Reddit Posts
Should I change from an Investment Account to a IRA?
What is the best strategy to allocate and optimize a 100K investment?
21 year old college student with $10k saved, what would you do in my spot?
Vote against S&P changing rules to fast track IPOs into the S&P 500 indexes(SPY, VOO) - (Deadline TOMORROW, May 28)
Automated investing for retirement accounts (fidelity/schwab) vs picking your own distributions. The good vs the bad. Discuss
Built my first Roth IRA portfolio in my 20's - here's my 6 ETF allocation and the reasoning behind each pick
Do you keep growth stocks in retirement accounts and dividends in taxable?
For parabolic gains DO NOT read this. It's just a Samaritan text for thise in despair.
Forbparabolic gains DO NOT follownthese advices.
If I want to generate the most money from my traditional & roth IRA accounts - where should I "park" it for the next 20 years?
MAG7 is outperforming all the hype stocks posted about constantly, why do people not learn, holds true for last 40+ years
Little less than 3 months in and I think I’m doing well
the s&p 500 vs equal weight spread just hit 13.8%. it's only been this wide twice before
Anyone here actually outperforming just buying VOO long-term after taxes, stress, and time?
Choosing VTI over VOO has cost me about $44,000.00 over the past 6 years
Small business owner here, looking for investing advice from people further ahead than me
18 year old who just started - any advice would be appreciated! I don’t know how to diversify properly.
Sell some Intel to take a larger position in SLS? I’m OKAY with the greed, but I’m not sure my logic is sound.
Hold Intel vs buying more SLS . I’m leaning greed, but have I’m not sure about my logic.
Investing my first $250.. Is this a good profolio for buying and holding?
The more you learn investing, the more you realize there’s not much to optimize beyond saving more, staying invested, and avoiding mistakes
20 y/o F looking for advice for my portfolio
Is the stock market becoming more & more volatile?
Why do people who just buy index funds call themselves investors? You set up an auto deposit once. My grandmother does the same thing with her savings account.
Is Wall Street Bets a legitimate strategy what should I buy besides VOO ?
Late starter..has that tech ship already sailed? Amd, MSFT, VOO?
Hit $100K… But It Came With More Risk Than I’d Recommend
After about 7 years of losing money from options and meme stocks /coins, I'm finally back in the positive.
If someone is worth one million dollars, how much $VOO and $VTI should they own? What if they're worth *two* million; how much then?
If you had $7.5k to invest tomorrow, what would you do in this current market?
What’s your opinion on selling All Tech Heavy Stocks soon and moving to SP500 $VOO?
Took my whole IRA out of VOO yesterday and bought AMD and NOK calls. Am I dumb? Probably.
Should I get out of SPY and move it to a better long term index?
Do automatic 401k contributions affect markets?
My tech-heavy portfolio is up across the board, TQQQ leading the way
Do you think tech will outperform the market over the next 30+ years
Reddit Ticker Mentions MAY.04.2026 - $NVDA, $AMD, $SOUN, $MSFT, $SNDK, $SPY, $VOO, $XRX, $RDDT
I have 358k of VOO at 44. Ive played around with several calculators to see what it can be worth at 74.
I am at a crossroad in my mid 20s of what I should do, I'd be very appreciative for some advice
I just started investing at 19. Are these good investments?
Beginner dipping my toes in the water…
Updated - J.P Morgan's Top Stock Picks for 2026 - +7.40% YTD
Systematic profit-taking - worth doing? Or not recommended?
Sticking to my investment portfolio allowed my investment assets to grow by 100%.
Mentions
If your previous trading already underperformed, I wouldn’t let one lucky TQQQ run convince you to scale that up with serious money. Leveraged ETFs are built for short-term exposure, not really for ‘buy it and forget it for a year’ money. If you want growth, the 40/40 QQQ/VOO idea plus a small sandbox for individual names is a lot more survivable than turning the whole $150k into a bigger version of the gamble that happened to work once.
You can get ETFs like DGRO which is VOO companies that have 5 consecutive years of dividend growth. The ETF has a 5 year dividend growth rate of 7% so you can easily outpace inflation even if it stays flat. I think it's a good shelter until the house of cards comes crashing down. VXUS is also good and seeing growth. There are still good passive options.
20% VOO, 40% stocks/options. Market is giving money away
Buying LETFs at ATH is a terrible idea. 40 QQQ/40 VOO/20 individual is very reasonable for growth without unnecessary risks.
VTI is whole (US) stock market, and VT is total world stock market. that will make SpaceX a smaller piece. but these "every single stock" funds are much less picky. they let in new entrants after 5 days, and have operated that way for years. if you switch now you will end up getting SpaceX sooner. VTV is a value based fund. if SpaceX is classified as "Growth" it will not be there. it is in either VTV or VUG. i expect them to follow the same rules as VOO since they are VOO split in two pieces, but i have not confirmed this. you may want to go to actively managed funds if you are trying to outsmart the market. or use options to offset the SpaceX and Tesla stock. buy a put and your downside is limited but it will pay off big if the stock drops.
If it is in the S&P 500, doesn’t VOO have to buy?
This is a mass pump and dump by Elon. He is going to get all the index funds to give him $1.5 Trillion then this stock is going to tank. He is even playing IPO stock hold restriction games. If the stock goes up by 30% you can sell another 10%. Who is going to track all this BS? If VOO picks up SPACEX I am out. It is going to be a pump and dump dumpster fire.
Is VOO in the basket of VIX related stuff?
A few of the moms were impressed when I was explaining VOO to them at the pool today I will tell their husbands about SpaceX (SPCE) next time
If he only did $20M in VOO in 2006 he’d have $149M today. Or roughly $230M if he invested the whole $30M
So I’ve got 1000 shares of VOO and 1100 of VTI; would you ride this out or GTFO?
I mean thats probably the right instinct. A position doesnt have to be bad to be unnecessary. Sometimes the cleanest portfolio decision is refusing to add a fund that makes the spreadsheet feel more complete but makes the owner less certain. The 5% SCHY question is the same machine in another jacket. If you can explain exactly what foreign dividend exposure is supposed to do for the account then fine. If the answer is mostly more diversification then it still has to beat the simpler question of whether SCHD, VOO, cash needs & your withdrawal plan already cover the job. Retirement portfolios need fewer clever additions than people think. They need durability, tax awareness, liquidity, income comfort & a structure the owner wont second guess during an ugly tape. The box analogy matters because boxes multiply quietly. One for mid caps, one for international dividends, one for yield, one for growth, one for safety. Pretty soon the portfolio owns a lot of explanations without a lot of added control. Make every new sleeve earn its chair before it gets money.
Thank you u/DrVonSpreckle, your repy is *really* helpful for me and I like the box analogy and you pointing out an allocation itch. I need to think deeper about whether or not that's not what I'm doing - checking a box and scratching an itch - with DON. And I can say right now that DON doesn't pass the test. If it were to underperform SCHD and VOO for years I would question why I'm owning it. And not just DON, but I also hold a 5% position in SCHY with plans to build that up as well, but the thought of bringing it to 30% (the Fidelity recommendation) is really difficult for me to accept. And it also fails the future performance test. Thanks again!
You’ve got to know when to quit. This AI boom is a once in a lifetime thing. I’m up 200% since last year and despite thinking it’s still got legs I realize I can retire at 48 so I’m out and back just VOO now. I could maybe make a few million on the next year if I chance it but I can never work again if I don’t.
I feel like I’m missing something - this would affect funds like QQQM but not stuff like VOO, no?
I do not know if moving my VOO into VT will shield me more from SpaceX, but that's currently my plan. I welcome any advice on avoiding musk shit.
VOO is float-adjusted > The S&P 500 index is a public float weighted/capitalization-weighted index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_500 it will also take 6 months for VOO to include it.
Since both are market cap weighted - and VOO includes 500 companies and QQQ only includes 100, QQQ will be impacted (positively or negatively) more than VOO - but it is still going to have a noticable impact on both.
What about VOO? Or similar retirement sp 500 index funds?
👀 Am I confusing it with something else? After checking, you are correct. I am kind of curious which one I was thinking of now. It is roughly half the weight compared to VOO's 1.75%, but now I am going to be bothered by which one I was thinking of.
SCHD is up 18% YTD. SPY and VOO are only up 10% YTD so I’m really not sure what you’re talking about. Plus SCHD gives you dividends that you can reinvest.
My direct indexing strategy involves zero short positions. I just DCA into a few random stocks, randomly selected according to market weight. If I need to realize gains, I can sell my losers to offset my winners. You cannot do that with VOO.
Rebalancing invokes taxable events. When SpaceX joins the S&P 500, VOO will sell other stocks (taxable) to buy SpaceX. Enjoy 😄 With 50 random stocks, you can closely approximate VOO but with a major tax advantage. You can sell your losers and winners at the same to realize **zero - $0** capital gains.
The total market capitalization of all stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market is approximately 42.2 trillion. A $2 trillion "add" is less than 5%. I think the indices (VOO and friends) will be ok. But yeah, sucks,
Just stay away from QQQ or any other Nasdaq based index fund. Nasdaq has always been more risky. S&P500 funds like VOO should barely be affected at all.
This is the move. VOO has stopped being a tru diversification tool anyway. RSP exists and more people should know about it
Subject to insiders not offloading shares and increasing public float. At first I thought you were wrong, since I thought the market cap weight would make it closer to 3%. But for anyone else confused VOO scales shares to amount of float out there. Nice reality check for everyone 👍
How about personal indexing? Lets you compose a portfolio that closely matches, say, VOO, except you can make any change you want like excluding specific companies if you're so sure you know better.
Yep, the vast majority of people are showing their financial ignorance by thinking that retirement accounts will be significantly affected by this. I’ve never encountered a 401k that defaults to QQQ equivalent instead of VOO or VTI. You have to go out of your way to invest in a Nasdaq index fund.
Sitting on cash is literally getting cucked by the Fed and the government. The guy enjoying the fight while smoking weed is VOO/QQQ/IWM/VT & MAG8.
Look into a solo 401k since you're self employed, you can shelter way more than just the roth IRA limit each year. Also VTI already contains everything in VOO so you're basically double dipping there, I'd pick one or the other - your roth holdings look solid tho, SCHG and SCHD together cover a lot of ground
Tesla was already enough for me to stay away from those ETF, SpaceX is even worse. I had much better returns than QQQ or VOO so even if my reasoning is stupid it at least worked well for me so far.
What % of VOO/SPY/VT/VTI/etc do you think SpaceX will be? Hint: an insignificant %
QQQ/QQQM will add in 15 days. VTI will add in 5 days. VOO/SPY will include in about 6 months instead of 1 year and will take away the profitability requirement. If you want a broad US market index fund that will not buy SpaceX at IPO you can get DFUS ETF. This is not investment advice or an endorsement. (Disclaimer: I’m invest 50% into VTI and 50% into DFUS for this exact reason).
Isn’t there a major difference in how the SP500 will be affected by this vs NASDAQ 100? I have some QQQ and considering ditching it for VOO just to minimize exposure to this circus
I don’t get the concern for VOO right now anyways? S&P 500 still has a profitability requirement which as of now SpaceX doesn’t meet? Right?
It's all bullshit. But at the same time, SpaceX will account for like 0.1% of VOO at float adjusted market cap at expected listing in 6 months so it can't have a real of an impact. It's dumb but I wouldn't change ETF investment strategy over it. I ditched QQQM for SPYG to delay 6 months at least but with SpaceX insiders unlocking tradeable shares over a year I'm not sure the 15 day vs 6 months really makes that big of a difference.
I think it’s a nothing burger because what do you expect people to do? Most investors core holding is VOO or an equivalent. Selling that position over SpaceX is simply stupidity. I’m not sure what you all are planning to do. Nuke your retirement over SpaceX?
Just buy VOO there’s so much nvidia and Tesla in it anyways
Could just buy VOO/VTI and track the market…
“It’s basically a Enron, you can’t lose money on every car you sell but claim your data is more valuable than entire economies” I said to a professor who had invested heavily…..in 2016. He’s certainly beat my “buy VOO and hold” philosophy.
Vti vs VOO please? Why have broader exposure?
If I could go back and give my 17 year old self advice it would be the following: Put the money into a low cost ETFs. Vanguard have some good options ($VOO, $VTI, $VGT, $VT), then add to it as you can. Will it make you a millionaire in 5-10 years? Nope. But it’s a much less stressful introduction to the stock market than jumping into individual stocks. It will help you understand how news, policy and earnings impact individual stocks that make up these funds. Once you’ve got the fundamentals in place you’ll have a much easier time investing into individual stocks if that something that still interests you down the line. At 17 you have plenty of time. Best of luck!
My portfolio was nearly all NVDA the past decade, since last fall I have been diversifying it into VT/VOO and a little SPMO/SMH. I put a small amount in MU and DRAM for FOMO but it triggered -15% stop loss and sold, then continued taking off 🤷♂️ I also have a HYSA at 4.40% APY with 3 years of expenses in it but am otherwise suspicious of the openly acknowledged market manipulation occuring by our current administration, the oil situation, tech CEOs cutting AI spend from "tokenmaxxing", public outrage against datacenters, ect. What's clear is those in power will do anything to prop up the market economy under the auspices of national security, but I already had a good run and left the corporate world and have less appetite for risk now.
25% VOO, 75% ex-US at the moment
Still investing my regular amount but now it's all going to VOO instead of a blend of VGT/VOO
Smartest move is a few conviction/theme/tilt plays. Too many ETFs to mentiion that beat QQQ and VOO; cheap, even passive, ETFs that have a diverse mix of top S&P / NASD names but won't be adding SpaceX near term.
Start with broad market ETFs till you have some decent balance accunulated. Gambling away your future isnt the way you should start investing. Also if you have earned income, invest in a roth account for it to grow tax free. I started my kids roth when VOO was about 300. And we have been adding regularly since then.
Don’t wait for corrections. Put money into index like VOO or QQQM if you can’t pick individual stocks yet. 15% is not much. Most people would put the money in and not think about it especially if you are young. The more time you waste on trying to time it or get lucky, the worst you will do long term. Cuz the probability is against you. More than 90% of the time the stock market is bull. And no one can really know when correction is coming. So by waiting you are fighting against probability
If a house doubles over 10 years, using 5x leverage (20% down), the total return is close to VOO. Then add rent.
I don't care how much the market has gone up, I'm not making my regular VOO purchases when the Shiller PE is at 43. Instead I'm mostly in cash (HYSA) but also on the lookout for individual stocks that I think are undervalued. Whenever I find one, I deploy that cash.
VOO has more than tripled during that same period, not even including dividends. With a home you are paying property taxes, insurance, mortgage interest, HOA, repairs, etc. That is all wasted money not building equity, much more so than rent.
Homes are terrible investments. I’d rather keep my money invested in the stock market and rent. Then when a house that’s actually worth it in a place I want to live in long term pops up I’ll be in a much better position to buy it, perhaps even all cash. The USD price of homes goes up, but when priced in shares of VOO or QQQ they become significantly cheaper over time.
If you want to enter the market with low cost and some security, I would say start with the SCHD etf. You learn about dividends, feel the waves of good days and bad days. It is not going to be the long term winner like VOO, but will be more stable in the short term. Etfs are spread out over 100 or more different individual stocks, so you won't rocket like crazy, but you will also not lose your shirt. Always check how a stock has grown over its lifetime before you buy. Google the stock name and a graph will appear. Check the month, year, 5 years, and max. Look out for any crazy drops (2020 covid will be a big drop in everything, but look if the stock has recovered) You will make mistakes. Beat of luck
Sell winners and put into VOO/QQQ?
Unfortunately history shows that the largest companies have several disappointing lengthy poor return periods. And stock picking is highly unlikely to be better than VOO and especially VT after decades. You are overconfident in your abilities and are falling into common biases that will erode returns over time. Stock picking is a loser's game. Maybe one day you'll learn that. Good luck.
If I do trim a stock I usually use it to dca into my VOO SCHD/SCHG. my single stocks are like the fighter pilots protecting the mother ship that are my ETFs. I'm self employed and don't always know how long I will have work for so doing this helps me not worry too much about my weekly ETF deposits into my foundation ETFs that I plan to dca into until retirement. I know I might be capping my future returns in that particular stock but I'm also feeding the beast that will get me to my finish line and my retirement goals.
So basically my Roth IRA VOO investment is f*cked
The people that didn't do so well don't usually post. No one's posting their 10% gain when market has done better. I definitely didn't do great this year in one account, but I really did fine. 8/10 people probably have the majority of their investments in a market ETF or target date fund. If you have had VOO the for the last 5 years, you would have about a 16% avg gain bf dividends. It's not flashy, but still very good.
People are freaking out about SpaceX being included in indexes when they base it off the free float of shares. So one share of VOO will probably hold like 0.20% per share, and QQQ will hold 0.40% or 0.50%. So for every share you buy, it's less than a dollar. That doesn't seem too crazy.
Does anyone favor momentum funds like SPMO? The thesis is simple: Most wealth is grown in a concentration of stocks that generate the most wealth. In bull markets, people FOMO into the high growth stocks in order to chase returns. These etfs have outperformed the broader indexes, as long as the bull market continues https://portfolioslab.com/tools/stock-comparison/SPMO/VOO Thoughts?
Does anyone favor momentum funds like SPMO? The thesis is simple: Most wealth is grown in a concentration of stocks that generate the most wealth. In bull markets, people FOMO into the high growth stocks in order to chase returns. These etfs have outperformed the broader indexes, as lonf as the bull market continues https://portfolioslab.com/tools/stock-comparison/SPMO/VOO Thoughts?
I feel like Google is a winner and I need to roll with them. What about more MU? Of course gonna keep dumping money into VOO and stuff to be safe.
Even with the bumps and lumps, S&P500 is up 10.5% ytd. Grab some VOO, and don't stop feeding it. If you really don't like the ups and downs, look into Boglehead. This can help you balance your investment for better risk tolerance. It's not for everyone, but it is getting some of us where we want to go.
I should be head of Berkshire Hathaway i woulda fullported SPCE and turned 300B into 600B then either sit on 600B cash or slowly DCA into VOO.
Thank you for sharing basically the only useful and actionable advice in this entire comment section. What do you mean by saying that SpaceX’s unusually small float is a game? Is it a gamble for them in some way? Also, will VTI and VOO definitely add SpaceX? Is there a way to find out for sure which index funds it will be added to, preferably in advance of them being added? Sorry these are such basic/beginner questions, I am very new to investing. I am looking, to the extent it is possible, to never hold SpaceX stock even in an index fund. Elon ruined the lives of many people I care about and derailed my career along the way, so I am willing to personally forego money and flexibility to not directly enrich him further. :(
So youre asking the right question. Not whether DON is bad. Whether it solves a real problem SCHD plus VOO doesnt already handle cleanly enough. Mid caps can add a different slice of the market. The question is whether that slice gives you enough extra behavior to justify drag, volatility, tax friction & complexity. In retirement that matters more because youre not just chasing total return. Youre protecting sequence risk, income comfort & the ability to sell without hating the price. If DON already feels like a compromise before you buy it, respect that. A 7% to 10% position isnt huge but small positions still have to earn their chair. Diversification isnt automatically better just because another box got checked. The cleaner test is this. if the position underperforms SCHD plus VOO for years, would you still understand why you own it. If the answer is no then you probably dont have a portfolio need. You have an allocation itch. For a retiree who already likes steady & boring, SCHD plus VOO may be the simpler answer unless you can explain exactly what mid caps are supposed to do for the account that the current mix is missing.
Yeah and I do VOO vs VT, more upside to me while still being safe. Small amount in VXUS as well just for international exposure. I don't expect it to beat US markets long term, but this current regime showed me the market can drastically shift with a single tweet lol.
You can just switch to s and p index, VOO ot VTI and then wait for a good pick.
If SCHD already fills the steady, boring income role you want, I would not add DON unless you have a clear reason beyond wanting every box ticked. A 7 to 10 percent mid-cap sleeve is perfectly fine if it helps diversification, but it is not mandatory, especially in retirement when simplicity, tax efficiency, and knowing what each holding is doing matter more. I’d think of mid-caps as an optional small sleeve, not something that has to justify itself by beating SCHD or VOO on its own.
VOO or QQQ and ignore the market for a while
VOO is driven by like 7 stocks, the rest is down double digits. I would go VTI/VXUS split maybe 70/30
VOO is all large caps, if you think some small caps will do better in the long run you can also put some in VTI which also has large caps but also small caps for broader exposure.
it's a tough call, you need to diversify this with VOO and QQQM to make sure it doesn't blow in your face
Retiring in your 40s is possible, but it is not a secret ETF, it is not “just buy more SCHD,” and it is absolutely not achieved by discovering one forbidden ticker in a cave behind Vanguard headquarters. It is math. Horrible, beautiful, soul-stripping math. To retire that early you basically need some combination of: High savings rate High income Low expenses Aggressive but sane investing No lifestyle inflation goblin A plan for healthcare Enough invested outside retirement accounts to bridge the gap A willingness to live like a spreadsheet monk while everyone else leases emotional support trucks The investing part matters, but not as much as people want it to. The main lever is not “VOO vs QQQ vs dividend ETF vs covered call income cauldron.” The main lever is how much money can you shove into the compounding furnace every single month without ruining your life? Very rough math: if you want to spend $40k/year, you probably want around $1M–$1.3M invested depending on withdrawal rate and risk tolerance. If you want $60k/year, maybe $1.5M–$2M. If you want $100k/year, congratulations, you need dragon-hoard money and possibly a side quest involving a tech salary, business ownership, or marrying a suspiciously wealthy widow. The “retire by 40” version is brutal because you only have six years. Six years is not a compounding runway. Six years is a financial knife fight in a parking lot. Unless you already have a large portfolio or very high income, that probably means extreme savings, career acceleration, business income, house hacking, geo-arbitrage, or some other major life lever. The “retire in your 40s” version is much more realistic. At 34, retiring at 47–49 gives you 13–15 years, which is still aggressive but not completely insane. That is where maxing retirement accounts, taxable brokerage investing, keeping expenses low, and increasing income can actually start looking like a plan instead of a manifesto written in caffeine. Portfolio-wise, boring usually wins - Broad index funds for the core. Maybe some small/value or growth tilt if you understand the risk. Avoid blowing yourself up chasing “early retirement income” products that are really just yield cosplay with NAV decay wearing a fake mustache. The real FIRE formula is spend way less than you earn, invest the difference automatically, increase income, avoid dumb debt, and do not let your lifestyle expand like a raccoon in a marshmallow factory. Also, early retirement does not have to mean “never work again.” It can mean financial independence, part-time work, consulting, seasonal work, a lower-stress job, or working because you want to instead of because your landlord has you in a chokehold. So the answer is: yes, it is possible, but the path is less “find the perfect investment” and more “turn your savings rate into an industrial weapon.” Investing is the engine. Savings rate is the fuel. Lifestyle inflation is the raccoon chewing through the brake lines.
Sell, pay taxes, put into VOO ... never think about it again and enjoy life.
It sounds like maybe you should go with some riskier investments? Not sure what else you’re wanting with this post if you really have no plan to alter your approach. I’m up 68% YTD with heavy investments in space, tech and a bit in drones. Of course it could all come crashing down, and I am slowly moving some gains into safer ETFs, but it just comes down to risk tolerance. Tbh you seem over diversified for my taste. You’d probably be better off in VOO with a bit in more growth-focused ETFs like SPMO and QQQM.
VT performs worse than an sp500 index fund such as IVV and VOO
SOXS and chill is the new medium-term VOO and chill
Oh dude definitely when the AI companies are public they can then track the top metrics. Basically everyone’s eating lunch right now but nobody knows what their poop will look like. Poop tells all the health about a person. But anyways if the market crashes just buy VOO on the dip and you’ll be happy later
I’m long on IXJ and it’s getting pretty undervalued compared to VOO over the past year or so. I’m with you, I think whenever the next rotation happens, the healthcare sector gets a big bump. Similar to what’s happening with SaaS right now.
You have way too many that can just be managed with the QQQ or XLK ETFs. Maybe SOXX if you’re feeling aggressive. Sell the losers. Offset with the lowest winners. Put towards the biggest winners or better, in ETF. Consider VOO for some balance though tech is like 40% of the S&P 500 currently.
I was looking for a comment like this. Are you fully allocated only to individual stocks? If so, you could just keep letting these run (especially Google) and just DCA into a combo of VTI or VOO and VXUS. My only worry with someone in their 30s is if you project 30 years out will some of these companies die out. Unlikely that multiple do and overweight your winners, but that risk exists and an ETF will naturally shield you from that.
You should stop picking stocks if you are underperforming VOO.
I'm just using 50 years old as the age I want to retire at with an average salary of $80K. In this instance, can you tell me what stocks people should invest in to be rich if you don't like VOO.
Fair to challenge but tracking against VOO isn't the only metric that matters for someone with a short time horizon. The question is whether the strategy fits the goal, not just whether it beats the index.
Simple... VTI+VXUS does, as you state, trade some diversity for lower growth. This is a risk profile question. I'm comfortable with VTI only (and would probably be comfortable with VOO only) and trading for the potential growth. So the "core" of my holdings are VTI. That's my passive investing. Individual stocks beyond that? If you don't know what you're investing in, and why, and just doing it because people are telling you to? I wouldn't touch it. That's just gambling. It's practically blackjack, in that the odds of beating the "house", i.e. the indexes, is <50%. If you want to invest in individual stocks beyond the indexes, it takes research, formulating a thesis, and a lot of work. It's still gambling, but it's more like poker--someone who is actually talented enough can, on average, win more than they lose. But like poker, there are plenty of bad beats out there waiting to happen. Based on the limited context of your post? I'd go VTI or VTI+VXUS, and avoid individual stocks for now.
That's what I did w/ MU profit. Put some in DRAM to hedge as well. I basically use VOO & VT as savings accounts
"Buy and hold" isn't for individual stocks. "Buy and hold" is for things like broad indexes / mutual funds. An S&P 500 index fund is something you buy and hold. You're already diversified, and you're just betting on the long-term growth of the economy. It's designed to be passive investing. Individual stocks, you buy when you have built a thesis that the company is worth owning, and sell when you decide that thesis has changed and it's not worth owning. That might end-up being a long-term hold. It might not. But it takes thought and research. It's active investing. IMHO, especially based on your other comment replies saying things like the below, I think your strategy is more luck than skill: >That’s the problem, I don’t have a thesis and fundamental to follow. The truth is that you have WAY too many stocks to develop a thesis on all of them, especially if you're working a full time job and trying to also do things outside of your work as most early-30s people do. You're heavy in tech, which has been good, but you're benefiting from high exposure to a sector rather than, IMHO, sound trading strategy. Even your funds (HLAL/SPUS) are heavily in tech. You likely would have done similar just throwing all your money in QQQ. If you want to develop as an investor, I'd suggest paring a bunch of this down and reinvesting them into index funds. You can do things like VOO (S&P 500) or VTI (whole US market) or QQQ (Nasdaq so tech-heavy), or even HLAL/SPUS if you have religious reasons you want those types of funds. Then, with a smaller portion of your overall investment pool, start actually figuring out how to evaluate individual companies. Work with no more than 3-5 companies. Develop a thesis on the company, a reason for investing. Before every investment part of your thesis should be the question "what would cause me to exit this investment in the future?" so you know when to spot a stock that no longer fits your thesis. IMHO that's the next step if you want to be an active "investor". And if that sounds like too much work? Just invest in the indexes and let it compound. For most people, that ends up with higher returns anyway 😉
The SPY/VOO is not a clear cut case. The IRS has never made a statement about what is "substantially identical" with ETFs. Many claim that VOO and SPY, although they track the same index, do not have identical holdings and therefore will not create wash sales if selling one at a loss and immediately buying the other. This is an open question. There are many more that claim that you can swap between similar ETFs that track indexes from different index providers. There are 3 or 4 major index providers. So for example, there are VTI, ITOT, and SCHB that are in total US stock market index ETFs, but technically they follow different indexes. Companies like Betterment and Wealthfront have published white papers on how they use similar, but not substantially identical, ETFs like this to tax loss harvest. The IRS has not approved, but neither have they objected.
Given how thin your investment strategy is I would highly recommend trimming and reallocating to QQQ, VOO, or VT based on how bullish you are on big tech/USA. The more you put into ETFs the less you'll worry about individual picks getting too bloated or huge drawdowns. You must first understand that chasing FOMO is the worst investment strategy because you'll trade mainly on emotion. Otherwise you'll just be ping-ponging back and forth, getting frustrated watching stocks skyrocket past your steady ship. If you want to time the market my best advice is to DCA but have a multiple for when the Fear and Greed index is in the red. Say you want to put in 1K every month, you do 1.5k when the F&G is in the red and 500 when it's in the green. Alternatively you can swap into a leveraged ETF like TQQQ (3x QQQ) when the index is on extreme fear and trade back into the regular QQQ once it's back in the green. These are some general ideas I use.
I retired last December. I'm slowly selling out of my individual stocks and building a dry powder position, but eventually I will put a bunch of the dry powder into VTI, VOO, etc.
Buy VOO. Won't be in there for at least a year
I’m in VOO, SOXX, and VTI mostly and am up 26% YTD. I’d say that’s pretty good and really easy investing
>Where things can get tricky is ETFs. SPY and VOO are considered substantially similar so you can't sell SPY for a loss and then buy VOO. I deliberately didn't mention that just for brevity. I think SPY/VOO were the actual examples they gave me too. My easy way to remember the rule ever since has been to sell an EFT for a single stock or vice versa, or completely change sectors "just in case"
If you don’t know what you’re looking at, go buy shares of VOO
Did you read what OP wrote? Similar companies are fine, just not the same company. And selling for a gain and then rebuying does not trigger wash sale rules, it's only for losses. Where things can get tricky is ETFs. SPY and VOO are considered substantially similar so you can't sell SPY for a loss and then buy VOO.