VOO

Forded_Fiction24

Data center, software and quantum are all tech basically one sector. Rare Earth and uranium are basically in the same sector. You're not diversified compared to VOO that has around 505 seperate holdings. That's why you're saying a difference. You shouldn't dump Broad-Based ETFs that are performing well and are expected to continue to perform over the long term

DrixGod

Well yeah because you need money to make money. Everyone says VOO & chill, VOO returns 13% on average a year, but when your starting capital is like 4000$, 13% is like 500$. What are you gonna do with that? Ofcourse they'd rather just gamble on a chance to double/triple their money overnight.

pr0prfkt

A pro managed portfolio is never going to beat sp500. A balanced portfolio will have bonds, international. Pure VOO is more aggressive than balanced portfolio. What is easy to say is that people are better off not paying a pro. But you’re comparing a life of investing vs not paying a fee. In reality: they don’t pay a fee, but they also don’t invest. I meet people everyday that wish they would have been paying fees for last 20 years, because all they have today is their 401k and their equity in their primary residence that they will never sell or get a loan against. It’s not about what you pay, it is about what your nest egg looks like. The data is clear, less than 10% invest outside of retirement… most people should be paying fees, at least they would be invested and off the sidelines…

guzzledglizzy

I could’ve just VOO and chilled but I got greedy and now I have nothing

Mindless_Acadia_7382

This is not a diversified portfolio. All of the stocks you list are already included in your ETFs. Many of the stocks are even included in all three of your ETFs: Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Intel, and Tesla. This means your girlfriend should hold the same stocks four different times: one time directly and then one time in each of the three ETFs. Also, growth doesn't mean that your money will grow faster if you invest in growth companies. It means that a high portion of the current stock price is not based on current earnings but on future growth expectations, which makes those stocks more volatile and risky. For example, in an environment of rising interest rates, like 2020 and 2021, those growth stocks lost more in value than if you had just bought a regular ETF with a whole broad market. If you want a diversified, relatively safe portfolio, then you should invest all in VOO, which is the US stock market, or in VT, which is the global stock market

zacksnack5

VOO is only 16 years old

RedWhiteBlueCountry

VOO

Fond_Memory

If it was me, I would look at schools I want to go to (It doesn't have to be grad school, it could be a trade program if you want to do some other skilled labor) and figure out how much money I need for rent, food, tuition etc. for the entire time I was going to be in school. Put that much money in something safe like a money market fund. Whatever is left after that can go in something like VOO.

Suspicious-Holiday42

In the long term VT outperforms VOO

NorthvilleGolf

It’s like VOO. People think price of VOO keeps going up but $1 buys less of a share of VOO every year.

MassiveLuck4628

Nothing is as inept as a financial advisor that thinks they can actually read the market. Paying a guy A 1% AUM fee to get beat by VOO year after year is insane to me, I will never understand the reasons why anyone would pay a financial advisor for investing

FatGPT3

And yet VOO beats most active investors on Wall Street.

justadimestorepoet

Not my best performer, but my favorite is HAPI, which, in a nutshell, seeks to invest in companies that treat employees well. I believe in the underlying logic, and I think it's a neat concept for an ETF. Pretty boring otherwise. Like 20% VOO, and smaller holdings in industries I don't feel confident picking winners in.

Intrepid-Wait-6102

70/20/10 VOO/VXUS/AVUV. I do that above and hold some individual stocks that I actually have genuine conviction in and are solid business to scratch that trader itch but definitely would trim most.

alphalegend91

Thirds from me. I can understand gambling as I've done some ballsy options in the past, but even I still keep a majority of my portfolio in VOO.

Mundane_Grand_9117

The first is to deeply internalize that you are likely to just do worse than buying VOO and holding.

BatCleanUp

Thank you for saying this. The last time I heard this was 2007 regarding home prices. Related Google search: If the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO reverted from its elevated valuation to a long-term historical average price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple, its price would drop to roughly $450 to $500. Current Valuation vs. Historical Mean * Current VOO Price: Trading near $713.60. * Current Market P/E: The S&P 500 trailing P/E ratio sits at an elevated 26x to 30x. * Historical Mean P/E: The long-term modern average P/E ratio for the index is closer to 18x to 20x. * The Math: A reversion from a P/E of roughly 28 down to a historical mean of 19 implies a valuation contraction of about 32%, putting a theoretical mean-reverted VOO price around $485.

Prudent-Corgi3793

Not at all. I assume by growth you mean "during accumulation phase". In international markets, the value factor has historically given better returns. - [DFIV](https://testfol.io/?s=k6MOsA4sWYi), a developed large cap value fund, has outperformed VOO by nearly 3% per year since inception (about 5 years) at lower volatility - [AVDV](https://testfol.io/?s=1ip8wFDnHWm), a developed small cap value fund, slightly trails VOO since inception (7 years) with similar volatility, but has dramatically outperformed since January 2025 by 23 percentage points per year. - [DFEV](https://testfol.io/?s=f8VmzxSFdPA), an emerging value fund, also slightly trails VOO since inception (4.5 years) with similar volatility, but has dramatically outperformed since January 2025 by 16 percent points per year.

buttscratcher3k

VFV vs VOO?

Bob_the_peasant

Anyone that has an issue with particular tickers being evil needs to take a good hard look at their precious VTI/VOO, take responsibility and go all cash You can’t have it both ways. might as well make extra money while everyone’s 401k juices the baddies anyway

Low_Plastic363

I have seen my future. It involves wheeling CCs and CSPs on my non-VOO bags and using the proceeds to stack VOO during the Great Bond-Driven Equity Reset of Late 2026. Please to be buying my calls, regards.

SteakEater137

Im making much more money than VOO, and that's kind of my point. You have to babysit everything to avoid losing money to the manipulation. Profitable? Sure. But gets tiresome.

hgangadh

Invest 30-30-40 VTI-QQQ-VOO Invest every month some money. Any money you keep for emergency put in a high yield savings account like Marcus/Apple Savings account. Most of these shares you can buy fractional shares once you have at least one share in the account.

AnotherThroneAway

I mean, literally you could have beaten the S&P over 10 years by buying 1 share of NVDA, and plowing the rest in VOO

jcpopm

This is the actual answer, though. I think he means no SPY/VOO but DRAM is pretty clearly the way to play memory.

jcpopm

This is the actual answer, though. I think he means no SPY/VOO but DRAM is pretty clearly the way to play memory.

creemeeseason

VOO and SPY are essentially the same thing with different expense ratios.

applebarista

Hi friends. Looking to rotate more into index funds/ETFs for part of my portfolio to reduce some volatility I experienced with semis. I’m eying VOO, VTI, SPY, but haven’t seen a major drop worth getting yet. I know they won’t drop much. Any one have any suggestions on whether to pursue these now, or perhaps any other index funds they are a fan of?

b1gb0n312

VOO instead of VT? you're going to ruin your portfolio!!!

Ernie_McCracken88

Just reading the title I said "I bet it's VOO and a tech index or a smattering of tech stocks"

LostintheCrown

This is why I don't think I'll ever trade options with more than 1k. It's just for fun and quick gains, 99% of my money is in VOO and chill.

Straight-Annual8687

Mix some VOO and VTI \~60% with some growh / fun and don't trade as frequently. My 'fun' include SOXL, TQQQ, IOVA, RIGL, PL...... I found if I'm too chill or too crazy it doesn't work. The balance keeps it interesting (and profitable)

Commercial_Seat_3704

I think it's time for me to hang it up and just VOO and chill. I've been trading for 10 years now and tbh this shit isn't fun anymore.

xHawk13

And this sub makes sure everyone knows that most people don’t beat the market. Buy SPY/VOO every two weeks. This is obvious best practices and logic. If you want to have a somewhat active investing strategy even if it’s not a “best practice” according this sub, you can’t even discuss this here and get downvoted. This is just an echo chamber without any real discussion most of the time. I’m not saying you will be able to beat the market but I would much rather read about peoples strategies that are not buying the same indexes every two weeks. This should be like investing101 sub. WSB is actually more advanced than this most of time with their DDs…lol

thatErraticguy

VTI instead of VOO? Wrongthink, ban this guy from the VOO and chill newsletter!

RegisteredJustToSay

Well, tax strategy, risk management and diversification, asset class allocations, choice of brokerage to minimize fees, etc. It's not like the only step is putting money in VOO.

harpswtf

That's not a bad idea, I should start a VOO and chill newsletter and email it out every day

Hodgey91

I thought the first 100k was the hardest? Mf I’ve been yoyo just above it for a good while now. Maybe it’s time for VOO and chill

NapNapNapNap

I just put my life savings on VOO shares. You’re welcome.

sitbar

Anyone holding just SPMO instead of memory/QQQ/VOO?

fulltea

VOO.

NecessaryEmployer488

VOO for equities is a balanced and diversified. I wouldn't say it is safe. The overall market can have pretty big waves and VOO will rise and fall with it.

0DTE_Demon

SPY nor QQQ are diversified, the fact that people think this and "VOO and chill" is so common is going to come back and bite people eventually. A market fund for the whole world is diversification, whereas SPY and QQQ are heavily betting on AI success.

Mcguffn

I buy whatever is trending… Made money off OPEN, SKHY etc. Then I sell and put the money in VOO. I never bet more than 10K in these “trends” and I always buy stocks with a stop loss

AspiringHippie123

3.3k invested in MSFT and NVDA is probably the exact opposite of low to medium risk. Pop 90% of your portfolio into VOO. As you keep investing money, keep that ratio. MSFT is a good long term investment, I would also suggest GOOG as it’s less propped up by AI. NVDA is risky, eventually competitors will eat up more and more of its market.

Diguojigood

Kill the shorts Kill the longs Kill the shorts Kill the longs Rinse and repeat I have my money in index and only play with a small gambling account for some fun. The only way to win this game is just VOO and chill, or take the gains and leave when you are still lucky, but how many can do that?

wonderland_citizen93

To be honest I have SPMO instead of VOO and I'm better the S&P500 so I'm not shifting off of it

wonderland_citizen93

Take profits, then readjust back to 90 voo, well I do SPMO instead of VOO

Informal-Lime6396

There's no guarantee your list will outperform for the next 3 decades. If it were me, while remaining at a low tax bracket, sell just enough that keep myself under a specific bracket. If selling will trigger taxes on your parents, help pay it. The first to go are the non-tech smaller names like MA, ROBO, EW, XPO, shifting them into some ETF like VOO or VGT. I prefer to let AAPL, GOOGL, MSFT run and monitor once evey few months.

CultofCedar

I mean it’s not Wsb but yea I’ve had most of mine split something like 40% VOO, 40% QQQ, 15% random long term, 5% yolo wsb style money. Overall I’m up around 70% ytd last I checked which is more than enough since I thought I was good years ago lol. Obligatory need money to make money but SPY options have treated me well and they’re not that expensive. Hard to be mad seeing 1000% gains over the weekend when the mango man says some dumb shit lol.

Cedar_Wood_State

90% VOO, 10% moonshot

cosmic_backlash

honestly nothing crazy. You don't need to be in a rush to unwind it. Once you figure out how to minimize taxes, slowly diversifying into VOO or a another general ETF would be good. You don't need to rush to unwind them, you can do a few % every 6-12 months. Try to figure out what the max is you can do without hitting egregious tax implications and just do that each year.

blubberhound

I will beat the S&P 500 and use my profits to get more VOO.

Crazunny79

IVV is better tan VOO for long term gain

chili01

Thats what I did, VOO/SPYM and DDM.

wonderland_citizen93

I feel like after a year I would have just switched to VOO

AlllOrNada

Have Robinhood disable event markets, it’s the same thing as going to a casino. Until you learn how to trade VOO and chill

chris_ut

Buying VOO is always a solid play but not what this sub is about.

CPR123_

VOO and chill tomorrow is what I’m doing might swing it with leverage though

MaximumBother7157

20M – Looking for Investment Advice Hey everyone! I’m 20 years old and currently live with my parents in Upstate NY. We don’t come from a lot financially, so I sometimes help parents with expenses if needed . For the most part, though, I’m able to save and invest what I make. Right now I have about $10,000 invested and another $2,000 in the bank. My portfolio is currently split roughly evenly between VOO, NVDA, and MSFT. I make around $3,000/month at my job while also taking college classes online. I can currently save/invest around $1,800/month. I have about two years of college left, I don’t pay because of financial aid and I have good grades so scholarship. I plan to live with my parents until I graduate. After that, I’ll move out and start paying more of my own expenses. Time horizon: I don’t need the investment money anytime soon. However, I’m planning on taking a solo trip or two next year, which could cost around $5,000 total. I really want to travel while I’m young, so I’m trying to balance investing with actually enjoying life. Risk tolerance: I’d say low to medium. I don’t want to take on a ton of unnecessary risk. I also have no major debt or car loans. I have an older car that I bought for about $3,000 two years ago and it’s still running fine. Given my situation, what would you guys prioritize? Should I keep building up my cash savings before investing more, or continue investing aggressively while I have relatively low expenses? And how would you structure the portfolio? Any advice is appreciated.

designthedays

Social security has an income cap...because it has a benefits cap. The answer to fixing the social security deficit should be to invest the social security funds in the stock market (VOO or VTI or something). 50-year long term average return = 10.9% vs. the 4.7% for treasury bonds (what social security funds are put in).

deadfishlog

If you’re worried about that switch to RSP from VOO or split the difference

musicandarts

You are asking the right questions. Here are few comments that may be helpful. Most Americans get wealthy by saving and investing. A two-income middle class family can grow their retirement fund to about $5 million by investing $20,000 per year. All they need to do is put the money in S&P 500 mutual funds or ETFs. You should check the wiki section of r/bogleheads. There is also a brief article by William Berstein titled "If you can" by William Bernstein that is worth reading (available on r/Bogleheads and on the internet). So, you may ask why do people trade a lot, especially here? In the math in the above paragraph, I used an annual return of 12% which matches the historical returns of US stock market in the last decade. However, if you trade stocks, options, etc, you may get returns as high as 20-100 times that amount. You may also lose all your money in these risky trades. Now let me briefly answer the questions you asked. 1. In theory, it is possible. In practice it is very hard. it is hard to figure out when the peak and troughs happens, except on hindsight. So, you end up selling when the stock has not reached the eventual highs, and buy when the stock has not dropped enough. 2. You say you lost money if you were hoping to make a quick buck. Long term investors in US stock market (eg ETFs like VOO or VTI) don't say that they lost money. When I was working, I contributed about 20% of my salary every month into VOO or VTI. The day-to-day fluctuations never mattered, as I was not selling and withdrawing from my 401k account. 3. Trading utilizes the daily fluctuations. See answer #1. If you buy and sell at the wrong time, you lose money. In spite of the wealth of information we have, it is near impossible to predict the short term fluctuations. For example, see how difficult it is to predict the increase or decrease in the stock price of SPCX tomorrow. Most of us will get it wrong. 4. This is what Jack Bogle and the Bogleheads advise (e.g. VOO). But buying continuously for thirty is not fun. This subreddit thrives on the thrill of the possibility of very large gains from risky trades. 5. No. Most people lose money by taking huge risks on a market that is largely unpredictable. The unpredictability increases when you are playing with individual stocks or options.

joel_2025

Sell all your VOO

TheNobleHeretic

Most of you guys should work on your gambling addiction and just VOO and chill tbh.

Valuable-Feature-751

Don’t quit bro. I’m in the same boat down 25K and every week I deposit 1K but mainly I lose my money from SPX0DTE. I’m trying to refine my strategy and I keep re-trying every week with the new $1000 because I know eventually my strategy be right and what’s the 25K I lost eventually I’ll make that back and more once I get my strategy right and my methods right. But current this year I’m down 10k last year 5k and year before 10k. All together since I started trading (only options I don’t wanna hear nothing about VOO till I build my money up) -25k. No big deal most importantly keep trying!

neonam11

One of my godson works for his dad. Makes good money. Lives at home. I encouraged him to put away some money for retirement., heck I’ll even show him how to invest. He flat out says no. I give all the siblings money for Xmas and their birthdays. I’m talking triple digits total. My instructions is that the money buy VOO in their investment account. This kid is so stubborn that he refuses to take the money because it’s too much hassle to open a brokerage account. Hopefully he will learn in the future that investing is worth it and not much a hassle. Who knows.

Misaiato

You’re 19, so I’d recommend SCHG 50%, VOT 20%, VBIK 10%, VIGI 20% And leave it alone for 10 years at least. Probably longer. You can rotate in your mid to late 30s towards the more traditional VOO at 70% keep SCHG at 20% and add SCHF at 10%

RedditLeagueAccount

Good job starting at 19! The question is how much you want to be involved. As u/[LCJonSnow](https://www.reddit.com/user/LCJonSnow/) said, sector stuff tends to under perform. So that volatility might not even be as profitable. You will have to micro manage those sectors to sell high and buy low to generate outstanding returns. Generally, people recommend 3 fund or 4 fund portfolios. This maximizes results while taking out micromanaging. Those 5% funds you have - They are fine if you are up for checking on these stocks every day/week. Generally, energy and rare earths do not outperform the market. You might have some random spikes but then it will either stabilize or drop. Even if they outperform 1 year, the next 5 years, voo will beat it. So, it is 100% okay to get those funds. Just be aware they need to be monitored. I know Exxon mobile is a popular pick. It is a good choice from that sector. Just check graphs. It wont beat most other fund types most of the time. I did the same thing with my account where I had a few gambles. I have a separate account just for playing with certain stock types. I don't put a lot of money in it. It is just learning/playing around money. As mentioned earlier, It requires constant observation. It is hard to avoid grabbing those few extra stocks to see what will happen. Just don't make it a large portion of the portfolio. I think 5% combined at most. I believe that ETF's are almost exclusively better than mutual funds in most scenarios but fidelity does have those zero expense ratio funds. I do agree that there should be zero bonds at your age. These are good. * VOO * QQQM * FSTA * FZILX Consider SPMO. Newer fund, similar to VOO but less holdings and a slightly different methodology. Slightly higher volatility but it has been out performing. If you think the stock market is going to crash, VTI is better than both VOO and SPMO. It will drop less and recover decently. VOO only started outperforming VTI significantly in recent years. Can VTI for now and change it later. This would be for if you think AI is a bubble right now or if you think the current Oil war will impact everything. You might want a 5% for a mix of gold and bitcoin (bitcoin does have etf's so you don't have to worry about owning BTC itself). Bitcoin seems kinda scammy but its in a down cycle. We will see if it recovers or finally dies. Gold is for if inflation destroys the USA Dollar. Might not matter at your age. I ignore gold myself but I know its on a lot of peoples recommendations to have a small position in it.

broifoundawalrus

I just finished my first internship (20 YO) and got my first taste of real money. I had around 7,000 that I wanted to put away. I put 2k in a hysa (3.3 APY) and I wanted to put 5k into the stock market. It was my first time ever investing. I decided I would just put it all in VOO and VOOG. I’ve refrained from investing before just cus I never felt like I fully understood it or it got too complicated. That’s why I decided on this simple strategy. Would anyone like to share their thoughts on this decision?

Cautious_Ticket_8943

Put what you have left in VOO and keep it there for ten years.

_Underscore_Unders

Look at the annualized return on VOO, then look at yearly inflation numbers since VOOs inception. VOO has far surpassed inflation in the long term. It surpassed inflation many times over in just the last year.

Low_Plastic363

You know what doesn't suck? Leaving it all in VOO and getting +15% without sweating a single buffoonish tweet.

SpiderWil

VOO would take 200 years or some ridiculous amount of time to generate enough cash to guard against inflation.

Various_Couple_764

Some people prefer no bonds others prefer dividends over bonds. many just go with growth It is mainly a mater of personal preference. One thing to keep in mind is that the more money you can get into the account the larger the account will be when you retire. But the roth limits you to 7.5K a year. One way to get more cash into the account The interest from bonds adds additional money to the 7.5K a year deposit. But the yield is low about 4%. I would use a dividend fund like QQQI 13% yield 100K invested in QQQI would add 13K pre year to tha account. Add in 7.5k yearly deposit and you now have 20.5K a year going into the account. If you reballance every couple of years to 50% QQQI and 50% VOO and reach 1 Million invested you would get 50K a year of income and 500K in growth.

Loose_Hornet4126

Lame. You could have just bought VOO and chilled instead of actively "trading" at this point

sbcpacker

I would open an account with Vanguard and set it to auto invest in VOO (which is a Vanguard ETF). Fidelity is not bad either.

Status-Put8162

Market right now is too volatile to take any advice from anyone other than government officials. Invest in well diversified EFTs. $VOO $VOOG $VTI $SCHD

Sharp-Direction-6894

Unless you've got a $3M portfolio that is VOO and chill, you belong here.

massageobsessed001

One thing I will say, though, is that if you don’t need the money you have in BTC, leave it untouched. Focus on VOO with your future paychecks.

shia84

yeah be flexible. If you have a stable job, do you really need to have a 6 month emergency fund? No need to sell VOO and pay 15% LTCG tax to fund a trip. Just take it from your sgov/cash fund, then when you come back from vacation start putting money back in. You have 300k enough to bear through any market downturn and survive.

Zestyclose_Panda_886

$300,000 in ETFs Just keep adding to SGOV, huh? *Don't be afraid to pay taxes on profits.* SGOV is a 4% return. VOO or JEPQ is 10%.

15pH

If you finally saved 5k for a 5k trip next year, I keep it in something safe like SGOV, because any loss means you can't take the trip you planned. If you are investing for a potential trip that isn't planned and trying to grow money, then total after-tax returns are all that matter. Everyone's tax situation is different so you need to do your own math (or ask AI), but generally LTCG (VOO) is the best tax treatment you can get, and unqualified dividends (JEPQ) is the worst.

MagazineTube

Something like VOO?

TheRealArmament

Why VOO? QQQ has better returns

NapNapNapNap

I’m putting my life savings in VOO on Monday. You’re welcome.

QuantGuru

If you are creating income portfolio then diversification is best, so have some in VOO / XEQT and QQQI, SPYI, JEPI, TSPY etc. If you are young and don’t need monthly income then just do index ETF.

rndname

That looks like VOO

TreGet234

Did you get rugged on crypto and space too? So many crazy traps this year. VOO and chill really was the move, or even VT and chill.

Alternative-Car8221

Btw if you had just put that money in VOO you would have over $200K now and a lot less stress. Just thought you should know the financial loss was greater than in your screenshot.

PashasMom

Okay OP. I have been thinking about how to offer you some options for strong diversification while still having VOO be one of your two funds. First off -- why diversification? Diversification is never about getting the best possible returns. Only people with the best luck in the world or a crystal ball are going to get the best possible returns. But if you diversify, you will never get the worst possible returns. If you had been investing from, say, 2000 - 2009 and had been all in on the S&P 500, your portfolio would have been toast. You would have really suffered. But if you had some small companies, some international, and some bonds, you would have been just fine. Diversification means whatever asset class is doing well, you own it. But it also means whatever is doing poorly, you own it. So if you are diversified, there is always going to be one part of your portfolio that makes you sad and angry. You have to be okay with that. So how to diversify just using two funds, with one of them being VOO? I would add either a global equity fund or a global equity + bonds fund. I can already here people screaming about overlap and how you should either pick just VOO or just a global fund and having two funds is ridiculous because VOO is already in the global fund. That's true. But if you want to overemphasize large US companies but still be diversified, you can do that with VOO + a global fund. There are lots of options for global funds. For equities, the most popular by far is VT, but I like SPGM a bit better as it screens out some of the less profitable companies. If you want global + bonds, then I really like AOA. It has 20% bonds. Both AOA and SPGM have outperformed VOO since 2025: [https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/fund-performance?s=y&sl=1SyceDv5zs9w4a8pVntub8](https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/fund-performance?s=y&sl=1SyceDv5zs9w4a8pVntub8) You can see that AOA is less volatile, with less severe drawdowns, than either fund. I really like AOA, I invest in it pretty heavily myself. However, VOO did outperform for the ten years or so prior to 2025. There have been cycles of outperformance between US and international funds for decades. No one knows what will happen in the near term or long term, but it's pretty safe to say that there will continue to be shifts and cycles. So, if you are up for all equity, consider 50/50 VOO and SPGM (or VT). If you are up for having a portfolio with 10% bonds to smooth the ride a bit, consider 50/50 VOO and AOA. Both options would give you exposure to the entire US market (with a strong lean to large companies) and the entire global stock market (with a strong home country bias). AOA would add 10% in diverse bond holdings, likely resulting in a bit lower gains, but also lower volatility.

WordsHappenedHere

You are doing way too much here. Just Hold SPY VOO XLK. Way too much individual stock risk for me.

_Stylite

You took losses this year while SPY and VOO made all time highs. Just buy them and move on with your life

riisenshadow92

JEPQ and drip into VOO

PashasMom

Affording to put 40% of your IRA in bonds is probably not where you are, financially, if this is your only retirement income. If you already have a solid pension, sure. Otherwise, I wouldn't choose 40% in bonds especially since your risk tolerance is moderate to high. Do you have a solid cash emergency fund in a HYSA? If not, you want to work on that as well. Aim for maybe 18 months of expenses in a HYSA or money market fund by the time you retire. This can be your safety and stability. If you don't want all the volatility that goes with 100% equity, I would do no more than 20% in bonds (preferably 10%). Short term TIPS are great for stabilizing a portfolio while adding some value along the way. Here's a comparison showing VOO + 40%, 20%, and 10% short term TIPS: [https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=65E14U5G2zSvZDQBqEYhkp](https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=65E14U5G2zSvZDQBqEYhkp) Personally I would want to diversify into more than just large US companies. While large US companies have done great over the past fifteen years, there is no guarantee they will outperform in the next fifteen or thirty years. International funds have outperformed since early 2025. Small cap value funds also can add a lot to your eventual ending balance -- but they can also be extremely volatile, underperforming for years, making things look terrible, only to absolutely shoot up on the occasional year. You have to be extremely patient with them and not mind the ups and downs. If you think you might be interested in using something like international funds or small cap value funds, let me know and I can do some backtested portfolios for you. But if you aren't comfortable with international funds or with the crazy ride of small cap value, that is fine and you should stick with what you are comfortable with.

Private_Jet

It's not for everyone. Most people should just index and chill. Imagine $75k invested in VOO from 3 years ago. You'd have over $150k by now.

VaIentineX

i lost so much sleep this year only to earn same as if i had VOO and chill

xTheatreTechie

You're going to want to open a Robinhood account, Robin hood gives you a free 1% bonus for everything you throw into your Roth IRA. Which sounds like the account you want to open. From there you set your Roth it's to automatically draw the 10 dollars a week/month whatever you're comfortable with.  You're probably going to want to set it to invest in VOO. which is the USA sp500 mirror. Its nearly identical in terms of the sp500 but 1/3 the cost. "WAIT WHAT COST?" All ETFs will charge you like a percentage of whatever you invest so that they manage your fund. It's pennies. I believe it's 0.03%, so not even 3 percent, a percent of a percent.  Let it do its thing, when you go to retire you get that amount tax free. 

helpifell

If I was starting right now with that strat I would choose Charles Schwab and do SWPPX. It has like some ever so slight advantage over trading VOO. With slight tradeoffs like I don’t think you can trade your investments instantly

SecondSt4ge

Bro stop. Just buy VOO and don’t look at it