VOO

Good_Ride_2508

>But with **so many people speculating** that the stock market would stop doing well soon, would bonds be a good hedge or should I invest in Berkshire Hathaway or just keep cash?  As you said, it is speculation, may or may not be right one as no one can predict the future. Bonds will do nicely only when stocks are going for correction cycle (range 10% to 20 or more). Other periods, they are really dull except the dividends/interest they pay. You can watch TLT (long term) or SGOV (Short term). Better is Berkshire, they also drop when market corrects. Cash won't produce except broker interest (if they pay, check with your broker) Gold may do well like bonds when stocks are in correction mode. Or Stay invested in VOO BTW: This is shared for analysis purpose, watch these and understand, then decide whatever you feel like.

petecarr83

If you don’t want to pick individual stocks, VOO is a solid core. For the other half, you could either DCA into it over a few months or park it somewhere safe until you decide. I use moomoo for this kind of setup since it’s easy to buy ETFs, set up recurring buys, and track everything in one place without overcomplicating it. Keeps it simple while you figure out your longer-term allocation.

Puzzleheaded-Oil5910

I'm with you. i've sold my defense stocks, sold nvidia. I feel guilty for even owning the VOO and contrbuting to "america". Im moving more and more of my money into gold and silver and other non-US assets.

dumbToBeHere

No, whole life insurance is an "insurance" for leaving money to heirs or the loved ones. It is often getting compared with investments like VOO yielding poor returns - which is comparing apples to oranges. Cash value imo is useful but not as much as being touted by the insurance sales agents. If you look at IRR on Death Benefit for someone who lives till 75 or 80 (most likely 7-8%) and for someone with a low risk appetite - there is no other financial instrument that can pass on as much money as whole life to your heirs tax-free. The key here is "low risk appetite". Whole life insurance is a great "insurance" product when you ignore the noise from the insurance sales agents who yap about building faster cash value (which you are never going to get on your death) or the folks who compare IRR on cash value to S&P500. There's a reason this product has survived a century through the equity boom decades and also through the great depression. And term life is cheap for a reason - that money never comes back. Universal life is a scam as you have no control on the cost of insurance and the index management fees as you grow older. In short, if you want - a good death benefit - go for whole life - long term investments - just put money in a brokerage - insurance only for 10-20 years and will never need later whatsoever, go for term.

Opening-Run5871

nothing wrong with going 100% VOO (or any other SP500 equivalent) If you want even more diversified $IWM is top 2000 companies if you want a little more high risk (but still well diversified) $QQQ is top 100 companies. For something a little more conservative yo could look at a Dividend ETF like $SCHD

Slartibartfastthe2nd

yes, VOO tracks the entire S&P 500 index. You might consider splitting the other half into VBK and VUG. these are vanguard small cap growth and large cap growth funds, both similar low expense like VOO but more focused on those market segments. The reasoning being that when sector rotations occur, the respective portion will accelerate growth.

DizzyUnderdog

I laugh at everyone who buys VOO/ETFs. I started investing in 2022 and my account is up 450%. Just fucking do research on the up and coming stocks, it’s not rocket science. I make more in a week from some stocks than VOO makes me in a year. Truly comical how people say that VOO and chill is good investment advice

No_Routine_17

I just put half my bonus into VOO on Friday…

level60labs

This looks incorrect. American Indian here. Nifty 50 is kind of Indian version of VOO and my investments (USD adjusted) show ~10% for India. My US return (Mainly VOO) is ~17%.

Brilliant_Voice1126

Yeah, the market is more than mag 7 and we’re talking about going forward we can’t rely on past results. That’s like the gravest investment assumption. Relying on the Mag7 is also part of the problem. It masks deeper weakness in the economy to simply select the 7 best performers. Diversified US you’re looking at 17-20 in VOO or QQQ Dow just 15. Compare that to other markets last year and they pantsed us. So the question is, is that going to be a long term trend? Based on thr comments there seem to be 2 camps. 1. It’s priced in, it’s temporary, the world will come back to the US because it’s either too big to fail or it’s been so reliable for so long. Or 2. We haved burned bridges that have set us on a long term downward trajectory in terms of trust, reputation, and good will. I favor 2. I see EU and others making moves that show they no longer see us as a reliable partner and are investing in a long term shift away from US. And who can blame them? We seem to be about to dissolve NATO and implement Erdegenomics. Past results are no longer applicable to that future.

Mindless_Ad5500

This is why you just do ETFs like VOO and bond funds. If you are young just throw down a 80/20 ratio and live your life and ignore the market.

Commercial_Ease8053

This sub is nothing but boring old people who have no money and their entire 45k life savings in VOO… Extremely sad. Guarantee everyone here is just on some employment retirement plan.

JoeInOR

Having lived in Europe for a while, I don’t think there’s the equivalent of an investing culture anywhere else. Combined with our size and wealth, you get ultra liquid markets. That said, I just read an economist article about the inelastic market hypothesis, and a lot of stuff (multi trillion dollar valuations and ever upward trajectory of the s&p 500) just make sense. But the multiplier will work in reverse too. What triggers that? Higher unemployment? Distress selling? Some new Trump idiocy? I’m heavy international and Berkshire. I don’t trust VOO anymore.

Holiday-Kaler

If you don’t want to think about it much, parking a big chunk in something like VOO and then slowly DCA the rest over time makes sense. If you’re open to a bit more volatility, a small allocation to BTC or ETH as a long-term hedge isn’t crazy either, just treat it like a high-risk sleeve. If you do go that route, self-custody matters more than picking the perfect entry, I personally keep any SOL exposure in a simple wallet like Solflare so it’s not sitting on an exchange.

EDWARD_SN0WDEN

at some point I will sell, and then put it in VOO for a year to get an extra 10% to cover the early cashout penalty and buy a villa in Italy.

Clean_Vacation_2831

80 percent VOO and 20 percent QQQ is a solid strategy.  

AdComplex5554

VXUS has performed about 5% better than VOO over the past year but if you look at the chart, they really only diverged around mid-December.

CanYouPleaseChill

If there’s anything US retail investors don’t like, it’s having to think about something other than VOO. They don’t care about unreasonable valuations or concentration risk. They don’t even like the idea of an equal-weight ETF like RSP because they’re so convinced that Big Tech stocks will continue to outperform everything forever.

tqyGtv

I would invest in VOO or QQQ for low risk.

Exciting-Whereas6935

Made $15k, mostly on VOO and VTI

ChampKD321

1 year is your time horizon … what are you going to say if 2 years from now this sentence is completely flipped and VOO dominates as usual? Go place your bets out of US and see how it fairs in the long run

NuclearKnives

Don't believe this. VOO AND CHILL

Ok_Macaroon6934

That's very generous of you. Great work on donating much of your share income to charity! I have some good news though - you could change your investment strategy to exclude the most unethical stocks without sacrificing much (or any) of your growth or dividends. For example, you could toss VOO and go to (say) ETHI without a significant reduction in your portfolio value. Or you could jettison legacy energy stocks in favour of space or health stocks. Or do similar shifts at an individual pick level and dump Chevron for Rocketlab or Intuitive Surgical. If you do that, you'd get twice the bang for your buck.

ModelingDenver101

The answer is increase your distributions every paycheck. Invest 100% into SPMO or VOO. Put as much as you can into your 401k. That's the answer.

Altruistic_Emu_146

VOO, QQQ, REIT and some high quality bonds, dividend ETFs or VXUS

ModelingDenver101

SPMO beats VOO

stbloc

I like all in with VOO but with this Greenland Noise you might want to go 50% international 50% VOO

Retired-Programmer

This is absolutely brand new to me so still trying to figure it out (I am miles from knowing if it's a worthwhile strategy). But to answer the simple costs/etc and ignoring trying to figure out the correct Strikes and Quantity and results with those strike and instead just select a Call Strike for 3 calls to closely pay for the 10 Puts: *(I am using the mid of the Bid and Ask prices to get these values)* 1. Buying the 10 $600 Strike 7/17/26 VOO Puts=10 \* 100 \* $14.85 = $14,850 2. Credit received for 3 short $615 7/17/26 Calls = 3 \* 100 \* $48.70 = $14.610 *(just choose a Call Strike that would closely pay for the bought puts)* So you would be paying $14,850 - $14,610 = $240 cost for the opening transaction. So if VOO stayed above $615 at expiration you would be selling 300 shares of VOO at $615/shr and the 10 short puts would expire worthless. If VOO goes below $615 at expiration those 3 short calls expire worthless. If VOO goes below $600 at expiration then you could sell all 1000 shares of VOO at $600/shr (by exercising the 10 puts). But you actually don't have to sell the VOO shares, but you could instead sell the puts. So for example if VOO at expiration went all the way down to $500/shr then at expiration you could sell those puts for $100/shr ($600 - $500) and receive $100,000 for those 10 put contracts by selling them and still also keep your 1000 VOO shares. Also FYI, when you buy those puts, you do not have to have any money in reserve for those puts, you only have to have cash in reserve when selling puts. So I hope this helps you out a little bit. I am still trying to grasp how this will all work out when VOO at various prices. Hopefully will figure more out tomorrow. Like I said this is brand new to me (and interesting).

Euthyphraud

This is why I'm a single stock investor. ETFs are great for people who don't have time, or knowledge base, to develop and maintain a portfolio. However, ETFs are always going to carry bad companies with the good - and in many cases you can easily identify many that, if cut, would improve your returns. I don't need the railroads or consumer staple companies in VOO, I'd therefore be better off buying all the stocks in VOO besides them than I'd be with VOO itself, just as an example.

cayoloco

I mean in theory, you could buy VOO and the corresponding amount in a TSLA short etf. Not necessarily advocating for it, but in theory you could do something like that.

Lonely_District_196

Take half and throw it into VOO. Take the other half, and throw it into VOO.

composer98

The difference put into drama: if you buy VOO, there are around 140 stocks in the index that you buy less of than you pay in fees (every year!); if you buy SPY, there are nearer 200 stocks in the index that you buy less of than you pay in fees. For any reasonably large portfolio, maybe $500,000 plus, you'd be foolish to buy an ETF when you could fairly easily buy all 500 stocks for next to nothing in commissions and no fees every year.

Various_Couple_764

the other 50K could be invested in QQQI instead of High yield savings or checking account. QQQI has a 13% dividend payed out in monthly installments and is tax efficient. In a taxable account 50k in this fund will earn about $500 a month.which you can reinvest in QQQI or VOO or just spend if you want.

cazzy1212

Just VOO if you don’t have a risk tolerance and don’t want to educate yourself

No_Routine_17

I just put 3k into VOO yesterday from my bonus…

Heyhayheigh

Don’t participate in markets: enjoy your vow of poverty. What the people at the top do doesn’t change your plan. SGOV for short term cash, VOO for long term. Don’t panic sell. Plan doesn’t change.

Whole_Platform_4313

Absoultely and I agree fully, but it my eyes it fully depends on risk tolerance, other foundational setups etc. Personally, I have a high risk tolerance. I’m 25, my 401k is already tracking the S&P and I’m aggressively investing. I want to grow my portfolio and you can certainly outperform the S&P short term (as you mentioned). Just gotta take advantage of trends and hedge when needed. But, if someone has a low risk tolerance then VOO/SCHB etc is just a much better direction especially if your not looking at your portfolio on a day to day basis

CartographerTrue1386

What is relevant for “under 30” in “long term” investment scenarios is yet to be seen. Additionally, $VOO isn’t safe because of my age (I’m 39 now haha) it’s safe because there will always be a top 500 companies making money in the U.S.

Whole_Platform_4313

The only thing I would say (and the position I’m in now) I think it depends on age. In this case he mentioned in another post he’s 38, so VOO is the safest, but if your under 30 years old high growth is the play shot term to grow your portfolio and once you reach a certain point eventually switch to a safe option

durmduke

VOO and pill

CartographerTrue1386

Any brokerage software has that info when you click on the ticker. But FYSA, $SPY is currently .0945% and $VOO is .03%. So roughly 3x higher. When it comes to things that involve numbers such as “ratios” try not to use subjective rhetoric like “slightly lower.” Math is math, feelings are feelings. What matters to you financially can only be decided by you.

lysergalien

VOO and panic

CombinationSilent877

I read that $VOO has a slightly lower expense ratio than $SPY. How big of a difference is this really? Are the differences really big enough warrant one or the other?

Brilliant_Voice1126

I would argue it hasn't. A small number of stocks like Mag7 have done well and AI/Chips, the majority of small and mid caps have seen mediocre growth for a bear market. The dollar is down 10% last year - worst drop in 50 years. VOO increased 18% - seems big, but then you look at Latin American index funds - 48%, European - 38%, Korean 100%! Our bull market is puny compared to how well the world is doing now that the US is losing it's economic primacy, legitimacy and trust. I repositioned to largely international ETFs, gold, etc., over the last year. I got 2x VOOs puny 17%. Combine that with the loss of value of the dollar and this is stagflation. We're holding still. My kids 529 that I moved into international when the idiot got elected is up 50% in one year.

Retired-Programmer

After I posted my comment I started thinking about what you were doing and started to get an idea but still didn't quite see/understand what you were doing. *>  I could fund my account with enough to cover the strike price so if I sell calls on* ***2 or 3*** *options I could fund it.* Ahh, now I think I see. You are buying protective puts for all of your VOO shares but only selling calls on **some** of the VOO shares (to offset the cost) so that the **remaining uncovered VOO** shares can still get the upside. **That** is what I was missing. I was thinking you would be doing it on all the VOO shares and therefore not getting any upside. Got it. Very interesting. So your original question here (and then add that only using 3 sold calls to pay for the 10 bought puts): *> If I do 600 puts at let’s say $15 and calls at $102. Does this mean that I’m going to be making money on this strategy since my calls are at a higher price of $102 vs the puts premium of $15?* So I tried to come up with the numbers for this, but gonna take some thinking. Later I will get out an excel spreadsheet to see if I can grasp this. Very interesting.

Eastern-Joke-7537

I bought a share of the value VOO play. VOOX or something

CarpinThemDiems

I bought some VOO the other day, so it's safe to say there's a big dip coming

DavidJS80

I appreciate the detailed response. Here’s what I think may happen and what I want to do to mitigate any risk. Maybe you can tell me the best way to structure this I own 1000 shares of VOO and I think we might be facing a 25% pull back in the S&P. I want to have a put that I can sell these shares for $600 if the market does pull back this much. I don’t want to sell my VOO shares because crazy things happen and the market could go up. I realize I have to pay a premium so I’d likely pay for 10 options to cover my 1000 shares for 6 months. In the long term, I think there’s S&P will be fine and wouldn’t mind buying back in at a much lower value. This is why I would want to sell call at $550 or maybe I’d do $525 or $500 but by doing this I can recoup some of the premiums on buying the puts. Certainly if I would buy back these shares anyways. I could fund my account with enough to cover the strike price so if I sell calls on 2 or 3 options I could fund it. I understand that either the put or call can never be in the money and I’m fine with that, I would pay a bit to just know that if the bottom falls out I’ve hedged.

Brilliant_Voice1126

The US market is only performing well if: 1. You ignore the dollar dropped 10% 2. You ignore the growth in international markets that lapped the US We are bears compared to the rest of the world and people really need to start looking at what intl markets did last year before saying VOO and chill. VOO did 18%. IEUR did 38. ILY did 48. EWY did 100%. We're being left in the dust.

Retired-Programmer

Not sure I am following here. You really need to spell out exactly what calls and puts you are doing. But looking at the current prices and your previous posts and I assuming you are looking at the 7/17 Options (seems to match the prices you are quoting) is this what you are planning on doing. I am very confused, but my interpretation is: 1. Buy VOO 7/21/2026 $600 Puts at $15/shr 2. Sell VOO 7/21/2026 $550 Calls at $102/shr (to help offset the cost of the bought Puts (#1). 3. You already own VOO shares to cover the $550 Short calls (#2). So you would receive $87/shr (102-15) for the trade when you open it. But with the sold $550 Calls if the price of VOO on 7/21 was above $550 you would have to sell your VOO shares at $550/shr. But since your received $87/shr when opening the trade and therefore your net on the sale would be $637/shr (550+87) which is the current VOO price and would profit with the bought put if the VOO price on 7/17 was below $600 (the farther VOO drops below $600 the more you make). But if the stock at 7/17 stays above $600 then the bought put goes worthless and you make no profit. So IOW, if VOO goes higher than $600 (lets say $700) you make no profit. It seems to me you should just sell the VOO shares now since there is no upside. What exactly are you doing. I am confused (I think everything I have said above is how it would play out, but not positive of that),

WeEatBabies

You would make 2% on your money in 2 years. $VOO goes up on average 11.5% per year, go with that!

DavidJS80

Got it, I think I’m beginning to understand this a bit more. I have a six figure amount sitting in treasures in my brokerage account. I can move that to cash and maybe buy 2 contracts on calls. Do I need to cover the price of VOO today or only the strike price? I.e., if I do 2 calls at $550 do I have to cover 200 shares at $550 ($110,000) or 200 sheets at $636 or so. Is the premium I’m getting paid higher than treasures? I think there’s a potential treasures could be doomed

DavidJS80

Really I want to do a protective put on my VOO shares but I’m trying to offset my premiums on the puts by getting call at a lower price to pay me premiums

Purple-Revolution-88

So one cash secured put is going to require you to put $60,000+ in reserve with the brokerage. Buying or selling options on something as expensive as VOO requires are very large amount of cash.

Ok_Dare5350

VOO. I don’t know anything about the stock market. Started investing a few years ago. I think I’m averaging 10%. I know this is high and will average out to something lower, but very glad I did so.

JediJofis

VOO and chill

CartographerTrue1386

$VOO / $SPY / $IVV and similar ETFs all hold the same securities (stocks) found in the S&P. A lot of words to say “yes.” Haha

InsanityOfPigs

The VOO is essentially the S&P from my reading, is it not?

Easik

I'd vote RSP right now. There is a lot of broadening out and defensive rotation. It's hard to say if the mag7 will continue to perform, which is heavily weighted in the VOO.

BackstrokingInDebt

Just looking at the allocations even in the passive indices feels lopsided. US accounts for ~70% of world developed market cap. Tech accounts for ~50% of US market cap. If you buy into long term reversion theory then you can make a case it should go into more of a long run rebalancing. So doesn’t have to be Greenland or maybe that is a catalyst. It doesn’t even have to be a crash. It could just be structural outperformance of international compare to US (see 2025 performance). How do you hedge that? You can just have a more international exposure. Less NASDAQ etf, less VOO. More world ex_US maybe some emerging markets. Plug your target funds and weights into some online portfolio analyzer and check your region allocation mix to set your long term target weights.

BeneficialQuality899

True, VOO is also good

Aggravating_Mix_5737

You should DCA into a virgin fund like SPY or VOO if you actually want to make money long term. However if you want to have fun use the method I described earlier

Kbeau937

Dont pay it off... VOO and chill

ITCHYisSylar

The same thing I do now.  Invest everything left over after paying my bills and budgeting in whatever VOO/VTI or variation and chill.

MaLTC

Put it all in VOO and don’t touch it for 10+ years. That’s truly all you need to know.

Think_please

90% in VT, 10% in cash/bonds/whatever dumb stock idea that you want to lose money on. Losing a little money on dumb investment ideas at your age will be incredibly valuable as you age, but the 90% in VT will make sure that you don’t lose everything. Then get a 401k at a job and keep putting more funds into VT, VOO, VTI, or whatever is available to you

rumpler117

You are in long term gains territory so sell half or 3/4s and put it in VOO.

BronYrStomp

Sell it all and dump it into VOO and chill

GaylrdFocker

3 fund portfolio is US, Intl, and bonds. Just because you picked 3 funds doesn't make it a 3 fund portfolio. If you want to overweight with QQQM or NLR then do whatever you want, but you should stick to a good base. Recommend VT instead of VOO then whatever else you want to do is up to you.

PrepperBoi

Lol I’d just put it in VOO for like 10 years then retire

Altruistic-Room2683

and lemme guess entire portfolio is worth $4k? just buy VOO...

Oncorhynchus-Clarkii

That might be an issue for some people but I am not a serious trader, I enjoy investing but not sure what I would do with the extra data lol. My roth is almost entirely VOO and QQQ, and my house fund is mostly well known single stocks (GOOG, NVDA, TSLA, AMZN make up over 70%) that I bought off of a hunch rather than any analytical data.

Andus35

Of course. No one just inherently knows about the stock market and investing; we all had to start from scratch and learn from one source or another. And the fact that you are even starting to care about investing at 23 puts you way ahead most people. Being a passive, long term investor is actually pretty easy once you get the basics and arguably the best strategy for most people in the long run (Investing in something like VOO and leaving it until you can retire is an example of passive, long term investing). But don’t think this will make you a rich 23yr old, or even a rich 40yr old. These investments will pay off when you are 60+ and can actually retire. At your age, the best investment you can make is in yourself and your career. If you can use your money to go to college, or a trade school, or get a certification; and leverage that into a higher paying job, that will pay off substantially more than putting that money into the stock market now.

Andus35

Open an account with a brokerage, like Fidelity or Vanguard. Put some money on it. Then invest that money into an S&P500 etf, like VOO. Fidelity has a lot of education videos on investing on their webpage, I would check that out to start. Also check out The Plain Bagel on YouTube as another good resource

mags87

Especially since this trade is over a year old. Eat the long term capital gains and toss it all into SPY or VOO.

ClippingTetris

Give yourself an allotment for ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’ risk investments. On the ‘Low’, look at indexes like VOO (overall), QQQ (tech) or ITA (military). For medium, speaking purely on tech, ASML, GLW, GOOG, AAPL, etc. On the high, but that into stock you think have the highest potential return. If you wanted to try something higher risk, look at an Options Call on an index fund ETF like $VOO or $SPY that doesn’t expire for 6-12 months.

Dull_Broccoli1637

Deleted, just like their unrealized gainz if they don't VOO and chill

lollipop999

Sir this is a casino, fuck VOO and chill

Hot-Staff3257

You foresaw that ASTS would be instrumental with Starlink about 1.5 years ahead of time. Now take your profits and leave a small percentage in. Open a Roth IRA and Roth 401k and do the mega contribution without tax penalties. Let the 3.5 million or so grow tax free with a solid stock or SPY/VOO with dividends…

xcexoztykl

Tax advantaged accounts first (ROTH IRA and 401k), because of the well, tax advantages. Also, it’s best to plant a tree now, so it can grow later. So even though they are retirement accounts, when you’re 60, you’ll have a ton of money. Then after a brokerage account. If you just wanna chill, either VOO/ its alts (S&P 500), VTI + VXUS/its alts (US total + International respectively) or VT/ its alts (Total world market) It’s not that deep so just pick one and stay contributing and buying shares consistently, no matter how small. The particular stock doesn’t matter as long as it tracks either of those indexes. (S&P 500, total US, etc etc).

Beantowntommy

How old are you? I did this on some stuff, realized VTI (well, VOO, since pivoted) is the way, and just put all my future investments in there. I didn’t rebalance but changed my future investment strategy. No need to rebalance unless you have a huge proportion of your investments in these assets and not a lot of runway to reallocate future earnings.

Crazy_Donkies

I honestly don't know what you're talking about.  I was up yesterday.  I'm not a VOO and chill nerd.

usa_reddit

Here is my stack since 12/29/2025 SCHG 45% SCHD 25% SGOL (Just bailed after making 6%) SMH 20% with a 15% Trailing Stop GOOGLE with a 10% Trailing Stop (totally speculative, I think they are going to own AI after the bubble bursts, probably going to sell and wait until the next dip) SGOV (Parking cash here for dollar cost averaging and buying dips) VYMI (Just sold after making 2.5%) COF (Bought it when dropped 10% on Trump's push to 10% APR on Credit Cards, already made 3%, did a sell to cover) The S&P returned 1.5% this year and I am already up 3.5% I am not going to VOO and chill. I am going to be aggressive, buy the fear like COF, chase the SEMIs, and chase the growth with SCHG then use SCHD to keep plowing dividends back into more cash and stock. So far I have beaten the market nearly every day of the year (NASDAQ, DJIA, S&P 500) including today which they were all down and I was still up .07% I am not fanatical about it but watch it at least every couple of days and trade at lunch based on news. My goal is to hustle 20% or better this year and I have 16.5% to go and 3.5% just at Jan 16th isn't too bad. My macro investor friends keep screaming about the Schiller Cape and are predicting a crash around August-December timeframe 2026. Everything is so dynamic right now it scares me a little.

what_could_gowrong

Unless you have domain specific expertise (medical/pharmaceutical science degrees, engineering degrees, CS/AI degrees, etc etc) an index fund would be a safe bet. Index fund can be SPY, VOO, QQQ. They track the best performing companies and are somewhat diversified. Though recent years they have been focused on tech stocks so if there's a draw down in tech/AI sector, these funds will also dump. You could also consider gold (unleveraged, just GLD or IAU shares) but I myself wouldn't recommend silver as gold is being bought by central banks but not silver. Both are precious metals but have different structures. Gold is explicitly a hedge to act against fear and inflation, silver is partially for that and meanwhile has industrial usage, it's complicated and myself isn't qualified to judge it. So I stick with gold. If you do have a degree (or experience), you can try to focus on a particular field of your specialize. Warren Buffett's "Circle of Competence" idea is very important here. Invest in something you understand well, or just buy index fund. It may look like one can throw money into a meme stock and make 3-4x gain, but without a thorough understanding of the stock and it's underlying business, it's hard to tell when to exit(sell), or whether an exit strategy is needed. You need some insights to know where a good performing stock is a quick trade, a short term bull ride, or a decade hold. If you feel like buying a index fund and hold it for years is boring, you could consider allocating a small bit ($500) to trading for fun. If you wonder what is an option contract. No you don't. Don't ask. Just…don't touch it.

Substantial-Dot-568

VOO

Heyhayheigh

You have it backwards. Roth should have your riskier plays. Taxable brokerage should be boring old VOO and chill. Buy VOO on auto weekly basis. Sell only when you have an urgent bill to pay for. If you’re going to stock pick, leave those long term in your Roth. But honestly everything should be auto. Taxable should have VOO and any SGOV for emergency funds and large known purchases.

fruitloop00001

You want VT not VOO. Why put all your eggs in the USA basket?

sl3azebag

a girl just texted me asking if she should buy the dip on VOO holy fuck I’m cheating I have to this might be my soulmate

_Swish-41_

SNDK would have to plummet at this point to not perform VOO in 2026 😂. It’s insane :)

Heyhayheigh

I bet you’re super young, google dividends are not free money. I bet you’re giving tax money away. VOO and chill. Buy auto and weekly. Have fun on the side with your video game stocks (you won’t make money), but the majority should just be VOO and chill. Best of luck.

Mister__Mediocre

I dislike this approach to investing so much. If your entire thesis is defense and space good, just stick to VOO... Why do you like these industries? Which component are you bullish about? Which companies address those components well? If you're not even going to bother asking these questions, thats just lazy man.

cjorgensen

The target date fund is already going to be skewed toward VOO. You should either do the TDF or make your own mix of break market and international. But mixing a target date fund with other ETFs kind of defeats the purpose of a TDF. Just TDF and forget everything.

Creative-Process-504

Human nature. Let me tell you my story. I bought tesla puts for 10k and it dropped like crazy. I turned it into 400k at one point and do you know where its at now? Its 0. I gambled hard daily and thought i was a genuis. Hell I was looking at chart pattern, job report and thought the stock market was totally predictable and called other an idiot for losing. The stock market is really just unpredictable and it can act irrational for years and years. What im trying to tell you is just hold index funds and chill. Im not smart enough to beat the market and neither are you. Unless you are given God given intelligence. You won't win. I also have a friend who has 125 verified IQ and even he cant beat the market. Its just extremely hard and unpredictable. Dont make the same mistake as me and just invest in VOO and chill bro

SpookyfromHell

1k into VOO, and yolo 10k

RegardedDegen

Turned 1k into 19k playing options. Definitely was luck, not skill. Should I walk away or keep playing? Thinking about taking 3k out for the tax man, buying myself something nice for 5k, putting 5k into VOO, then playing more options with the remaining 6k. Or just pay the tax man and roll everything into more options. Thoughts?

SnS2500

SNDK rose in the past because even after huge growth it has a forward PE of 15, while making a product investors think will continue to be desired. Obviously it is not as good a buy as it was six months ago in hindsight, but it still seems likely to outperform VOO this year. ASTS is partly just a short squeeze.

forlorn_hope28

The market movements of a day are completely meaningless over a span of 25-30 years (which is about how long until you begin accessing those funds). So long as you believe in your investments then ignore any short term trends. VOO and Target Dates are proven long term investments. Just circle back once a year to make sure you're still happy with your allocations.

good4y0u

Some tips: read the wiki here https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/ Also get a good every day finance book and read it. Look into Boggleheads and debt payoff methods ( if you have any). Some books: Rich Dad, Poor Dad," "The Psychology of Money," and "The Intelligent Investor. For long term, look into pre and post tax solutions, like the 401k or sole proprietor solutions. You might consider a 401k or similar pre tax to bring down your taxable income and if you think you'll be in a lower tax bracket when you retire. You consider a ROTH when you think you'll be in a high tax bracket when you retire. For short term and money you can liquidate, for longer holds large low fee ETFs, like VOO. Just buy some every week or month and dollar cost average, as you get older closer to 50 for example mix in bonds. For very short term, emergency fund, etc, you want a high yield savings account.

DressingOnTheClyde

Advice to new investor is for now dont pick stocks or trade on narratives. Get VOO, VONG - index trackers. Prioritize getting as much money in your ROTH as possible and put it in those for now/dont touch. Use no more than 5% of your total investments on hunches or new strategies at a given time while learning or when pursuing a narrative bet for at least a year. Use that much smaller pool of money as a test pool for new strategies. If they are beating voo over a reasonably large sample, that's when you can start SLOWLY expanding. I find its very difficult to beat buying large caps (occasionally mids you know thoroughly) with 30%+ to WIDELY COVERED reputable price targets and then holding them as long as targets keep rising. When I am putting new money in, the mag 7 furthest below price target is one of the first things I check. And I still keep half the money in indexes.

Independent-Drive-32

Here’s what you should do: 1) Sign up for Gold and put those funds into an IRA and get the match. *Make sure you then invest the funds in an index fund like VOO.* 2) In the Gold brokerage account, take advantage of the free $1000 margin. Use the HYSA funds you have plus the margin to buy SGOV. (So if you have $750 in savings, then buy $1750.) This will lead to comparable growth as an HYSA. 3) Apply for a Gold credit card. If they give it to you, this will be 3% cash back on all purchases, which is a better deal than you’ll find anywhere else. Put all your purchases on this card and *pay the credit bill in full every month without fail.* Note that re: 3 they may not give you the credit card. And that re: 2 there will be a margin maintenance requirement; while the $1k margin is free, if you don’t have any other funds in the account they can still prevent you from this strategy, meaning just holding the money in cash in the account is fine. Ask the Robinhood support how this would work in your specific scenario.