VOO

Next-State-374

VOO dropping to 500 would make me horny.

Domefieldadvantage

VOO down 1.95 already

ToastandSpaceJam

VOO + VXUS and chill. This subreddit is not for us lmao.

Evancolt

VOO is -2.24% overnight right now

NVDAismyg0d

Imagine you flip 3k to 9K this week, quick 5 bagger the following week to 45k and then you buy 14dte CRM calls and make $300,000 and then you buy NBIS calls and they go up 100% and you have $600,000 and you put it in VOO and buy a Rolex and take a 10 day vacation 

marlwenplotsky

I've been a part of numerous WSB pump & dumps over the past decade, but this will be the first time VOO & SPY were the tickers.

R3dFiveStandingBye

Should I buy VOO dip? I mean if it never recovers we’re all fucked anyways

Deadsea3132

My entire port is META, MSFT, NBIS, UNH, SNDK, VOO. My total return for all is deep red. How the fuck do I manage to buy everything at ATH

Riley_

Joining pump groups isn't very VOO and Chill of you guys

macak333

Oh yeah definetly VOO will end green... This is who is against my trades and I still lose smh

wonderland_citizen93

https://preview.redd.it/xmjkdthdswng1.png?width=1072&format=png&auto=webp&s=90a31c85377986113fe24937da00ca8262bcaa94 VOO (which is the one I know this sub loves) looks ready for a green day tomorrow

NVDAismyg0d

Buy VOO and then delete the brokerage app 

No-Understanding2406

i think your argument is more interesting than people here are giving it credit for, but you undermine yourself by burying the actual strongest case you have. you mention "higher oil prices" and "geopolitical risk" in your last paragraph like an afterthought, but that's literally the most concrete thing you've got. Iraq just lost 60% of its oil output because tankers can't transit Hormuz. Qatar is warning Gulf energy exports could stop entirely within days. a UAE tugboat got sunk in the strait today. this isn't theoretical geopolitical risk, it's happening right now in real time, and every barrel of oil that can't move through that 21-mile chokepoint is a direct input cost increase that flows through to every company in VOO. the problem is your broader argument still collapses under its own weight. you say "true active management free from benchmark or career risk" outperforms, then when pressed for evidence you cite a 190% return since 2020 that nobody can verify. that's not an argument, that's a diary entry. the entire academic literature you're dismissing at least has the decency to show its methodology. the honest version of your post is simpler: passive investing works great in benign macro environments, and we might not be in one anymore. that i'd agree with. but the leap from "index investing has regime risk" to "active management is superior" requires you to demonstrate that active managers actually navigate those regime changes better. and the data on that is, at best, mixed.

KweenieQ

I never understood the tendency in sports commentary to spout coincidence stats when it's not at all clear what one event has to do with the other. It borders on superstition. And it's only minimally helpful to spout historical stats, because they are not predictive in the moment. I agree that undiversified VOO portfolios will eventually lose money. Any index will have its off months or even years. Some investors will happen to divest before that happens for them and so never lose money on it. All of that could be said for any undiversified equity portfolio. No crystal balls have emerged, which is why active management will never consistently beat passive management, ETF or not.

jazzyjjcups

>Nobody has ever claimed that ETF investing maximizes long term outcomes for anybody That's not true. The entire marketing strategy of ETF investing is that it does precisely that via it's low-cost vehicle. >average VOO has beaten 99% of people on here over the last 10 years Again, are we talking risk-adjusted returns? What defines an active strategy vs passive? What's the timeframe? Is recent bull run performance indicative of the future?

Dgholli1

Let me guess. You have VOO or similar in the RRSP because it’s withholding tax exempt, then you have crypto ETFs in the other 2 accounts because there’s no divs and therefore no withholding tax.

Heyhayheigh

Nobody cares about risk adjusted performance, they want performance performance. There is a button that compares to sp500, and that is what people compare their portfolio to. As they SHOULD because that is the money they would have if they had the stones to simply VOO and chill. Lol, exiting a burning building: but that building is the single best wealth creator in the history of man, all you had to do was not panic and have sufficient emergency funds. You didn’t need to sell, you had no urgent expense to pay for, you just sold out of fear. Your burning building analogy is precisely why most people shouldn’t manage their own money. An objective party should remind people: do you have an urgent expense to pay for? No, great, keep your DCA and move on with your day.

LurkerFailsLurking

>that ETF investing maximizes the long-term outcome for retail investors. Nobody has ever claimed that ETF investing *maximizes* long term outcomes for anybody. What is often claimed is that retail investors are unlikely to consistently beat market indexes over the long run. That doesn't mean nobody will, but on average VOO has beaten 99% of people on here over the last 10 years. That's not saying it's *maximized* anything. The only investment strategy that maximizes long term yields is knowing the future.

jazzyjjcups

Doesn't have to be an imminent crash. Equities can bleed out for multiple years and nobody notices. 2022 didn't happen that long ago. VOO hasn't actually been anywhere in 6 months while international stocks and value stocks ripped upward.

whodey84

I asked for his positions on his big bullish takes and said 80% VOO what a fucking nerd, I know you're lurking you happy dipshit.

Quest4_Toshi

Pretty sure VOO should be in an IRA. I'm not understanding why the VA matters though.

-TrueFacts-

I'm a boring VOO guy and I believe the small down turns like we're in make a legit crash less likely.

OrganizationWest3187

100k. Looking at your post history you lost most of it on… beyond meat… (LOL). Please just log off, maybe put the rest of your money in VOO first. Don’t touch your husband’s account either. And most importantly, don’t forget that the number 9 comes with a large fries, drink and toy.

bad_detectiv3

Man this stuff go up so fast, there is no time to react! Like I didn’t even get the chance to look up what are stock stock or stuff to buy energy in beyond VOO and bro

bkkmatt

When others are selling, buy. VOO and VXUS are on sale. Will they go lower? Perhaps. Are they at the October 2025 price? Yes. Just snatched $50K of VOO and have no regrets. 

phd2k1

VTI and/or VOO and go live your life.

inkymitz

VOO is down 1.5% this year. Nothing. Either investors are young enough that they've never seen an actual selloff, or the bubble they are in is telling them the world is ending. We may indeed see a real selloff, no one knows. Not so far, though.

Good_Ride_2508

Never trade, have nice plans with VOO and QQQ.

Snoo_94511

I do VOO and QQQ in the ROTH, but want to learn more and expand my skill and knowledge.

Key_Lifeguard_8659

Hold. Looks like the markets are doing bad, but if you zoom out, you'll see that the market is ALWAYS gone up and to the right... as a whole. So, if your core was in VOO or something similar, you're fine. Relax and keep DCAing into your positions. Just make sure you're not holding sketchy positions like meme stocks or coins.

CapitanianExtinction

Everything's on sale at a discount.  I'd buy more, especially since I'll have time on my side.  Stick with VOO and VXUS 80/20

Inevitable_Pin7755

Yeah you’re probably overthinking it a bit. SPY and VOO track the same index so performance is basically identical long term. The main difference is just the expense ratio and how people use them. A lot of traders prefer SPY because of the liquidity and options market, while long term investors often lean toward VOO since the fees are a bit lower. But holding SPY long term isn’t some big mistake either. Most of the time the bigger factor is just staying invested consistently rather than switching between nearly identical funds. I actually write about simple long term investing and avoiding overcomplicating things in my newsletter too if you’re interested. It’s linked in my profile.

One-Yak-2252

One good year of international and it’s praised. Like the comment said above give it a year or two. Probably less and they will be back on VOO. I’m still 100% VOO till the end 

OpporTen

This is actually a really thoughtful post and you’re asking the right questions. But the conclusion in the edit is where it gets interesting. You spent three paragraphs correctly identifying that the S&P 500 is priced on euphoric future assumptions, that geopolitical risk makes that euphoria fragile, and that the Iran situation is genuinely unpredictable. Then you decided to buy VOO on Monday anyway. That is the most common mistake in investing: doing the correct analysis and then ignoring it because everyone else is still buying. Here is what the analysis actually tells you. The S&P 500 is not cheap. Seven-year return forecasts for US large-cap equities from some of the most respected institutional investors in the world have been close to zero in real terms for a while now. That doesn’t mean it crashes on Monday. It means the price you pay today is the single biggest determinant of the return you earn over the next decade. Buying an expensive asset because the war might end in a month is not an investment thesis. It is hope dressed up as strategy. The question you should be asking is not “do I buy now or wait.” It is “what return am I actually being offered at this price, and does it compensate me for the risks. And You just identified the risks. If your answer is yes, buy with conviction. If it isn’t, waiting is not cowardice. It is discipline. there is a principle worth remembering here: the market swings between euphoria and despair, and the biggest mistake is not missing the upside. It is paying the wrong price at the wrong point in the cycle. You identified the euphoria yourself. trust your own analysis.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

WarmCan3034

I just bought 1 share of VOO, r u talking to me

1WordOr2FixItForYou

So for every $1000 of VOO you buy you short $1 of CVNA? Sounds like a good use of time.

9loso3

A 2007 would work out well for me I think because I still have about 20 years to go before retirement so I would go heavy on VOO in that case

9loso3

This is the best answer so far thank you. I think I may just stay with VOO for now with new contributions until the markets flip-flop with US beating international

DoinIt4DaShorteez

If you're 100% in S&P 500 you really want to move one account to FZILX, there's two ways to do it: 1. Put new money in FZILX. Wait for the scenario you're describing where S&P and FZILX are out of balance, and move the rest then, 2. Keep putting money in VOO and wait for that scenario. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn't. I don't think there's anything evil about what you're thinking about. There just isn't any way to know a) whether the scenario will ever happen, or b) how it works out in the end.

Heyhayheigh

The hardest part of VOO and chill is definitely the chill… Leave it alone. Keep spamming sp500. Or find a trustworthy pro to guide you through real diversification. It’s not necessary though if you can truly stick to VOO and chill. Best of luck.

smohyee

> Also, why not cut out the middle man and just put your paycheck into VOO? Less exciting

WarmCan3034

I bought 1 share of VOO, pls don't crash, thank U

Jihelu

SPY or VOO and VTi. Everytime you deposit, put more into whichever one is below your DCA. If both are up dealers choice

WorldWide_Wiz

Full ported into VOO (70%) / NVDA (30%) right at that bottom.

I_like_code

I didn’t really have an answer about the other ETFs as I’m not knowledgeable enough on them. I had just noticed VTI/VOO were mention and people are talking about VTI/VOO and investing in them. I didn’t mean to detract from your discussion. Just needed clarification. I will say looking at the volume at which these are traded is an interesting data point in terms of people allocating investments.

DrChipnClip

That’s how this sub is. They rely solely on index DCA. They talk about diversifying, but nobody will talk about holdings meant for short term plays. They also hate leverage, but you could have bought QQQ today at $600 and sell now for $603 or if it went down hold. I sold 3 puts for $600 for $4. I hope it gets assigned. If not the $1200 goes into VOO

jadhavvv

Ha, fair catch and I deserved that. VTI yes, VOO was a mistake on my part. But I notice you sidestepped the actual question. The post was never really about VTI or VOO. It was about factor tilted products like AVUV, DFIV, SPHQ and SPMO, which are built on the same academic lineage but go further by explicitly targeting size, value, profitability and momentum premiums. Those are genuinely under discussed compared to their plain market cap counterparts. So yes, got me on the VOO slip, but you did not get the point of the post.

XxNoKnifexX

If you are buy and hold, VOO is strictly better, period. Anyone who tells you anything different is wrong.

OutlandishnessFew484

I finally hit green on MSFT this morning but my VOO decided to drop at the same time😞 slow month we are having

Beneficial-Age-9293

But that's not Bogleheads.  They are "SPY/VOO/QQQ and chill."

PhotoSpheres

Threw a measly 400k into VOO a few mins ago at bottom, hopefully it rebounds 🤞

SprinklesMany2038

Look for low turnover, low fee funds preferably index passively managed etfs. Schwab takes taxes out for my dividend payouts.  *Qualified dividends are taxed at lower long-term capital gains rates (0%, 15%, or 20%), while ordinary (non-qualified) dividends are taxed as ordinary income at higher rates (up to 37%). Qualified dividends must meet specific holding period requirements (holding the stock for >60 days during the 121-day period surrounding the ex-dividend date) and be paid by U.S. or qualifying foreign corporations *Not a recommendation but Berkshire does pay dividends.  *The Roundhill S&P 500 No Dividend Target ETF (XDIV), launched in July 2025, is designed to track the total return of the S&P 500 without paying dividends, allowing investors to avoid taxable income. It works by actively selling holdings just before ex-dividend dates and rotating into other S&P 500 I hold several etfs and mutual funds. Some low dividend ones are SCHG .41%, VOO 1.12%, SCHB 1.24% SWTSX 1.09% There's no way to avoid just look for low payouts. 

hardcrepe

I can no longer trust in plays that feel like assured victory. VOO and chill here I come.😭

I_work_too_much

Well at least I'll get my opportunity to buy more VOO at April 25 prices again. 🤷🏻

InterestingDuty825

Daily buy time for VOO under 622

TheBeestWithEase

You could just short shares CVNA equivalent to the proportion of it in the VOO that you own.

Heyhayheigh

Open a Fidelity account. Put in SGOV. That is your emergency fund. Then buy VOO on an auto weekly basis. Whatever you can afford with your income. Work to increase that auto weekly purchase. Sell ONLY to pay for urgent bills. That’s the hard part. That’s it. That’s all you need to know about personal finance. Even if you are forced to sell everything to pay for something urgent, as long as you start over and keep this basic mindset you will be fine.

No-Lettuce3564

How else you think I got it? Definitely not by buying VOO and sitting 20 years. Yolo plays on GME, LUNR, OPEN, etc 

FluffyFartsMgee

2,000? Just buy VOO and work on your career

Meapolicious

You sound just like me. I genuinely want to just own VOO minus like 10 or so shitcos I’m not willing to time shorts on.

ShortHabit606

Why do you need any of this crap at all? If you just want SP500 then buy VOO* and buy as much as possible as quickly as possible. Focus your energy on making more money at work to buy with as soon as possible and not timing the market. Timing the market is not possible. It just doesn't work. (*Or VTI + VXUS if you want to go broader)

Bluesquare9

Dude just put some of your winnings in VOO.

tinychloecat

I came here for this. I cry every two weeks when I DCA into VOO knowing I own a piece of CVNA.

DudeWithTudeNotRude

Probably max 401K and HSA first if reasonable. But personally I'd keep 2-3 months of salary in the hysa, and have the rest of my Emergency salary/house/car Funds to brokerage, maybe split into something like salary in Money Market, house in SGOV, and car in BNDS. As long as you have a few months salary that is easy to access, your credit cards, HELOC, et al can cover you for the ten days it might take to get to the rest of your emergency money out of brokerage. I wouldn't call it optimal, but it's a good intro to how taxes and everything are different in brokerage, and now you have a platform ready for after you've maxed all your tax-advantaged accounts. Taxable brokerage is where I tend to have "smaller" or more focused indexed ETFs, if that makes sense. If everything was available to all my accounts, I might have the most fund index like VT (with maybe some bonds) in 401k for simplicity, then in ROTH IRA would be VOO (with less/no bonds) since I want the most tax-free growth possible there, but then in brokerage, instead of VT I'll use smaller ETFs like VTI + VXUS (which together they are very similar to VT). That way i can benefit from the foreign tax credit in the brokerage, and I have more flexibility for re balancing as needed over all of my accounts. And bonds will go heavier into which ever account has a compelling tax reason. E.g. if I have a high state tax, some bonds might make more sense in brokerage, but otherwise I'll probably have more bonds in the 401K. Be careful of having the same funds (or funds that are practically identical) in brokerage that you have in other accounts. If you ever get to the point of tax-loss harvesting in your brokerage, you can't use that if you have the same or similar-enough funds in your tax-advantaged accounts. I'd lump sum from HYSA Have a plan for retirement, and then ignore dips until you are close to retirement (or have a plan that includes buying more during dips to benefit from the discount, but I'm not smart enough to time the market like that). Your plan should include the possibility of a crash during retirement. If you aren't actively spending money from your accounts as income-replacement, such as you would during retirement, then downturns mean little (unless we finally have The Downturn That Never Upturns Again, in which case, have extra ammo and water, since your accounts probably won't matter) You plan should cover all your accounts. If you want 10% bonds now and 50% bonds closer to retirement, that would apply to all your investments. Your accounts don't have to have the same distributions ides each one. Remember that only ROTH dollars are showing you your real invested dollars. E.g. a good portion of that money in your 401K belongs to the government, so subtract 22% if you want to know how much money you have in there (or subtract whatever your tax bracket will be in retirement, which we unfortunately can't know). For brokerage, it's more complicated.

Low_Plastic363

For the past three months, I have followed every move every day and sat on the sidelines with my pile of VOO. Every time I think I have some idea what is happening (rotation, pullback, SaaSpocalypse, gold rush, etc.) it turns out to be a false or aborted signal. I'm just riding VOO up and down like a buoy. The tide comes and goes back out just as fast. Something is either breaking down or breaking out, but I have no idea which. I have a feeling of dread that private credit is going to lead to a contagion and correction, but it's almost equally offset by "AI gains about to be realized" optimism.

ShortTheVix4

Lmaooo. This post is hilarious. Bro, you’re overthinking things. They’re exactly the same except for the expense ratio. You made the mistake of starting with SPY so going forward just switch to VOO. I wouldn’t sell SPY for tax reasons.

Firm_Instruction_775

First decide what your goals are for your investment and what feels comfortable to you. Maybe that’s VOO, SCHD, a combo or something else. DCA in. As another commenter said, it might be worth it for you to have a conversation with an advisor. At 65, you don’t need to be aggressive if you’re not comfortable with that. If you’re just looking for higher yields maybe TIPS or CD ladder is better for you. Spend sometime putting together your plan. It is going to be OK. You missed some gains, you didn’t gamble your money away. It not going to hurt you substantially.

Bladee___Enthusiast

I thought i was smart for going full indexes and not trading anymore but i ended up full porting into VOO at ATH and now i am stuck holding these bags

DeeDee_Z

The thing they need to learn is, for example: • The S&P 500 is an index comprised of \* ONLY 500 \* ONLY US \* ONLY Large-Cap companies. • **"Everybody and his dog"** provides a **fund** that tracks that **index**. There are multiple Vanguard funds that track the S&P 500. There are multiple Fidelity funds that track the S&P 500. There are multiple Schwab funds that track the S&P 500. There are multiple AmFunds funds that track the S&P 500. There are multiple T Rowe Price funds that track the S&P 500. Etc. If you want to track the S&P 500, "VOO" is NOT your only option. An additional thing which follows from that: You are NOT diversifying your portfolio by investing in multiple S&P 500 trackers, for example -- say, VFIAX and FXAIX and SWPPX and VOO. If you don't understand the difference between an index and an index fund, or only know about Quotron symbols ... you could end up doing something not just stupid, but REALLY stupid.

OptionsWheelTrader

If you are a first time investor - just go with a broad based index fun (like VOO).

BitterMarket233

It's true though.....VT or VOO and chill is far more popular now than it was 25 years ago, and that's a sound investment strategy.

StraightUpJello

Personally, I buy the fear. Already added an additional $2k this week to VOO and NASDAQ index. I got 30 years of holding left so it's no sweat. Everyone needs to react individually to major world changes depending on your risk tolerance and how long you still have to hold your assets.

I_like_code

So VTI and VOO are an example of this?

burner118373

Idk that’s why I buy VOO

SukottoHyu

Not checking again in years? No stock. A portfolio requires at least minor management. If you don't want hassle put it into an index like VOO.

acceinvestments

Good that you're starting, seriously most people just don't. Honest feedback though, you've got 15 positions across $900. That's a lot of complexity for not much capital yet. Each position is basically a rounding error and the transaction costs plus mental overhead of tracking all this isn't really worth it at this stage. The speculative stuff specifically (JOBY, ACHR, NTLA, EDIT) these are genuine moonshots. Not saying they can't work but at $12-25 each they're not moving your portfolio if they 10x, and they can go to zero. EDIT is already down massively from its highs and the gene editing space has been brutal for smaller players. Three gene editing stocks (CRISPR, NTLA, EDIT) is also a lot of overlap in a sector that's still years from widespread clinical revenue. What I'd actually do in your position: simplify hard. VOO as the core, maybe one or two high conviction individual names you genuinely understand and believe in, and just keep adding the $400/month consistently. At this portfolio size compounding on VOO alone will outperform the complexity of managing 15 positions. The instincts are there, semiconductors, defense, biotech are real themes. But the execution is spread too thin to matter yet. What's the thesis on JOBY and ACHR specifically? Genuine question, just curious what drew you to both.

MennisRodman

VOO

-TrueFacts-

It's a SOUP kitchen cos most of those poor bastards have minimal teeth. I think many people have to get fucked in the markets to truly appreciate the beauty of VOO and its in-built sector rotation. Most who do well with speculative trading endeavours start with serious money maybe from family, maybe from winding up a real business. Almost no one runs say 10k up to a million in say a couple years - at some point that unthinkable thing fucks you when you're unhealthily leveraged like a wild man.

ProfessionNo698

VOO

neighborhood_spdrman

I personally would drop NVDA AMD and AMZN and just put that money into VOO. Or pick between AMD and AMZN if you want. NVDA already makes up the largest portion of VOO and you’re spreading yourself too thin by adding into all of them. Also maybe cut down to one or two spec stocks and focus in on what you truly believe in. Just my opinion tho.

Glum-Percentage1619

Bro forgot the financial consultant. Buy VOO and forget about it. It’s really that simple.

steady_compounder

Statistically lump sum wins about 2/3 of the time, but we're also sitting near all-time highs with a war kicking off, so this isn't exactly a normal environment. Volatility could get ugly in the short term. With $85k I'd start DCA'ing over 3-6 months. You still get in the market, but if things drop 15-20% you're buying cheaper on the way down - and at that point you could reassess and lump sum the rest at a discount. Here's a calculator that shows how DCA vs lump sum would've played out for VOO over the last few years: https://trackmyshares.com/tools/dca-vs-lump-sum?symbol=VOO&market=US&start=2022-01-03&amount=85000&freq=monthly The peace of mind is worth more than the small statistical edge of lump sum, especially right now.

uceenk

probably nothing, maybe an index is ok ... VOO

EvolvingDior

The stock market is in a major bubble. Look at the PE for $COST. The people buying these stocks at these prices are bat-shit crazy. However, note that most of the shareholders of these stocks are institutions. Why? Because institutions manage ETFs, such as SPY, VOO, QQQ which all contain WMT. People put alot of their retirement money into index ETFs. They do that blindly, with no thought as to what that is doing to the PE of the constituents. That money has to go somewhere. So it goes into all of them, driving up the price. The more indexes a stock is in, the worse it gets.

Arcabyte

Why not just buy ETFs instead of mutual funds? Since you're a US citizen, buy US domiciled ones. You could open an Interactive Brokers account using your Social Security Number and invest in ETFs like VOO, VTI, VXUS, etc... It’s cleaner, tax-compliant, and will save you hundreds of hours in spreadsheets. You might also be able to open a ROTH IRA using IBKR depending on where you reside.

Gom_KBull

To people who hold only VOO/QQQ/SPY shares: Do you feel like a crazy degenerate gambler? Just calling yourself wild and out of control? Bet you also grab a soda after your bedtime because you're such a bad boy

SouthNice7324

Buying visa, or VOO?

OriginalTouch6371

I would encourage you to mess around on sites like etf.com, etfdb.com, and the overlap tool from etfrc.com to get more familiar with the holdings of different ETFs like these and what their competitors/sibling ETFs are. r/ETF and this subreddit are my favorite market-related ones. AVLC is pretty similar to VOO (76% overlap) but has more holdings, so it is a bit less concentrated. AVUV is a great ETF specifically because it leaves out crappy small cap companies, of which there are a lot. Combining AVLC and AVUV does not result in holding the entire US market, but I’d argue it gives you most of what’s worth holding. VTI and its competitors are the “entire US market” ETFs. Similarly, AVDE plus AVDV would give you the biggest companies and best value small caps in developed markets. AVDE is the only international ETF I own because I don’t trust emerging markets and it has relatively less of the Shells and Nestles than similar ETFs. I’m not personally a fan of AVDV because its recent run has been largely led by mining companies.

rcantu314

Why buy VOO when you can buy MEME and be up a chill 6% YTD

tooclouds

Yes very true, but I definitely learned someone while doing this on a smaller account. The LEAPs part I actually had to create a calculator that would tell me my approximate leverage based on delta, VIX, and strike price. That was a lot more complicated and I’m happy to switch to futures. I did learn about the overnight margin requirements in a Roth IRA for futures products and I think it’s not too bad. There is comparison between using margin vs futures and depending in the current interest rate for margin it might actually be the best (please see the google drive link for more details). You could end up with millions of dollars more with just buy and hold VOO using margin because you also collect dividends.

Heyhayheigh

If everyone understood perfectly WHEN they were going to spend, financial plans would be easy. But emergencies happen. Urgent things come up. There are setbacks. Risk is even deeper. Not having a consistent plan of how to invest automatically is also a risk. A hard one to calculate. You will never know how much more you would have if you just started with a 100/week of VOO and worked to increase that auto investment, and then never panic sold: only sold to pay for urgent bills.

snotick

This has been mentioned a couple of times. I'm not sure I follow your train of thought here. >For example, its better to own S&P500 members directly than in an ETF. That way when some stocks go up and some go down, you capture the average gain, Isn't owning an ETF that is made up of S&P500 stocks the same as owning them directly? When one stock in the ETF goes up or down, the others also average the gain? That's the point of a fund vs individual. Now you could make the argument that owning individual stocks can allow you to change the weight of those stocks as a group. IE VOO holds 10% of X stock, an you want own 20%. That would mean you can still own VOO, just buy additional shares of X. The other thing that doesn't really make sense is the tax harvesting of individual stocks to offset gains with losses. While this is okay if it happens organically, the goal is to not have investments with losses. If you hold all individual stocks and 50% went up and 50% went down equally, and you sell them all, you've ended up with 0 gains. Not really the goal.

FreeHelthcareforall

I’m i’m 70 and I trade Stocks and Options for living. I and I have made many mistakes like that as well. My advice is don’t sweat it you may benefit from your mistake. It’s not the end of the world. Live and learn. Most my gains have come from dollar cost, averaging into S&P 500 funds like VOO, JEPI and some international funds like FEZ , EEM. Every month I buy a few shares of each fund.

understated_vibes

First off congrats, that’s an awesome position to be in at 25. Keeping a solid emergency fund like you mentioned makes a lot of sense, and a lot of people in your situation start building wealth by putting a big portion into broad ETFs like VOO or VTI so they’re invested in the overall market rather than trying to pick individual winners. Market dips will happen, but historically long term investing in diversified funds has been one of the more consistent approaches. Another thing some people do once they have their core stock investments is add a small amount of diversification outside the stock market. For example I’ve been looking into platforms like Fundrise, which allow investors to get exposure to private real estate projects and alternative assets without having to buy property directly. It’s not something most people put everything into, but it can be a way to diversify alongside ETFs and savings. Since you’re already generating income from your game, the biggest advantage you have is continuing to invest consistently and thinking long term. Books like *The Simple Path to Wealth* by JL Collins or *The Psychology of Money* by Morgan Housel are great starting points if you want to get more comfortable with investing and money management.

MoaiTrist

If you have anxiety about market fluctuations, you should research "dollar cost averaging." It gives you time to learn how the market moves up and down, and you will be better adjusted if there is a market drop after you start investing. Stick with SPY or VOO though, and only pick individual stocks with 10% of your account.

OutlandishnessFew484

I dumped my savings into MSFT and VOO a month ago, both are basically stagnant right now. I expect VOO to decline at some point before growing but not worried about it. MSFT is 25% of my holdings right now and if I don’t owe thousands to taxes I’ll be buying more

DISAPPOINTING_FAIRY

is the bid/ask spread always such fuckin dogshit on VOO options?

Salt_Experience3142

If this was my first 10k, I would buy - $4500 VOO - $3000 QQQ - $1500 GLDM - cycle this into the above once the presidency becomes boring again - $1000 FBTC - most probably will disagree but I think there’s tremendous upside to both the tech and the price Glhf

Embarrassed_Try1055

Every day VOO under 622 is my entry point

i30swimmer

VOO inside of a Roth IRA