VOO

scrambledOrFried1234

I’m not saying the majority are financially incapable, there’s plenty of research that already shows this. Statistics say less than 29% of the world’s population have net assets worth $100K or more, and that less than 5% have liquid or available invested assets of $100K or more. Now let’s focus on the USA, a concentration zone for this cohort. The US Centre for National Education Statistics regularly finds around 35% of US adults have poor numeracy skills, meaning they struggle with calculating percentages; interpreting graphs and tables; comparing prices and working with interest rates. The annual TIAA Institute/GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) consistently finds the average American answers only 50% of financial literacy questions correctly and only around 1 in 5 demonstrate a high level of financial literacy. I come into this sub and there’s an overwhelming discourse on buying and holding VOO or whatever S&P tracker, when the AI bubble will burst or, even worse, timing the markets. There’s not a single sensible conversation about asset allocation, tax mitigation, financial objectives, retirement planning, estate planning or the merits of different asset classes relative to the risks, returns and tax treatment.

Few_Wind6165

100 per week, laag risico, goede return VOO THE BEST

UnnecessaryPancake

MSFT and META are my hedge against my VOO and Semis in my Roth IRA.

Successful-Tea-5733

I'm in VOO, QQQM, VUG and SPMO. I've got exposure to over 500 companies of various weightings, and while all are US the majority do business internationally giving me broad exposure. Although Charlie Munger would have called this "Deworsification" and that I should instead concentrate in a few great companies instead of a bunch of crappy companies. I don't own gold. I don't know why I would own gold, I'm not a jewler and I don't build consumer electronics.

Paul_Robert_

$VOO and chill for like a century 💀

MaybeTheDoctor

Yes, VOO or a Vangard Target Date fund would be the right choice for someone like you who is a passive investor.

Pallid_Pallas_

If you want to set and forget, why are people using VOO and not, say, VFIAX or VHYAX?

InvestorAllan

$VOO an s&p 500 etf

Inevitable-Love-4156

You’re already 90% of the way there just by thinking “low and slow” and not “how do I 10x in a year.” VOO vs SPY is basically a coin flip, VOO has a slightly lower expense ratio so most people here lean that way for long term. Pick one, automate contributions every paycheck, don’t panic sell during crashes, and go touch grass for 10 to 20 years. That boring combo has beaten like 90% of active traders.

Playful-Fox-99

VOO / SPY with auto contributions is literally the “set it and forget it” meta, you’re on the right track. Pick one, don’t overthink it, set up automatic buys every paycheck, and focus on increasing your income so you can shovel more in. If you want to get slightly fancy later, you can add a small chunk to something like VXUS or IXUS for international, but 80 to 100 percent in S&P 500 and chill is a completely valid long term plan.

Vegetable-Ad1512

Not an advisor you can beat most advisors by Putting 60% in VOO , 20% in VXUS and 20 % in BND and don’t touch it

sonofalando

My VOO price target is $5000

Efficient-Fudge-3515

Tbh no matter how many people may disagree with me, you will almost certainly make more money over the long run just buying an ETF like VOO or VT and holding it. Most people who actively trade or use options drastically underperform VOO holders over a 20 year+ period. Ik this is the boring answer, but investing shouldn’t be fun, because that’s how it becomes gambling. Don’t ask me how I know.

dr_eh

I mean, if you buy VOO now, market crashes, stays down for ten years and then you retire, this can certainly happen and it's what we're trying to avoid. Isn't the normal advice to keep buying high? It's high right now.

__redruM

Given you’re 35, yes a split between QQQ and SPY does make sense. But maybe 60% SPY (as VOO) and 40% QQQ (as QQQM) makes more sense than 50/50. International is usually recommended as well so maybe 10% VXUS. Don’t touch individual stocks, the two index funds give you allocations of those “Bluechip” stocks. And certainly don’t mess with Elon’s stocks they not worth touching short or long.

Valuable-Jury1917

VOO is perfect for what you are describing. Pick an amount you can auto invest every month, ignore the noise, and let time do the heavy lifting. If you want to get slightly fancier later you can add a total world fund like VXUS, but you really do not need it to win long term.

AlmostAsianJim

Evertime I get the urge to buy a beaten down stock, I’ll just punch myself in the dick to remind myself to buy $VOO instead.

mansfall

\>  I’m stopping today, or at least for a while. So you're not stopping. Just park your money in VOO or SPY or some broad-market based ETF and go touch grass. Earn money. Buy more of that stock. You should tell yourself to just full-stop and delete your trading app. You'll sleep better at night.

le_Derpinder

Everyone is correctly guiding you to VOO and chill if you are depending on this money or want this to be a consistent income. On the other hand, if you are going to do options and need to get out of your losses quicker, keep this handkerchief quick-maths in your head (helped me a lot to close out losing positions and move on to the next play) ... A 20% drop in position requires the position to go up by 25% to breakeven. 33% drop --> 50% gain required for breakeven. 50% drop --> 100% gain required for breakeven.

Templar_Swamp_Stake

Serious advice - It’s really hard to make any money trading options. You’re up against huge Wall Street companies with massive amounts of money to invest in computing and math/finance PhDs. They know how to price options.The big gains you see on here are usually just some guy who got lucky. You can make money trading stocks or ETFs. But in the long term it’s really hard to beat just sticking money into an S&P index fund and letting it grow (“VOO and chill”) Trading options can be a bit of fun but for most people it’s just gambling, like going to the casino and playing blackjack. You shouldn’t gamble anything you can’t afford to lose. And you’re better devoting your time to something more productive like upskilling or a fun hobby.

Objective_Ad4607

Don’t put in what you aren’t willing to lose. If you (or anyone) kept buying or didn’t sell WEN past its like one day pump, you have no business fucking around like you did. Anyway, sounds like you actually need to build up some savings and just go for boring investments VOO and go for long term.

Sawyerthesadist

On that note, find a better etf then VOO… 700$ for a shitty 1% yield… NO Thank you!

AlmostAsianJim

Down almost $35k this week alone. I'm tired fam. Trimmed my positions, added to $VOO and cash. Going to continue slowly adding to $VOO in this choppy market.

Templar_Swamp_Stake

Don’t bother. VOO and chill (serious answer).

stupidber

Is true. I bought this when SPY was at 630 and VIX was like 28 and its down since then. Wouldve been up like 20% just buying VOO

Dazzling_Repeat_3950

VOO vs SPY is basically Coke vs Pepsi, you’re splitting hairs at that point. Pick one, set up automatic contributions every paycheck, and don’t touch it for 10 to 20 years. If you want to get slightly fancier while still lazy, some people do 80 percent VOO and 20 percent VXUS for international, or just grab a total market fund like VTI and call it a day.

Fun_Investment1101

I only buy VOO, SMH, and DRAM atp

Level_Being_1977

You’re already on the right track tbh. Pick VOO or SPY, set up automatic contributions every paycheck, and don’t overthink the tiny differences. If you want to get slightly fancier without extra effort, you can do something like 80 to 90 percent VOO and 10 to 20 percent VXUS or IXUS for international, then rebalance once a year. The real “edge” for most people is just time in the market and not panic selling when stuff inevitably dips.

Whole_Tea_4383

good thing that i put 50% profit in VOO everytime. Shit is really easy, yall are overthinking so much

Educational_Bell6481

You’re literally describing the exact use case VOO and SPY were built for, so you’re on the right track already. Pick one (VOO is slightly cheaper on fees, SPY is more liquid but it won’t matter for long term), set up automatic contributions every paycheck, and ignore the noise for like 10 to 20 years. If you want to get slightly fancier, you can add a bit of VXUS or IXUS for international and call it a day.

AdditionalMany1292

Leave the GF, move In with parents, go to gym, invest in VOO, buy a house in 5 years, find a wife in that order.

Phytosaur01

Bro you know that VOO is 40% tech right? By defensive do you mean you're using it as a hedge against Google not winning? Because it is definitely not defending against volatility.

Shrimpf

Buy an ETF like VWCE or VOO and just chill

InvestingNerd2020

First I want to congratulate you and your father for starting on this pathway. Too many people are scared to invest. Nowadays it is a lot easier to do so, and the way to grow wealth long-term (5+ years) has been well refined. 2 good books to read that helped me a lot are: - Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J Stanley. - I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi. Lean about different retirement accounts (company sponsored and individual ones), active vs index funds, and ETFs vs mutual funds. Accept that investing into most individual stocks is far worse than a collection of stocks (index ETF or index mutual fund). The only exceptions are high growth stocks that are literally effecting an economy (Tesla, Google, or Nvidia). Also, the most popular funds are not always the best to apply in all situations. Mindlessly following VOO and VTI isn't the best thing to invest into in every account type. Some other investments have lower expense ratios, better automation, can be less difficult with brokers that don't offer fractional share investing, or better suited when turning on the breaks in retirement. Zero expense ratio funds with good performance are around. The only things I would have done differently, would have setup a HYSA sooner and invested into a Roth IRA sooner with my tax returns. However, the 2000s was a bad decade to start with far more limitations and fees. This generation has it far too easy, which I am happy for them. Just take full advantage of it. Avoid brokers with bad customer service (Robinhood and E*Trade). Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard, or SoFi are the best choices for long-term investing with good to decent customer service. At your age and using a custodial Taxable brokerage account, just get started with ETF SPYM. Lowest expense ratio for a good ETF and it follows the S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 index requires all the stocks in it to have 4 straight quarters of profits, so only winners.

tremblingtallow

I believe they did recently drop expense ratios, including for VT, but I remembered VOO being lower so I just double checked in my brokerage account. .03 for VOO vs .06 for VT I still think VT is worth it for the "set and forget" nature of it, but you will pay a bit more for it

tremblingtallow

VOO's expense ratio is .03%

AlfB63

Learning that successful investing is about time and solid returns not about chasing high flyers. Things like VOO and QQQ are a solid foundation for a long term portfolio. 

stonksf

I have a million dollars in VOO AMA

IntelligentSwim364

VOO / SPY with automatic contributions is literally the textbook “set it and forget it” move, so you’re already on the right track. Pick one, set up auto buys every paycheck, don’t watch CNBC, and let time do the heavy lifting. If you want to get slightly fancy later you can add something like VXUS for international or a bond fund, but you don’t need that to get started.

KlutzyEgg980

VOO / SPY with auto contributions is literally the textbook “set it and forget it” move, so you are already pointed in the right direction. Pick one, set up automatic buys every paycheck, ignore the noise, and focus on increasing how much you invest, not what you invest in. If you want to keep it super simple, a 100 percent VOO portfolio while you are young, then slowly adding a bond fund later, is what a ton of people do and it works fine.

Ok-Construction-6179

VOO or SPY is basically “pick your favorite soda” territory, they track the same index and will behave almost identically long term. VOO has a slightly lower expense ratio so it wins on paper, but the real key is: automate contributions every paycheck, don’t time the market, and don’t freak out during dips. If you’re in the US, pairing that with tax advantaged accounts like a Roth IRA or 401k is an easy long term W.

Royal_Brain_9773

What’s everyone’s view on 70% VOO and 30% SPMO ?

AlexVT8

As a 16 yr old, this largely depends on your future plans, salary of your parents, and theirs and your net worth. If they're already wealthy then it doesn't really matter either way. But if not and salary lower and you might qualify for FAFSA, then take that into consideration and do 529 or ESA instead. Otherwise for now: 1. Keep it simple at first (ETFs or Mutual Funds): VOO or other low fee. What institution, Schwab, Fidelity, etc? 2. If you have a job, do some Roth IRA, but at 16 this can wait you might need the money sooner. 3. Watch your emotions, don't try to chase the hype, gamble, or make stupid decisions. Behavior is so important. Don't overspend. Check out Dave Ramsey's podcasts. 4. Long-term wealth generation is so important, so actually right now work towards preparing for education or training for your career, do something where you can get a job.

AppSecPeddler

Does better than VOO during a bull run But more loss in a bear cycle

Wonderful_001

Good move. $100 a week on VOO or SPY is great

Dont_say_you_lv_m_27

Thankyou. I will start that in Robinhood. VOO, ok thanks for your advice. I just started this year in Feb. it’s a tax loss harvesting account. All S&P companies in it along with some other international stocks i guess.

Mud_Hat41

Im down 50%. I think 90% of wsb is down big. Market pretty ath. VOO guys are laughing at us.

Mud_Hat41

Im down 50%. I feel you. I think 90% of wsb is down big. VOO guys are laughing at us.

D_Pablo67

How is your managed account doing? Is it beating the S&P 500 after subtracting advisor fees? Most do not and have excessive trading. My recommendation is to come up with a budget for how much you can save from each paycheck. Then set up a self directed brokerage account and invest that fixed amount every two weeks in Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF, ticker symbol VOO. This is a straightforward proven approach.

Ok_Ambassador_4311

S&P and VOO calls are smoked for July 😔

dr_eh

My point is having some insurance, in the form of cash, short term bonds, gold, and highly defensive stocks with low beta, is a much better option than VOO+hope.

jemicarus

I'd buy RSP the equal weighted ETF at this point but many will disagree and if you don't want to think about it VOO will be just fine. VT would be better, the all-world index.

Koplings

With only $100 a week, you should buy SPYM. It’s the same thing but about $80/share. This way you don’t have to buy fractional shares. My brokerage doesn’t even let me buy VOO fractional shares

BetweenTheBuoys

I hope not, because I’m putting 3K/week in VOO and QQQM 😂

orcassharks

Take a break. Invest in GOOG and shut the phone off. Or do half QQQ and half VOO. Market always been like this. It’s just not for you.

blindnlearning2see

Just put 10% of your pay when paid into VOO (or whatever VTI, etc.). For most people this is twice a month.

jmardoxie

VOO is a $684 ETF. Why not buy a mutual like Fidelity FXAIX which pretty much performs the same.

MarlonMcCree20

To add to this though, OP needs to consider that they are a brand new to investing and their strategy is very likely to change. When I first started investing, all the examples I saw was S&P 500/VOO and chill. Then I learned about total market index funds, international exposure, treasury bills etc. and my strategy shifted. By DCAing in the beginning as I learned, it made it really easy to naturally rebalance without triggering tax events. Had I dumped everything in VOO, it would have taken me a very long time to naturally balance it how I wanted. I'm almost positive, everyone's strategy/holdings are different compared to when they first invested. Although lump sum generally is better than DCA, I would strongly advise against a lump sum when you don't know what you're doing. And if you're an inexperienced investor, you do not know what you're doing.

AlfredoCustard

You should of stuck to VOO

JayyMuro

I have SPY, VOO and VOOG. VOOG has outperformed all of them. I bought VOO and VOOG at the same time just to see and ended up keeping.

catlady1215

I don’t use options just buy shares and 70% of my assets are in VOO. I have 10k in my “fun” portfolio and around 42k in one managed by a financial advisor. Yeah it’s not terrible and I’m trying to go back to medical school in a year or two. I’m a teacher right now.

1ThousandDollarBill

I buy VOO every market day, haha.

bhope95

VT not VOO. VOO lacks global and market cap diversification

zel_bob

If you’d want to take a more advanced approach and you’re able (you have the money and want to DCA) you could always buy more when it’s a down day / week like buying it on sale if you will. Like week 1; $100 deposit on Monday. Week 2; VOO is up 1% cool- still deposit $100. Week 3; VOO is down 1.3% - cool buy some more on sale for $150 or $200 Week 4; VOO goes up 5% - cool still buy $100. Point is you’re buying weekly but in my opinion you’re not really timing the market more or less buying more on sale.

Pndapetzim

VOO pretty heavy into AI right now and we may see a pullback as Q2 results start coming in this month. Companies are going to post record profits but forward guidance is likely to fall below sky high expectations. It's a good plan, but you may want to bank the money until after the correction.

MoxBro

VOO and SPYM are essentially identical in performance because they track the same index. SPYM has a slightly lower expense ratio which you could argue makes it "better" for most people as a long term buy and hold - but you are splitting hairs. The truth is investing regularly into any well established broad market ETF will make you money.

PutinBoomedMe

VT is market cap weighted so the S&P500 (VOO) is still 55% of what VT is invested in. The remaining 45% is invested in every other publicly traded company in the world. VT is also only .06%/year management fee; same as VOO

AskPatient1281

Because of diversification -> smaller risk. With VOO you invest in 500 companies. With VTI and VXUS you invest in 12,000 companies in the entire globe.

BrasilianEngineer

As a general rule, the stock market trends upwards over time. (That's why in most years, the stock market breaks the previous record for highest valuation quite a few times). Given that the average trend of the stock market is upward (and assuming it continues upward), basic math tells you that the more time your money is sitting in the stock market, the more time it will grow. If you invest $5200 in VOO at the start of the year, that money will have 365 days worth of gains. (lump sum investing) If you instead take the money and buy $100 of VOO each week, The first batch will have 365 days, and the last batch 7 days with an average somewhere around 185 days). On average, lump sum investing will have twice as many days worth of gains as dca at the end of that year. It is possible that there is some large correction or bear market during the year and shares that were bought at that time are way cheaper than the shares bought at the beginning of the year. That's the scenario where DCA comes out ahead. A famous study by Vanguard found that lump sum won 70% of the time.

PutinBoomedMe

VOO is just the 500 largest stocks in the USA. VT is the global stock market. If you believe in asset allocation and diversification VT is the easiest way to be 100% in the markets but have your eggs spread across as many baskets as possible. I'm pretty sure VT has almost 10,000 stocks in it

HammerDownl

Have you ever thought about putting $5,000 in VOO vs 100 a week for 50 weeks in VOO what the difference would be?

CryptoSamia

I've been thinking about why so many new investors blow up their accounts and it usually comes down to one thing, they treat the market like a casino instead of a savings machine. the stuff that actually works is kinda boring. pick a low cost index fund like VOO or VTI, buy the same amount every week no matter what the price is, and just dont touch it. thats it. no charts, no timing, no checking it 12 times a day. The magic isnt picking the perfect fund, its consistency. when the market drops everyone panics and stops buying, but thats literally when your $100 buys more shares on sale. the people who keep buying through the scary times are the ones who win over 10-20 years. two things that help a lot: automate it so you never have to think about it, and if you can, use a Roth IRA so you dont get taxed on all those gains later. whats the boring habit that made the biggest difference for you? curious what people wish they started sooner.

HarperMSU

Just my .02 cents OP, but if you have a bunch of cash that you are sitting on but then slowly allocating 100 dollars per week to VOO, that would be considered dollar cost averaging but ALSO considered a way of "timing the market". Where as if you have a bunch of cash and invest lump sum now instead of just 100 dollars per week, that would be considered the "time in the market" approach. The difference can be a bit subtle at times but essentially conventional, conservative, approach to buying securities would recommend going with "time in the market" approach. As historically/statistically speaking your average person will underperformed the market when trying to time it. On the other hand, if you dont have a lump sum amount to invest but make an extra 100 dollars a week to invest, then that is still a great approach to dump into VOO as you are able. And would still be considered "time in the market" as you are investing when able and not trying to invest at better prices over time. Again subtle difference but over time can have an impact.

CryptoSamia

Honestly $100/week on VOO is a solid move, thats basically the boring plan that works. VOO and SPY are almost the same, VOO just has a slightly lower fee so its a bit better for buy and hold. the main thing is dont stop buying when the market dips, thats when it pays off most. also if you can, do it inside a Roth IRA so you dont get taxed later. set it to auto and forget it like you said. Just so you know if you started to invest $100/week on VOO at the begining of 2010, and you reinvested the dividend, you'd have $299,400(you would've contributed $82,500). If you didn't reinvest the dividend, then your final balance would be $251,300 and yo would've earned $20,200 in dividend. Sorry I can't upload the picture so you see how I came up with these numbers

DaBombDiggidy

I mean if we want to get technical about it weekly you would be deploying your cash faster and if VOO stays consistent you would be ahead. This figure would scale with how much you're investing and at 100 probably only be like 25 bucks extra a year, but it is what it is.

nicolas_06

VOO vs SPY isn't really relevant. Both track SP500. You could be interested to go for a world stock fund instead to not make a bet on US and currently it's very concentrated tech sector bet. Anyway, at $100 a week, you should be fine. Remember through that the timeline should 10+ years.

what_mustache

ignore that guy. VOO unless you think you're smarter than the market.

Humble_Trade_9609

VOO and chill 🕺

Quantum-Eye

I just DCA’d into VOO extra today

among_apes

Been bag holding since $43… the analysis on both sides is funny $2500 by end of year To next stop $300 Micron is making money hand over fist and there’s not any signals yet in the way of a normal cyclical memory glut or slow down. I’ll munch on my popcorn while this plays out. VOO and chill for the last 5 years has made me look back at my individual holds with wonder and skepticism.

sharp315

max out your Roth IRA and then invest the rest in your brokerage account. VOO or SPY. inflation alone at 4.2% is eating away your principal.

sdrockr

Wow! How long did it take you to grow the $350k into $1M? I agree with the swings.. I was in TSLA for a few years before I pulled it all out and put it in VOO in November 2024 and I saw a lot of swings.. it was annoying but I learned to be ok with it.

sdrockr

Thanks! Funny I did think about option number 3 a while ago.. like maybe move to Peru and surf and live with ultra low expenses and come back when my VOO and TSP are much higher such that I can retire in San Diego but I'm not sure about leaving my house that I have here.. if I sell it it would be very hard to get back into the market here later.

sdrockr

Thanks... so for a while (before I just put everything into VOO in november 2024) I was swing trading with TSLA and there were some big swings... I was a bit annoyed but I could stomach it.. in the end that wasn't the best stock to work with for my limited strategy.. but in hindsight I could have left it all alone and been better off than trying to swing trade it.. so ideally I rather find a decent dip next and just set it and leave it for a while...

sdrockr

Right... but luckily (at least for now) I've been looking at big dips on individual stocks and have not pulled my money out of VOO while doing so, once I find a big dip that I feel is ok to invest into, I'd pull my money out of VOO at that point... but I'm still processing all the various advice I've been given from this post.

Pretend_Composer_308

Just VOO and chill, as they say

stonksf

I have 1 million in VOO ama

I_Fuck_Whales

A 3 fund portfolio isn’t losing 10% in a day unless it’s a black Monday type event. You can set all your money in VOO or VT, whatever you want to choose and just ride the waves. Usually you see some moron who has all of their $4000 in life savings in NVIDIA and they freak the fuck out and any sign of downward movement.

Any_Influence_8305

How is it possible to just set up automatic deposits in an ETF and then just go on r/valueinvesting to tell people to "VOO and chill my good sir!" and the absolute craziest shit you'll say is shit like "MSFT is on sale 🤓" They're like another species, I'm glad I got regarded genes and I'm here with yall fullporting into WEN and gourd futes

MakeOSUGreatAgain63

Tell me you were too pussy to hold positions without telling me If you saw the gains in your account, not a chance you’d cal it “absurd” Probably sit there with $200 in VOO and rest in cash making commentary to the rest of us

clingbat

I'm a boring VOO/VT ETF holder these days, here mostly to observe the insanity. I got a little burned on meme stocks a while back and learned I'm too retarded for this game if I want to retire a bit early which we're on track for.

spilledonwhite

After hanging out here and degening I mentally see VOO like a fucking bond allocation

sdrockr

Exactly correct. this is an impatience problem with my retirement timeline. The reason is that I have a rather secure path to retirement (although I know anything can change!) if I just keep working my job and get the pension and healthcare at age 60... my TSP has a $450k balance which I wouldn't touch until age 60.. so the $500k I have in VOO in my personal account (which is basically tax free as of now given the basis and some capital gains losses) can vaporize and it wouldn't affect anything with that timeline... that's why I'm feeling a little more inclined to take risk with it and try to shorten my retirement timeline.. but I'm in a damned if I do and damned if I don't because if it takes a long time for that $500k to turn into something significant enough for me to leave my job.. I'll be less inclined if I'm getting closer to receiving the pension and healthcare into retirement.

Comprehensive-Eye500

Damn, that’s sucks….too bad you didn’t choose NVIDIA. Left alone you’d have $725K in VOO today without that loss. That would have been highly likely to be worth close to or more than $2M in 10 years from now. I don’t think YOLO’ing $500K into something to try to turn it into $2M to retire early and give up pensions and healthcare is very smart, if I am understanding it correctly. You’re doing quite well and setting up for a very comfortable life. Maybe you hate your life at your job though I dunno, I just say don’t risk that much money.

sdrockr

Thanks! I feel like going all in on RKLB would seem very risky to some, but I feel like its got a decent chance especially if I get in near $80 such that I would not be doing something ultra stupid. To me that's kind of the compromise, I could keep it in VOO and reduce risk or take some more risk but not go extreme on risk and RKLB seems like the middle ground given other things some suggested (like MU for instance).

sdrockr

This isn't fake. I have the $500k in VOO in my Fidelity account. My TSP retirement account has $450k in it but I don't want to touch that until age 59 and a half... Yep, I would have to pay federal and CA taxes.. so I'm probably going to need to make the full $2M pay taxes, and assuming I will rely on some of my TSP at age 60.. I probably can do ok even after paying the taxes on whatever $1.5M gains I make with the $500k I have right now in VOO... The $500k right now is basically tax free due to my basis and some capital gains losses (this is a wallstreetbets story I rather save for another time)... I'm worried I don't understand puts or calls enough to get it right and feel like I might do better looking at a dip on RKLB and buying shares and maybe skip the margin part of it? For instance I feel like RKLB is well regarded overall and has a good business case for the longer term... the price dropped a lot.. it looks like its back to December 2025 levels and that should have been before the SpaceX hype started right? So this could be a lower risk dip to get into if I want to leave it in RKLB for a year or two? I think the 100% voo or go all in on margin thing is I'm feeling damned if I do and damned if I don't because I'm 45 and I work for the federal government. The longer I stay working (say another 5-7 years) I feel it would be less appealing to leave early because I put in all that time so I can get my pension and healthcare if I retire at age 60... but I can't leave now with only $500k in VOO in my personal account.. I have $450k in my TSP retirement account tracking in an S&P type index fund but I don't want to touch that until age 60. My only other option to retire very soon with my current net worth is to sell my San Diego home (which is worth $1.2M, I only owe $200k which is financed at 2.5 percent), cash everything out and move to Florida where I can buy something for $350k and leave the rest alone in VOO... but then I'm in Florida and I might go crazy being single there...

sdrockr

Thanks! I was thinking 2-3 years would be pretty decent. If It takes longer than that I'm afraid I'm going to make excuses to keep working until age 60 because I can get my full pension/healthcare. The closer I am to age 60 the less it will make sense to leave no matter what my balances are in my TSP (which has $450k in it right now) or the $500k in VOO right now in my personal account. I was thinking to put it in stock or leveraged ETF and buy during a dip... I've been eyeing RKLB for instance... I think the price has lowered to where it was before the space stocks got hyped up in January 2026 right? I believe that's when SpaceX IPO was starting to spread in the news?

sdrockr

Thanks, so I own a house in San Diego worth $1.2M and I only owe $200k on it.. and that $200k is financed at 2.5% so my payments are real low. I don't want to buy another property (I thought about it though) because of the headaches with maintenance/managing it so I rather just try to grow my wealth in the stock market. I like the RKLB story... I was thinking if the price was near what it was in say December 2025/January 2026 it should be near what it would have been if the SpaceX IPO didn't hype up the space market... so maybe its less risky to get into RKLB and it seems most people think it would do reasonably well in the next couple years to where I may beat VOO by a good amount.

sdrockr

Yeah I think the least I can do is stay away from leverage and ETF if I pull everything out of VOO and go into something else.

sdrockr

This is what I worry about the most! The dammit I worked until 60 because I took the sure but steady route and I have a pension and TSP (401k for federal workers) and that $500k I let ride into VOO but I'll be much older at 60... if that $500k grew quicker and I left my job earlier I could see my quality of life being much better... its like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't given my current age.