VOO

AboutSpencer

Go the ETF route. VOO or VTI are great. Invest half now, and then DCA the other half over a fixed timeline. Weekly or monthly for 12-24 months would likely be the best approach. Look for days that are deep in the red and capitalize on it.

Jealous_Bookkeeper20

Lump sum beats DCA about 66% of the time historically because markets spend more time rising than falling. If you try to wait a month for things to stabilize, you run into a definition trap. If the S&P 500 climbs 3% next month, you end up buying at a higher price. If it drops 5%, most people freeze instead of buying, hoping it goes lower. If putting $400k in all at once is too stressful, set up a mechanical schedule. Put $200k in VOO today, and automate the remaining $200k in equal chunks over the next 6 months. That takes the emotion out of it and keeps you from sitting on cash drag indefinitely. Is this going into a taxable brokerage account or a tax-advantaged retirement account?

Jealous_Bookkeeper20

When you hold SGRT and FMTM alongside AVLV, you are mixing growth and value tilts with momentum in the same U.S. large-cap universe. Combining these factors in a 25/25/50 split effectively replicates a core index like VOO or VTI. The problem is you are paying active management fees to do it. SGRT charges 0.59% and FMTM is 0.45%. Rebuilding a total market index this way creates a massive fee drag compared to just holding VTI at 0.03%. The same issue applies to the international side. JIVE charges 0.55%. If you put 40% of your stock allocation into high-fee active funds, you are losing a significant chunk of your inheritance compounding power to management fees. On a $500k portfolio, a 0.40% average fee drag is $2k a year, which compounding over 20 years eats up over $70k of your final wealth. Are you holding these in a taxable account or a tax-advantaged one? Using short-term bonds to cushion the inheritance makes sense if you have low risk tolerance, but holding 40% in cash/bonds specifically to buy a dip usually backfires. You end up sitting on cash drag for years waiting for a crash that might not drop prices below where they are today. If you want to tilt, keep it to a 10% allocation in something like AVLV on top of a low-cost core index fund.

TheNewOP

It won't be a bloodbath. VOO probably sideways or slightly down, definitely less than 1% down.

No_Paleontologist506

Meh. All personal finance is the same. Auto invest. Don’t panic sell. Sell assets to pay for things after years of growth. You talk like pension is magic money, it’s not. If you took all the contributions and just VOO’ed it, then sold each year to pay the bills in retirement, it would be much more money. Same thing with social security. If all that was just in VOO the benefit would be much much higher than what you get for “your lifetime”. Invest how you like, it’s your money. And I like pensions. But there is nothing different about it. It all boils down to spend less, invest more auto, don’t panic sell (not even an option in pensions). Is it a little more “easy mode”, sure. But you paid a price in growth that you don’t seem to understand.

PoopyisSmelly

Which is why owning VOO, VTI, or VT is a good decision. Youll own about 60% growth anyway, and if value does better you are benefitting from that.

sabedo

This is true They talk about S&P 500 VOO like it's the Bible when it's clear America is falling to pieces I prefer total market funds like VT or AOA

Toxic_Outlaw6572

VOO, SGOV, T-Bill ladder, Silver, hell idk.

thunderthighlasagna

Why not both? $200k in the market now and DCA the rest out over the next year. I got into investing earlier this year and put my savings ($20k) into the market in February (VOO/VXUS). If I had DCA’d over February and March, I’d have more money right now, but if you zoom out there truly is no bad time to enter the market if you have a good time horizon.

LanceX2

50K in SGOV then DCA or just Lump into VTI or VOO man.

Original_Ad7078

4k - RKLB 4k - VOO 2k - SPAXX

Daily-Trader-247

Wow, I thought your question did not make sense until I read the comments. It seems like every board has there VOO and chill subste. Apparently this subreddit is not one of them. I have never seen so much indignation about a stock picking choice. Though I am not VOO and chill, it does seem like a good way to reduce stress and get a historicity pretty good return at the same time. Good luck

Throwaway_Molasses

I would DCA IN 10% chunks weekly until it's all in. VOO would be my choice but I like the idea of a more managed fund vs blindly dumping proportionally into s&p500. A lot of SP500 Is in overvalued tech right now. If they drop you erase nearly 20% of the entire index value in just a few stocks. I.e. nvda is over 7% weight of the 500.

Informal-Lime6396

Is it not already taxed? If you have a long investing horizon, consider doing sector ETFs on what's hot for the past few years e.g. tech and semiconductors. Once their cycle is over, it's tax free to sell and switch to another fund. I really dislike the bad advice of VOO/VT and chill for people who are decades away from using it.

CovTaude588

the correction in the top reply matters, free float is the shares actually available to the public, not the most recent amount sold, but the underlying point still holds for an index investor. seasoning and float weighting are why a hyped IPO doesnt immediately become a big chunk of your VOO on day one, which is mostly protecting you. its one of those mechanics you never have to think about but are quietly glad exists, imo.

BeuTaude588

worth being clear about the comparison the other commenter made; a target date fund underperforming VOO over five years is mostly the bonds and international it holds by design, not a flaw. youre paying a small return drag in exchange for never having to make a decision or rebalance, which for a hands-off IRA is a fair trade. if you genuinely want all equities thats a different choice, but then the honest comparison is VT, not a dated fund.

winterrules91

If you have a long timeline/horizon, time in the market beats timing the market. Lump sum is technically better but DCA has better vibes. If you want, maybe split it as $80k/month through end of 2026, though I'd probably be more aggressive if I were you. As far as which ones, VOO is fairly safe. Maybe put 70% in VOO and 20% in an international fund. And then put 10% in a money market for now while you research some good individual bet stocks. For example, in my HSA, I just have 200 shares of Nvidia that I'm selling covered calls on 3 times a week. Easy money and it's a fairly stable stock right now. AAPL is another good option for that.

RandoDude124

VOO, want to be aggressive? # Talk to a financial advisor

stickymeowmeow

The overwhelming advice from people on Reddit (and this thread) is to invest in an index fund like VOO or SPY. Set it and forget it. That’s about as safe as you can get in the market, and pretty much the exact advice any worthwhile financial advisor would give you. So idk what you’re trying to say. This ain’t wallstreetbets. Financial advisors very rarely outperform simply setting and forgetting with VOO/VTI/SPY/other major index funds. Most portfolios I’ve seen from financial advisors are basically just a more complicated VTI - their “magic diversification” is a split of different market sector ETFs or mutual funds that all basically add up to what you’d get with VTI. The real magic comes down to risk tolerance and knowing how much you can invest and how much you should keep in low risk things like money market. You don’t need to give someone a cut of your portfolio for the rest of your life to figure that out.

superdreamcast

If you are young, it is better to invest as soon as possible. You can always save 10 to 15 percent cash ($40,000 to $60,000) in SGOV to buy the dip on market corrections. Invest in a broad S&P500 index like VOO or VTI. You can also invest in some portions in growth and/or value ETF because they can outperform S&P500 in some years. I like SPMO for momentum factor and VTV for value factor. How aggressive you want to invest depends upon your goals and time horizon. If you throw it all into the VOO, you will make around 10 percent a year just matching the market ($40,000+). You can lump sum or DCA. Whatever gets you to start investing, do it!

tomgreen99200

If you want s&p500 buy VOO all at once. Set it up to reinvest dividends.

ChiefBaggins

Gotta buy VOO for that port alert

steady_compounder

If the real goal is to stop tinkering, a low-cost target date fund is a totally reasonable answer inside an IRA. The trade-off is not that it is bad, it is that you are accepting more diversification and a glide path instead of maximizing whatever happened to lead the last 5 years. If simplicity is the thing you actually need, that usually matters more than winning a recent VOO comparison.

Froggymcnugget

Just put your money into an index like VOO and Carry on with your career and life while having reoccurring buys.

Groundbreaking-Gap20

Is it worth buying SPCX tomorrow or should I just put more money into my VOO?

YourChildhood5762

TSLA 1yr 24.51% 5yr 99.92% VOO 1yr 23.35% 5yr 74.82% bite me

Emotional_Shape925

Well, when you posted this I looked at my target date fund vs VOO, rather depressing. In 5 years VOO has outperformed my target date fund by 42%. That’s a lot of money. So, do with that information what you will.

paragonx29

Screw VOO.

ZEALOUS_RHINO

At the end of the day VTI and VOO have an 88% overlap in market cap so their fates are tied together. Even the other 12% is pretty highly correlated with large cap. So in a drawdown they will both get hit hard there is no hiding from that. At the end of the day, more diversification has its benefits. Owning literally everything in a market weighted fund is a beautiful way to be totally neutral to the market.

Flayum

Thanks. Do you think this is because the nature of PE and investment has changed in the last decade+ or could it be a result of the 15yr+ bull market? A concern I would have is a recession affecting the large caps harder than others, causing an even larger drawdown in VOO vs VTI.

vulcan_on_earth

Here is what I would do: **10 Years left for Retirement** - 50% VOO - 35% VGT - 15% SMH Rebalance every year **20 Years left for Retirement** - 30% VOO - 45% VGT - 25% SMH Rebalance every year **40 Years left for Retirement** - 80% VGT - 20% SMH Rebalance every year

Flayum

Why VOO instead of VTI or VT?

Blankpaper__

She should just buy VOO and her funds will do very well.

trix_is_for_kids

We need an automod reply that just says VOO to these stupid questions

da6id

If you can tolerate taking gains, just switch to SPYG. It has the same protection as SP500 SPY or VOO and basically tracks with QQQ

alreadysharpened

VOO

Old-Argument2415

The rule is generally diversify, move some to an index like VOO. How much of your total portfolio of it? 60% is very high but if it's 15% overall maybe fine. Also depends when you plan to retire I guess.

chinaski73

I'm happy my ETF of choice is VOO. Standard and Poor's told musk to FO

jowilkin

So far the total return is lagging behind the S&P 500 by quite a bit: https://totalrealreturns.com/n/WEEL,VOO And considering their biggest holding in the last prospectus on their website is ARKK, I would say it is also much riskier than just holding the S&P 500

Top-Classroom3984

I do. Mostly VOO and VTI.

bifftheraptor

You can just invest in the S&P500. Tried and true method. Gains havent been as high as AI, but its also the long term set it and forget it method. Either SPY or VOO will get you in. VOO has a lower expense ratio, so I prefer that one.

robocarl

I switched from VTI to VOO to avoid this mess

pennquaker18

There's a bias to immediately hate everything if it has anything to do with Elon (and really Trump). Removes all rationality. There's a lot of junk in VOO/QQQ that they've blissfully ignored before.

ATPsynthase12

You realize that prior to the current bull market, the foreign market had outperformed the US market and VXUS is up almost 14% YTD while VOO is only up 9% YTD. Diversification of your portfolio is a good thing.

Flat-Coffee-2731

Fundamental analysis is still worth learning even if you never beat VOO. It teaches you what you actually own, why a company might deserve its valuation, and when a great business is still a bad investment. Keeping 90 percent in the index and using 10 percent as a disciplined learning portfolio is probably the healthiest version of this, because the tuition stays capped while the skill compounds.

Eight_square

If you only have $1,000, you can either gamble it on some meme stock and risk losing everything, or put it in VOO and get rich slow. Or, you can put it into a single, well-researched stock and get rich the right way, like if you managed to find the next Apple or Microsoft. Or, more realistically: invest in yourself. Invest in a healthy mindset, a healthy body, read all you can, and get a good job with decent pay.

ATPsynthase12

VOO excludes mid and small caps and the entire foreign market.

Silent_Anybody5253

All of the suggestions about VOO or VTI are very sound advice. If you want to go a little more upside you could do a fund like FMTM or SGRT. Still a fund spreading out the money but with a thesis that targets higher upside. Obviously more risk but over the long run still not as risky as something like SpaceX

mastcelltryptase

You didn’t miss anything. Stock picking is a binary game. Sometimes you get it right. Sometimes you get it wrong. Just make sure you have more winners than losers. SpaceX is way too risky. You want to put your money that has a higher expectation of going up than down. Buy QQQ if you are looking for more adventure than just VOO.

ACGC21

Thanks i appreciate that, i still have no confidence in what im doing, but ive just been listening and following KOLs i trust. ive put in another 1.5K usd and added in NBIS, TSM, and… RKLB and SPCX… not proud of this at all but decided to go with my friends that have way more experience than me. Only bought 2 shares of SPCX though, and a fraction of RKLB. Confidence remains in APPL NVDA SNDK and VOO, added TSM to this list too. NBIS another Fomo pick and its been good so far. Honestly, im just surprised with how much fun ive been having, and learning more about how important it is to stay in the market rather than timing it makes me feel more excited.

AnnO55783

You did not miss anything by skipping the IPO, that is the right instinct rather than a regret. With a thousand dollars the specific fund matters far less than building the habit, so a broad market ETF like VOO or VTI and then adding whatever you can spare each month is the whole answer. The one rule I would hold onto is that this is long-term money, leave it alone through the inevitable down years and let time do the work. There is no judgement here, everyone starts somewhere.

An_Actual_AI

VOO. Don't overcomplicate things.

BeuTaude588

the honest argument isnt that growth is bad, its that VOO at this point is a concentrated bet on about ten names whether you meant to make one or not. if youre comfortable holding that concentration through a decade where large-cap growth could underperform, fine; the people getting bashed are usually the ones who havent realised they made the bet.

Days_End

VTI is a passive fund coving the whole USA market while VOO is an active fund that buys whatever the S&P500 committee picks. The S&P committee has choice not to have SpaceX in the index at the moments but can change that whenever they feels like.

Ok_Ambassador_4311

SPX, VOO calls going into Monday

InvestingNerd2020

The chance at higher gains than any ETF or Index mutual fund could provide. Most fail horribly at picking smaller scale stocks, but large stocks in the top 10 ten holding of the S&P 500 fund do great in USA bull runs. Great meaning they outperform the S&P 500 by a lot (5% or more per year). Dollar-Cost-Average examples since January 2020 ending May 2026: \- VOO was 18.24% per year \- Nvidia was 72.45% per year \- AMD was 53.36% per year \- Alphabet (GOOGL) was 36.25% per year

spilledonwhite

holy shit dude buy VOO why are you here jk share your wisdom so I'm less regarded

GaylrdFocker

>My portfolio only has VOO but I would love to add growth/value stocks in the future. What deters me are the classic stats of no one beats the index funds So keep doing index funds. Use VTI instead of VOO to add small/mid cap and VXUS for international. Or keep VOO and add VT for everything in 1 fund. The VOO you have will just mean you're slightly overweight on Large Cap but that's not a big deal.

Resident_Break6770

There's more to ETFs than VOO but to your point you're better off working for a living, investing in sector funds, and touching grass than pretending it's the 80s and taking advice on hot stocks from a broker.

HyperspaceSloth

If you invest smartly, (like a solid index fund and hold indefinitely - like VOO or similar), the investment growth will out grow the inflation in the long run, and you will end up with a nice next egg in end, regardless of inflation. If you hold just cash, you will lose to inflation, and have less and less purchasing power over time.

Fleazapper

You have a very lucrative career, VOO and max is plenty and I’m sure you’re busy. I grabbed individual stocks along the way because I had to, you don’t.

LaconicB

You don’t pay interest on selling options, that’s a common misunderstanding of selling options. You can own stocks and sell options, that’s how margin accounts work. This is how to better use your capital. If you put $50k in VOO, SpaceX, or whatever, you can’t sell naked puts in a cash account or without naked option approval in a margin account. With a margin account and the option approval to sell naked options, you have more use of your $50k sitting in whatever position you choose. You do not pay margin interest selling put options.  

maddystudies

Reading about stock analysis is definitely a worthwhile skill even if you stick with VOO. You might not beat the index but understanding why businesses succeed or fail is useful for way more than just picking stocks.

SirThaddeusGumdrop

I find it extremely useful to invest in individual stocks even if a majority of my wealth is in index funds. VOO is NOT a magic “10% a year” technology. It is a portfolio of stocks. The composition of the S&P 500 will change. Sometimes, yes, bonds will be more attractive than stocks (heresy!). It’s hard to know these things unless you’re tinkering with a small fraction of your portfolio. You will learn a lot.

michael_curdt

Why stocks? Because it is an investment vehicle that you can onboard with as little as you can afford. Returns over a short period of time fluctuate, but zoom out to 10-20-30 years and you will see some serious growth. Give it time, put your money to work and let compounding do its thing. You sound like someone who would prefer investing in basket funds (mutual funds, ETFs) as opposed to individual stocks. Look in r/bogleheads - they are of “VOO and chill bro” mentality. Don’t need to handpick stocks. Just invest in America’s top 500 companies.

No_Ground3881

If you enjoy it learn it. Even if you never beat VOO, understanding businesses and valuation will make you a better investor

Reign_of_Kronos

Problem is he still got in on NASDAQ and other indexes like VTI, VTSAX… sucks for people like me who are mainly in VTI vs VOO.

Asbelsp

I was never talking about the VOO you already have. I'm talking about VOO in general is risky, if cash is needed in a year.

TorvaThreads

And instead if you just invested in VOO you'd have 60k.

Halbaras

The US has multiple stock exchanges, including the NYSE and the NASDAQ. These are private companies run for profits, and they have incentives to encourage big IPOs to list on their exchange instead of a competitor. Some indexes/index funds track the overall US market (like the S&P and VOO) and care only about the sheer 'investible' size of a company and not where it's listed. There are other index funds which only track NASDAQ listed companies. The NASDAQ is both an exchange and an index provider. They publish indexes like the Nasdaq 100 (their largest 100 companies), and some massive index funds like QQQ match them. A lot of passive money moves around as a new company enters or leaves the Nasdaq, and a lot of that is regular people's pensions and savings. SpaceX has effectively been bribed by the Nasdaq to list on their exchange instead of the NYSE by changing two key rules: 1. In the past a company had to trade for 3-12 months after IPO before it was included in the index. This allowed time for fair price discovery, where initial hype fades and investors start judging the actual financials of the company involved. They've reduced this period to 15 days for 'companies which would be in our top 40', which means passive investors will be forced to buy SpaceX earlier, increasing the risk that it is still in an initial pump before losing a significant amount of value. 2. The NASDAQ used to have a rule where a company had to have more than 10% of its shares be publicly available. If, for example, a telecom was 95% owned by a foreign government, it wouldn't be allowed to list because the pool of available shares would be tiny, and the valuation would be distorted by everyone competing for limited shares of this apparently huge company. They've now changed this rule to allow tiny floats, and made it so that a small float can be up to tripled in market weight. SpaceX is allegedly a 1.8 trillion dollar company, but only about $80 billion of their shares are actually available to buy on the public market. But according to the NASDAQ, they should be weighted as if there are $240 billion worth of shares are available. So passive funds are forced to compete for an artificially small pool of shares, driving the prices up further... And now this forced buying happens before and as the insiders first get to sell, instead of afterwards thanks to rule change #1. SpaceX also allows insiders to begin selling earlier than is normal. SpaceX isn't going to ruin any passive investors, but it is likely that it will transfer a small amount of the wealth of Nasdaq-100 funds (e.g. 0.2%) to insiders if there's a typical post-IPO price slump on the coming months. What's more worrying is that every company about to IPO can now pull the same tiny float trick, regardless of size. OpenAI and Anthropic are also going to IPO soon and will be large enough to abuse both rules. Luckily the S&P has refused to do the equivalent of rule change #1, but the FTSE Russell (another big index provider) has changed their entry period to just five days. **TL;DR** You are unlikely to be noticeably affected in the long term unless you hold QQQ or other Nasdaq-based funds. If you do, it may be worth considering whether paying private equity a small annual IPO fee justifies the privilege of holding exclusively NASDAQ stocks (when other indexes also include them).

No-Consequence-8768

Your in the 'Investing' forum. The 'Chill' part is correct, VOO is a great commodity if you don't want to Trade, Hedge, short, etc... Large Cap is Large cap for a reason, more people buy into it, creating higher P/E's year after year. With higher return comes higher Risk/Reward. It's really what temperament you are and how much you want to work for more money.

HotDogDay82

I was a coward and spent my spacex stock money I put aside on VOO instead, but I believe you’re right!

MiserableSpare403

I am a former MSFT engineer. Starting from about 2023 and continu from the bottom up is burned out, morale is through the floor. Stackranking has returned and there are constant threats of layoffs, but now they’re even worse because they are not actual layoffs with severance, now fire “for cause”, citing performance, when they need to layoff people. Constant reorgs because of people leaving then managers only having like 3 reports remaining on their team. There is a divergence in visa dependent engineers who are stuck, while citizens/LPRs who often have more established skills and experience, vote with their feet to leave. Yes they have some cash cow products and entrenched lock-in but they are killing their ability to innovate in the future, as well as giving up on entire product lines (gaming). I dumped most of my MSFT holding and it is now only 4% of my account. I maintain exposure though VOO/VTI but I no longer want to be overweight in it. I reached my “limit” with MSFT not as an investor but as a burned out senior engineer there, and it makes me not want to hold it as an individual stock long term.

Initial_Ad_9250

Hey... so you wanna VOO and chill this quarter? 🫦

MiserableSpare403

I am a former MSFT engineer. Everyone from the bottom up is burned out, morale is through the floor. Stackranking has returned and there are constant threats of layoffs, but now they’re even worse because they are not actual layoffs with severance, now fire “for cause”, citing performance, when they need to layoff people. Constant reorgs because of people leaving then managers only having like 3 reports remaining on their team. There is a divergence in visa dependent engineers who are stuck, while citizens/LPRs who often have more established skills and experience, vote with their feet to leave. Yes they have some cash cow products and entrenched lock-in but they are killing their ability to innovate in the future, as well as giving up on entire product lines (gaming). I dumped most of my MSFT holding and it is now only 4% of my account. I maintain exposure though VOO/VTI but I no longer want to be overweight in it.

hellobubbles1

Well said. Everyone who is able to should move their investments to VOO or some other funds that follows the S&P unless you want to help subsidize elons fortune

hairyotter

Please just VOO and chill rather than trying to read the tea leaves a week later, you aren’t cut out for this.

Cruian

Do you care about ones that bought today or will ever purchase? I'm not sure about immediately, but longer term: * Ben Felix/Rational Reminder/PWL posted a video this week (yesterday?) covering when some of the big indexes can add it * Use that info and look for the first one to include it in holdings, then use a tool like https://www.etfrc.com/funds/overlap.php against VOO that may be able to identify if it is included on the overlap yet

Cruian

VOO is only US companies.

LasyKuuga

Past week has shown I am built too VOO and chill 😔

ZEALOUS_RHINO

VOO is 50% tech already. QQQ and VOO have a 52% overlap in market weight which is way higher than it used to be. Because of this the Beta is down to about 1.23. That said, if you have a long time horizon and can stomach some volatility, I don't see a problem overweighting into tech. But keeping a large core allocation of VOO as the bedrock of your portfolio seems wise.

RohitRojo

Put your money into VOO or VUG and then delete robinhood until you’re ready to sell

rholt168

Time to just VOO and chill for a few weeks.

One_Opportunity9167

SPY, VOO and IVV are all SP500 Index ETFs. There are also many mutual funds. If you don't want to own SpaceX stock, don't buy funds that own it. That sounds flippant, I guess. But the two managed funds I listed (plus MANY more) own stocks based on fundamentals that SpaceX won't meet, at least for a while. Some index funds will be obligated to buy a stock because that stock is part of the index they follow, but the SP500 Index won't include SpaceX for a while. Same for other IPOs, questionable or not. I put a little more detail here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/investingforbeginners/comments/1u34pqx/comment/or3qorj/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/investingforbeginners/comments/1u34pqx/comment/or3qorj/?context=3)

zxc123zxc123

OP is gets extra "crayon eater" points because they bought ADBU and ADBE options yet still blames ADBE for his own personal gambling failures. They would have been fine if they just stayed in VOO or even MSFT/META rather than trying to gamble on knife catching Adobe. For OP: ***"THINK! OP, THINK!"*** People USED to say "It's shopped" now they just say "It's AI"

bmitchell1876

I bought $3k of SPCX $162 and sold at $172 — too stressful 😂 going back to VOO -ETF logic Had to play today though

redditissocoolyoyo

Kinda agree with you OP. I saw it at 150, it moved up s bit over 173 now. Wasn't worth the headache If you can't buy a huge amount. Not many have 270k to gamble. I'll just VOO.

thewimsey

> "VOO and chill" is mostly an online amateur theory, among younger people who don't remember 2000-2010. nearly all professionals in finance and investing recommend a more diversified portfolio. I've been VOO'ing and Chilling since 1997. I remember 2000-2010 very well. >nearly all professionals in finance and investing recommend a more diversified portfolio. Yes, in retrospect. >and last year, international value beat VOO by 20% or more (17% for VOO vs. 46% for IVLU, 40% for FNDE, 43% for FIVLX) True. But it's beyond stupid to look at one year and think that it is meangingful. Over the past 10 years, VOO has returned an annualized 16%; IVLU an annualized 11%.

Real_Passenger4282

Hey, props for starting at 18 — that compound interest head start is going to be huge. A few thoughts: On the broker question: Robinhood is fine honestly, especially with the 3% Roth IRA match. Fidelity and Schwab are the other popular picks — better research tools, more reliable customer service, and no PFOF concerns. But don't overthink the broker part, it matters way less than what you actually buy. On your strategy: You said growth + dividends and "a bit risky" — those kind of pull in different directions, so here's how I'd think about it at 20: * Roth IRA → max this out first ($7k/year). Since you won't touch it for decades, go heavy on growth here (VOO, QQQ, or individual growth stocks). The beauty of a Roth is you'll never pay taxes on the gains. * Individual account → this is where dividend stocks make more sense. Build a portfolio of solid dividend payers (think SCHD for an ETF, or individual names like O, KO, JNJ, ABBV if you want to pick stocks). Reinvest every dividend while you're young — the snowball effect is real. For learning: * "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham (the classic) * On YouTube: Joseph Carlson has great content on dividend portfolio building, very practical * r/dividends is a solid sub for that specific strategy One thing that really helped me stay motivated was actually tracking my dividend income month by month. seeing that number go up every quarter keeps you disciplined when the market dips. You're asking the right questions at the right age. Just stay consistent and don't chase meme stocks with your core portfolio. Good luck!

Sufficient_Habit5091

SPMO and chill: +43% YoY, 28% YTD VOO and chill: +22% YoY, 8% YTD 😂

An_Actual_AI

People constantly spam VOO and chill all over reddit. They do that because it's hard to beat.

Pleasant_Swim9921

Can you explain? your mad because i had chatgpt give me the best optimal sp500 eft vs what a wall street big wig option that probably won’t out preform VOO. 

morganrbvn

Just buy VOO and VT when you can, ignore the market.

harrison_wintergreen

the arguments against large cap growth are: - historically, large cap growth one of the worst performing market sectors over the very long term. value tends to perform better, more pronounced with small and mid cap stocks, while growth strategies tend to perform worst. see here: https://indexingonsteroids.com/smallcap-value-charts and here: https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/literature/view?itemCode=9920885&renditionType=PDF - *growth stock* doesn't mean the stock price will grow faster/better than other stocks. it means the company's revenue or profits are growing faster than peers. sometimes these stocks perform well, other times they won't. - Investing performance is cyclical, based in large part on valuations like CAPE ratios. What performs well the last decade often performs poorly in the next decade, because hot stocks get pushed up to where you're paying too much relative to the company's earnings, dividends, etc. I'm old enough to remember when the S&P 500 went flat from 2000 to 2012-13, and almost everything else performed better: small cap US, international, bonds. so I experienced a period of large growth underperformance. see here: https://contrarianoutlook.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SPY-Midcap-Smallcap-20yr-Chart.png or here: https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/long-term-bonds-versus-stock-market.jpg - "VOO and chill" is mostly an online amateur theory, among younger people who don't remember 2000-2010. nearly all professionals in finance and investing recommend a more diversified portfolio. early 2023, Rob Arnott from Research Affiliates was promoting international value stocks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzZuwe0IPEE and last year, international value beat VOO by 20% or more (17% for VOO vs. 46% for IVLU, 40% for FNDE, 43% for FIVLX)

igobyplane_com

analysis paralysis, market timing, etc. costing you too much. you can just "be dumb" and every week have a recurring investment into VOO and chill and come out perfectly fine/probably beat most people. just being dumb and disciplined. am i still trying to chase higher returns? yeah lol. but this simple disciplined method - at least for core holdings, is going to beat too much analysis or fear and taking no actions. an expensive lesson all of us eventually teach ourselves, because we were probably too foolish to listen to anyone else pointing it out.

East_East44

I mean that’s the best, can still have a small allocation of individual. VOO or VT if you want international too

HungryHashMastr

My second largest holding behind NVDA and both my sons custodian accounts is 50% Hood 50% VOO.

EL_ProfessionalHater

Mate at this point instead of focusing on trades simply minding your business would've been more profitable... Everyone tells you about VOO You didn't invest in it for 3 years+ What's stopping you to do it NOW?...

Mindless_Ad5500

S&P stuck to their guns and have not changed their rules. You have to prove it to be in VOO. The 500 is only for money making machines. If those companies prove it then I don’t care if they are in VOO. Now, there are many other funds and ETFs that will Be exposed. Buyer beware.

DeAndre_ROY_Ayton

I thank you for your service and other soldiers reminding me to never touch options. Anyways I just do VOO best of luck!