 with 41k in mostly VOO, you're already miles ahead of most people your age. fed days always bring jitters but selling because you're nervous is exactly how retail investors lock in losses while the big money buys the dip if your time horizon is decades then a single rate decision barely registers as a blip on the chart, just keep adding when you can and stop checking it every five minutes

CranberryLast4683

…or be a regard and gain more in one trading day than all the profit gained by VOO over 30 years…and then lose it all the next trading day

Status-Staff8199

my buddy lost his puts during the last recession but still held VOO calls like a champ

GreedyMonke

buy VOO always and still have profit in 30 years. or be a regard and lose all your savings in one trading day

riverdancejeff

All 4 should say but VOO. If you stopped buying in a recession you missed out on all the value of DCA

Several_Vanilla8916

VOO POO economics

CalebVanPoneisen

Too much text. Smoll font. VOO shill. Bad meme :(