VOO

anonymous_ghost-1

Just hold if you got stocks in good companies. Only way to make decent money out of this scam. Buy VOO later when you are in profit.

Abject_Wish_3787

I think I will just VOO and chill FFS, this is pure scam

vinylzoid

I came to say the same thing. VOO is 40% tech and its largest position is NVDA. I choose VTV over VOO for better diversification.

hotdog-water--

I’ve seen much worse. You’re concentrated, but that’s not always a bad thing. I’m a huge fan of TSM so personally I’d add more to that and decrease AMZN. Right now AMZN is your second largest holding when you include the weights in AMZN from VOO and QQQM plus 8% direct - that’s a lot in AMZN, you need to be extremely, like extremely bullish in AMZN to have that much weight. So I’d ask WHY that much? Why AMZN over GOOGL or MSFT? No shade but just be ages Chris Camillo says Amazon is good doesn’t mean it is. (For disclosure I’m overweight Amazon too, but not THAT overweight). Meanwhile TSM is probably the best company on earth you can buy, and it’s underrepresented in most ETFs, so I’d consider adding extra weight to that

Xnimous

Just VOO if it’s your first 10k.

dataCollector42069

DCA about 5k a week or so into VOO

jackyy83

It dropped 20% from the peak, but people were also having some unrealistic hype about it with AI, so the stock price just reflects the corrected view now. The question is do you think some of the common hold belief about MSFT is wrong thus it will have the potential to out grow the market in the next few year? If not, why not just buy VOO, which you can just buy and forget

JuicyJohnny69

Stick to VOO kid

Melodic-Charity-4610

Puts on VOO

golbaf

Actually VOO is arguably the best part of that portfolio. I’m going to get downvoted to oblivion for this, but thinking you’re better than a zillion others out there and can beat the market over 20 years is mostly gambling (90+% fail, but sure, go ahead). This is investing, not wallstreetbets. All they need is some low cost globally diversified ETFs

DonkeyNutsEnthusiast

Even with a modest 7% yearly gain, he would have over 4.1 million after 10 years in VOO or SPY. lol

BrainJar

You do you, but to me, that looks like a lot of overlap. VOO composition looks to be weighted at the top similarly to your remaining portfolio components. https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/voo#portfolio-composition. If you’re shooting for the stars, go for it. It’ll hurt worse if these top companies dive. Maybe think about taking some out of VOO and diversifying, with international (VTIAX) or extended market (VFX).

sunms1

Vanguard VOO and educate yourself.

CryptoSamia

I backtested your portfolio and asked AI insights and the following is written and analyzed by AI not me: This backtest takes a hypothetical $10,000 and runs your "Scanned portfolio" (10 holdings) against the S&P 500 (using SPY as the stand-in for "the market") over about 5.4 years, from March 2021 to July 2026. A backtest simply replays history to see how a mix of investments would have behaved — it's a rear-view mirror, not a forecast. The headline story Your portfolio grew faster than the market, but with bigger swings along the way. Your portfolio turned $10,000 into $33,654 — a total return of about 237%. The S&P 500 turned $10,000 into $21,381 — a total return of about 114%. In annual terms (CAGR, the smoothed yearly growth rate), your portfolio grew about 25.1% per year versus 15.1% for the market. So over this stretch, your mix roughly doubled the market's growth rate. But the extra reward came with extra bumpiness. The trade-off: more return, more risk Volatility (how much the value bounces around) was about 20.1% for your portfolio versus 15.4% for the market. Higher means a wilder ride. Maximum drawdown (the worst peak-to-bottom drop) was about -29.0% for your portfolio versus -23.9% for the market. Both bottomed out in September 2022. Your worst calendar year was 2022 at -26.1%; the market fell -18.2% that year. Your best year was 2024 at +57.7%. A useful way to judge whether the extra risk "paid off" is the Sharpe ratio — return earned per unit of risk taken. Yours was 1.15 versus 0.89 for the market, so you were rewarded more per unit of bumpiness. The Sortino ratio (which only counts downside bumpiness) tells the same story: 2.04 versus 1.47. What drove the results Your portfolio is heavily tilted toward large U.S. tech and a few individual stocks. The biggest engines of return were: VOO (Vanguard S&P 500, 50% of the portfolio) — the steady core, up about 15.1% per year. NVIDIA (10%) — up about 65.7% per year; a huge contributor despite being only a tenth of the money. Berkshire Hathaway (4%) — up about 72% per year, punching well above its small weight. Rocket Lab (2%) — up about 46% per year, but extremely volatile. A few cautions in that breakdown: Rocket Lab's volatility was about 105% — meaning its price roughly could swing by that much in a year. Even a 2% slice of something that wild adds real risk. Tesla (5%) and Amazon (8%) were comparative laggards here, returning about 12% and 9% per year — below the market — so not every pick was a winner. Beta was 1.19, meaning your portfolio tended to move about 19% more than the market in both directions. Alpha of about 6.9% suggests you earned return beyond what that market exposure alone would explain — largely from those standout individual stocks. Concentration and correlation Most of your holdings move closely with the S&P 500 (correlation to the market was about 0.92, where 1.0 means "moves in lockstep"). That means this isn't a very diversified portfolio — it's essentially an amplified bet on U.S. large-cap and tech. The one real diversifier was Berkshire Hathaway, whose correlation to the rest of the portfolio was only about 0.18, meaning it often zigged when others zagged. Your international fund (VXUS) added some diversification too but was a modest performer at about 9.5% per year. The rougher moments The drawdown history shows your portfolio took a deep 29% hit that started in late 2021, bottomed in September 2022, and didn't fully recover until June 2023 — roughly 19 months in the hole. There were smaller dips too, like about -11% in early 2025 and -7% in early 2026, but those recovered within a few months. This is the emotional cost of the higher returns: you'd have needed the stomach to sit through a nearly one-third decline without selling. Important caveats Past results don't predict the future. NVIDIA and Berkshire's outsized gains during this exact window did the heavy lifting; there's no guarantee any stock repeats that. The test assumes no transaction costs and no taxes (transactionCostPct is 0), so real-world returns would likely be somewhat lower. Results are not inflation-adjusted, so these are "before inflation" dollars. Dividends were reinvested, and the portfolio was rebalanced once a year (each February) back to the target weights. The date range was trimmed to 2021-03 through 2026-07 because that's the overlapping data available for all holdings — a fairly short window that happens to include a big tech boom. The bottom line for an everyday investor: over this specific period, your portfolio meaningfully beat the market, and the risk-adjusted numbers suggest the extra risk was well-rewarded. But the gains lean heavily on a handful of concentrated, high-volatility bets, and the portfolio moves largely in step with the market while amplifying its swings.

Bob4Not

I’d much rather buy a fund like VOO so you’re not betting on a single dang company.

Weird_Track_2164

Put it in VOO and turn your brain off.

Chriah

The biggest factor at your age is debt. It’s nearly unavoidable. Create a strict budget with money for rent, fun, etc and actually track it. Whatever portion you allocate for investing, put 90% into a broad market ETF like VOO and the other 10% buy individual stocks or ETFs that interest you. The 10% will keep you engaged and make it fun. It will feel like nothing is happening for years, maybe even a decade. Then one day you will realize you have an actual sizable amount, all because you took the time and were willing to delay gratification of spending it immediately.

Informal-Lime6396

Queue the VOO and chill crowd. I subscribe to the risk taking while young, so VOO + some sector ETFs like VGT and SOXX. Whatever you do, don't do Boglehead at 18, it's for older people closer to retirement. Don't gamble with options. Keep a 6 month emergency fund if you live alone, or less if still with parents. The rest belongs in ETFs. A good resource is https://www.youtube.com/@clearvaluetax9382, see the high view count videos first.

Familiar-Suspect730

At 22, the biggest advantage you have is time, so the primary focus should usually be long-term growth, diversification, and keeping the strategy simple. The funds you've selected are all quality ETFs, but the key question is what role each one plays in your overall portfolio. Since you already have a VOO-focused brokerage portfolio, adding more U.S. dividend and value exposure through VIG and SCHD may create overlap rather than additional diversification. VXUS can provide international exposure, which many investors use to reduce reliance on the U.S. market. VNQ can add real estate exposure, but remember REITs already have different tax and risk characteristics compared with owning physical real estate. A possible approach is to first define your target allocation: - How much U.S. equity exposure do you want? - How much international diversification? - Do you specifically want dividends, or are you prioritizing total return? - How will this fit with your 401(k) and taxable accounts? At your age, avoiding unnecessary complexity is often more valuable than adding more funds. A simple, low-cost portfolio that you can consistently contribute to for decades will usually outperform a strategy that is constantly adjusted.

pr0prfkt

VOO QQQM, SGOV for short term cash. You will learn more over time. You can do all with just those honestly.

smalltalk2k

If your timeline is 15+ years, the strategy doesn't change: Stay the Course: Keep buying broad, market-cap-weighted index funds (like VTI or VOO, or VT). A crash just means you buy the best companies in the world at a discount. Dial Down Risk if You Can't Sleep: If the volatility genuinely terrifies you, don't try to pick AI-free stocks. Just shift a percentage of your portfolio into fixed income (like short-term Treasuries) or an equal-weight index fund (like RSP) to dilute the mega-cap concentration. Time, not timing, is the ultimate hedge

rithsleeper

How is this even measured? Is it cash that is sitting in savings accounts? Or is this people sold assets in a brokerage and is sitting in SGOV or just idle? How do we know that cash would be invested if choices were made? Most people I know glaze over if I try to explain how to put their money into a brokerage and just buy VOO. It’s amazing. But yet they have a “savings” account with wells fart go that requires them to deposit $20 a week to avoid a fee.

Jealous_Bookkeeper20

If you leave the US in 7 years, your destination country's tax treaty determines if the Roth IRA remains tax sheltered. Most countries don't recognize the Roth wrapper. You'll likely face annual taxes on dividends and capital gains back home, or you'll have to liquidate the account. If you end up liquidating it or paying local taxes, high-yield assets like VNQ and SCHD stack tax friction. VNQ's yield is taxed as ordinary income and it's highly inefficient outside a US tax shelter. A clean VTI and VXUS split's easier to manage and it's more treaty friendly. You've also got high look-through overlap. VOO, VIG, and SCHD share many of the same US large-cap holdings, which just layers the same domestic beta. Where do you plan to move after your US residency ends?

Grahvex

Low Cost index funds that track the SP500 use VOO for that. If not use VTI tracks entire US Market. Either one is great for long term as you will always be holding the winners.

iamNotLyingMan

Not enough money to matter. But keep buying VOO

DependentAnimator742

So many of you have told the OP to buy and hold, then sell sometime in the future, after appreciation. You're missing a key point: the OP is looking for some immediate or near-term income - there's a sh\*#load of frustration and impatience in that post. The other thing y'all aren't hearing is that the OP seems to be stuck in a 'no/low risk but high reward' mindset. The OP mentioned having a bond fund/funds. That tells me real risk aversion. So the OP needs to relax a little AND be rewarded with seeing tangible portfolio increases in the Roth, my guess within the next 6 mnth or a year, before he/she jumps off a cliff. I'm going to suggest baby steps for this OP. If it isn't like this already within the Roth, change it to: 1/4 Bond of something like SGOV, for security, 1/4 Growth like VOO (which will be realllllly tough for the OP to have faith in, this can take years in a flat market), 1/4 in a middle-of the road ETF like SCHD, and 1/4 in covered call ETFs, like QQQI and SPYI. << That last one is where the instant gratification is. Further, you all are wrong to say ETFs don't appreciate. I'm looking at my Schwab now and I have some covered call funds - SPYI, for example - that has a 38% appreciation in less than 2 years, PLUS the 10%+ yield. The worst performer I've had (which I sold a few years ago) was JEPI. I have ETV, which gives me a solid 7% yield with only 12% appreciation in 2 years, but I keep it because it is tax-advantageous, somthing the OP doesn't need to worry about. I also have GPIQ and NIHI, among others. I'm trying to post a screenshot of a partial view of my portfolio on here but I can't seem to do so. All in all, I don't believe that over the long term the OP needs a big covered call portfolio. But to kick start their psyche, yes, it's a good move.

sdrockr

yea... for me overnight would be 2-3 years... which is still very fast... i made a move into an individual stock on thursday which i think will do good in the longer run 3+ years.. anything else going forward will go into VOO again.

toyz4me

If it’s my first $19k going into the market, I wouldn’t be trying to pick a single stock to try an hit it big I would get into o r or two of the ETFs that gives broader access to/ exposure to the markets. Such as: VOO IVV SPY VTI ITOT FXAIX

golf_234

This, I’d put money elsewhere. Even VOO will probably significantly outperform MSFT over many years , company just isn’t working on the hype side which does matter

DaemonTargaryen2024

That's fine. You can also complement VOO with VXF if you want to add diversification

DynaGuy-071

What if im already on VOO/VXUS in personal taxable brokerage

Rubsy

You americans can only comprehend your way of life and situation and no other... Where I live we have 2.9% interest on mortgages and increasing demand. Last 5 years realestate prices doubled here. A lot of people who were smart to take advantage of low interest rates bought extra stuff and made bank. Gold had a huge boom, crypto had its time also. Do your VOO all you want but stop acting like its the only means to an end.

HardlyDecent

Oh yeah, let me just drop my spare $200k on a rental home downpayment, absorb all the ever-increasing labor/material costs of upkeep and modernization, and pray for low vacancy while I shell out *another* 3k per month in hopes of getting my head above water. All while paying over 6% interest. Thanks, I'll buy literally any amount of VOO and chill instead, because now that's possible, whereas it wasn't 10 years ago.

SupraTacky

Back to VOO buddy

beauty_land_drums

All we know is what the market is doing now and what it has done in past. If market is trending down now - maybe wait till it seems to have found a solid base support - and then lump the sum into the fund. But that is timing the market. If your fund is SnP index like VOO or even broader like VTI - then you’re probably safe lumping it in now (as the market has had some recent pullbacks) and thus getting the “time in the market”

Paul_Robert_

$VOO

octopus_serenader

GOP was nicely outperforming VOO over the last 6 months and NANC was under. However the last 3 months, NANC is beating it. I hate this. 😂

music_is_gud

If I have to buy and forget something for all of 2027, what would that be? Other than SPY/VOO obviously

Dracomies

As others mentioned, I'm no all just VOO and chill anymore. Something's changed where I feel that's not as effective anymore.

Dracomies

I wonder if VOO is the play these days. I mean, it very well could be. But I feel things have changed.

FreeOGPoohShiesty

Listen. 80% VOO and 15% VXUS and 5% to buy stupid shit. The 5% should be going to VOO or VXUS but you’re human and you’re gonna get bored. If you get an urge to buy stupid individual stocks and ride meme stock waves, use that 5% to protect yourself from doing stupid shit with the other 95%.

MarlonMcCree20

VOO and chill. Knew nothing about investing but heard your typical put x in S&P500 and it will be worth x in 20 years. A large portion of my investments are in VOO, and I do not want to make this political, but the current administration made me realize their can be huge swings in the market based off of a single tweet. So for that reason, I diversified a bit more.

greenpride32

VOO (instead of SPY) and QQQM (instead of QQQ) because they have lower expense ratio but invest in same underlying indices.

Past_Paint_225

VOO and (barely) chill.

bam2350

I'm going to provide extra context, which I think this conversation needs. I opened my brokerage account in 2015 with the goal to get better gains than my checking account which had accumulated too much cash. Lesson/question/change #1: Why didn't I figure out HYSA??? At the time, my father was my coach. He was fully retired, 75 years old, and living on dividends, social security, and pension. His guidance, which made sense to me, was towards dividend paying reliable stocks of companies that we're going to fail. For example MMM or ATT. He told tales of stocks he "couldn't afford to sell due to gains/tax" and the neat companies he had invested in (BGS) that had done so well. It seemed he clearly had it figured out. In time, Dad has passed, I have taken control of his old accounts to provide for my mother. There is clear evidence of emotional investing, and choices he made clearly haven't all panned out. For example, the BGS shares he gifted me are now nearly worthless. Lesson/question/change #2: Dad wasn't a genius and didn't always get it right. Lesson#3: Emotional decision making is frequently not the best. However, my mother remains well provided for, even as her costs skyrocket in assisted living. Dad was a proponent of picking individual stocks. Through time I have largely moved away from this. I continue to hold individual stocks, which has generally been OK, but hasn't "beat the market". However, since my objective was to do better than my checking account, I'm doing very well. Lesson/change #4: Instead of focusing on picking individual stocks, using broad index funds is easier and quite successful. Lesson #5: Understand and remember your objectives. At this point, VOO, VTI, and DIA account for about 30% of my brokerage portfolio. A few big winner individual stocks and a few more funds (including SGOV) round out my top 10 holdings. Going forward, I will almost certainly continue to focus on adding to my VOO, VTI, and SGOV positions. I have benefited from and enjoyed my dividends. However, some of my worst moves have been "dividend chasing". At one point, rather than benefitting from the modest monthly dividend from VOO or the declining % yield from CAT I chased dividends in a bond fund RA. I'm about 25% down on that, and while it continues to pay well above 5%, fees will eat into that. I'd have been ahead to purchase VOO, CAT, or KO. Buffet has benefitted from dividend stocks, but doesn't pay a dividend... Lesson/change #6: Don't chase the high dividends, benefit from strong stocks that pay a modest yield. Time in the market....

No-Lifeguard-8767

For me it was ATCH, Beyond Meat, and now SRXH. In total I gained $17,000 in about a week but then lost $23,000 over a couple month period. Gave up and going forward will only do VOO and VTI.

No_Halo15

Voo is same thing but cheaper to own. VOO is the way to go

HumanityInevitable42

Dont you think that depends on your diversification…? 🤔 eg. if you already have financial sector ETFs then maybe add a QQQ or QQQM ? but if you want broad U.S. that’s your VOO or SPY… very different. Maths your expense ratio and compounding in an excel if it makes your decision-making FEEL more CONTROLLED. 😵‍💫

realribsnotmcfibs

Damn bro could have just put this money in VOO and been up 20%. Poors gonna poor.

among_apes

Dividends were great. Than my reits took a dump and I realized that not only does it hinder growth but gives me an uncontrolled tax events. I don’t mind getting dividends but I no longer chase em. The 1% and change from VOO is good enough for me.

Malprin

VOO / VTI and chill. Maybe mix in a little world or international ETFs if you want. Time is your biggest asset right now.

ra__account

> my Dividend portfolio is up over 120% in 4.5 years Sure, what's in it? VTI and VOO are at 66.55% and 70.80% during that time period, so you're either very lucky or a mad genius. Or full of it, given that every specific stock you mentioned has underperformed index funds the past 4.5 years. VERY badly in the case of P&G and AWR. https://schrts.co/FQEzcAUi (as a note, this includes DRIPing the dividends at a 0% tax rate)

Throwawayz911

Sitting in VOO and SPMO

mceleanor

Standard advice for young people who don't want to spend hours researching stocks is to just buy a broad market index fund. VOO is Vanguard's version of the S&P 500 which is the 500 biggest US public companies. SPY is the same thing with a different name. QQQ is the 100 biggest companies on the Nasdaq which is more tech focused. They have significant overlap (I think almost every stock in QQQ is also in VOO). If you think tech will outperform the broader market, you should buy QQQ. If you think it will underperform, pick VOO. Ultimately, your decision won't matter too much, one way or another. When you have a small portfolio, contributions and savings matter the most. Once your portfolio is larger than 100k, then investing decisions start to matter more. (Also, At your age, your primary focus should be investing in yourself so that you can earn more money in the future (college, apprenticeships, etc.))

Evening-Benefit7248

So it’s funny this is tough for me, late bloomer to financial education and have a lot saved. It would be challenging for me to just pick a day and just buy VOO all in one shot. So I’m DCAing but sure Itl take years to deploy the cash. Better late than never but have certainly missed out on massive gains

JRshoe1997

Index funds. VOO and VTI when you’re just starting. Good on you for starting so early!

Easy-Sell-6586

QQQ vs VOO final knockout battle!

CrabKates

Except for the all the short term capital gains taxed as ordinary income whereas VOO could have been LTCGs rate.

Anonymous_Lurker_1

Valid points and i agree. You're hypothesising over OP's intention though, and whilst you're not wrong, im giving my opinion on what I'd do, as an alternative to "VOO and chill". VOO and chill is probably less stressful, tbf.

Anonymous_Lurker_1

"Dude"...not disputing. My daily dca goes in to VOO. But when you have age on your side, that is the time you can afford to take more risks. I *could* have said YOLO into crypto and penny stocks, but i stand by my 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 plan. I reckon its pretty damn solid for returns long-term whilst being almost as safe.

claytakephotos

A good habit: Any time somebody says something you don’t understand, go google it first. The world won’t wait for you or necessarily help you find answers. Yes, mag7 is a term for a few of the biggest tech companies. I think you need to do some homework. I would recommend you learn about the following: ETF, Compound interest, capital gains tax. Buy something and hold it. Preferably an etf. Preferably one that covers the whole market. VOO is a great start. Don’t DM anybody. They’ll offer to help, but take your passwords and your money.

jvaritek33c

She should stick to non-sector specific index funds until she knows enough to make that call herself for her own risk profile. VOO WAS my tech-exposure recommendation as opposed to the true conservative answer which would be VTI until she knows enough to specialize In short, I agree with you, but due to her young age I feel it's better to keep it maximally diversified while she uses the time to learn about her specific investment style Maybe she's a value investor, maybe a growth investor, maybe she ends up selling theta to option freaks But for now she's a 15 year old with homework and friend group drama and everything that comes with being a teen and QQQ can swing a lot for a new investor and comes with its own drama of "is it a bubble?"

FastChemist3240

Literally nothing to be worried about, just go VOO and forget

Anonymous_Lurker_1

At age 15, id suggest QQQ. Its riskier but likely more rewarding over a long time. VOO should compound at ~8%, QQQ might be ~10-12%, but will be affected more by any downturns. You've got the advantage of age on your side, however - you can ride out the next 30, 35 years. If OP were 20 years older id definitely suggest VOO. Or... maybe go 75/25 QQQ/VOO, in ten years, go 50/50, and then at 35 go 25/75 QQQ/VOO ?

jvaritek33c

VOO, for sure. Wider net. You need index funds while you learn more about finances. You'll be ready to do individual stocks eventually but at your age compounding is your friend Learn about compound interest - every dollar you put into VOO or a broad based index fund will be worth like $60+ dollars when you retire It's some bonkers number like 60x

Illustrious-Coat3532

If you’re eyeing memory, just buy DRAM and sell in two years or right before the bottle neck clears. If you’re long, go with SPY or VOO. Good luck, kid.

Paul_Robert_

It's certainly the safer option, but honestly really depends on what you're looking to do. There's also a bunch of other opportunities out there, so there's no need to limit yourself to those 2 options. But, remember that in the long run, it's pretty hard to beat $VOO. Disclaimer: I blew a shit ton of money on options earlier this year, so careful listening to what I say 💀

Impressive_Bus7391

VOO and nothing else

Paul_Robert_

$VOO and chill for like 3-5years

Final-Quail-2750

VOO, is also my pick. However, this should be a long term investment.

MarlonMcCree20

That isn't convincing because there are flaws in that argument. > $1 invested in $VOO grew to ~$2.55 today." That's in hindsight. The same logic can be applied to shit like penny stocks or other super risky investments. You're also adjusting for inflation with the 78 cents, but not with the growth. Doesn't seem fair to say $1 is really only 78 cents but $2.55 is $2.55. It's really only $1.99 compared to 2020.

vertigo88

You don’t. Just buy VT/VTI/VOO/QQQ or some mixture and flavour and chill.

BigDipper0720

Well, cash in a suitcase will depreciate like you say. Cash in a money market fund should just about keep up with inflation. $1 today in a money market fund should have $1 spending power in 5 years. $1 in VOO should have some amount of spending power in 5 years, but it could be more or less than $1. You can't possibly know. In 15 years things should probably be positive after inflation. People underestimate how risky money markets are for the long-term (> 10 years) People also underestimate how risky stocks are in the short term (0 to 5-7 years). The investment should be chosen based on when the money will be needed to be spent.

greenpride32

I think the main reason for META's recent rise is their plan to operate as a hyperscaler. They can both sell Muse Spark as a service and sell excess compute capacity. AMZN and MSFT had already proven CPU based hyperscaling was a lucrative business that even GOOGL joined the party. We've seen SPCX join the AI hyperscaling party along with many neo clouds and supply cannot keep up with demand. With all that said, I decided to exit my META long position (several years) today. While the social media empire is amazing, not sure how I feel about so many changing tangents. Plus I have enough exposure to them through QQQM and VOO.

fn_gpsguy

As others have said, you shouldn’t need a FA for an $85k account. For the size of your account and the below market rate that he’s charging to manage your account, I wouldn’t expect him to invest these $600 deposits more frequently than quarterly at best. That being said, I understand your concern about managing your $85k yourself. I would start small. Open a taxable brokerage account at one of the discount brokerages like Fidelity, Schwab or Vanguard and start making your $600 deposits with them. Consider buying a low cost S&P 500 ETF like FXAIX or VOO. Once you are comfortable in managing your new account, consider doing an ACATS transfer from your $85k account to the new one. The new company can assist you with that. Assuming the $85k account doesn’t have any proprietary investments, you should be able to transfer the contents of it “in-kind” without having to sell anything (and creating capital gains). Say for example you own 5 shares of NVDA. After doing the transfer, you’d still own those 5 shares of NVDA.

J_da_CPA

VOO and chill day ✊

wedabest111

Anyone actively participating in this market for the next 1-3 months deserves to lose all their money. VOO and sleep well until we get a clear trend and or morale boost.

Throwawayz911

If you don't know just hold VOO. Most people don't!

greenpride32

>I watch the oil tape most mornings because my oldest position is still an integrated major I bought too high in 2022 and I need to know when to fold it. I still have not folded it. One of the biggest mistakes the individual investor makes is thinking every single trade they make needs to be positive. For all the years you wait for that to happen (which could be never), you miss out on broad market gains. Just imagine you sold that position, and put it into SPY/VOO, you'd be far better off. So take your -10/20/30/40%, and put it into something that is up 75%. Of course you might not have gotten that full 75%, as that would depend on when you lost confidence in the oil trade. So let's say you wait until your trade turns positive 5% (yay positive), your swap to SPY/VOO could have been +20-50%.

EpicDOgeMC

I built an interesting statistical model that really puts this in perspective. The base line is the markets distribution, with a steal right tail (4% of stocks generate all of returns). If you buy 1 stock, vs every stock, your mean outcome is the same. However, more realistic is your median outcome. In a fully diversified VT portfolio, your median outcome = your mean. \~9%. However, with 1 company it’s actually negative. Every company you add to the portfolio slightly increases the median until it converges to the mean. So, buying anything except the pure VT actually is loosing a premium of your expected median outcome. Even picking an investment fund like VOO or a thematic option is as well. And if your picking individual stocks, that amount you loose rises even higher. So active investing isn’t just a 0 sum game around the market mean, but the market median, which scales based on how concentrated you are.

Brunoisdaddy

Hey I am doing good! I have summed up a good amount on S&P, just had forget about the money I put in because looking at it everyday made me a bit paranoid. I have also been trying to put at the very least 5$ into my investments per month. I am considering trying day trading but haven't fully gotten into that yet. Still very surprised its already been 2 years but the most important thing I have learned was that with stocks like S&P, VOO, etc, you just put money into them and forget about it. Check up on them every now and then, but don't destroy your whole month if you're down, and most importantly do not touch that money no matter what because eventually it goes up and the wait is extremely worth it.

NuclearVII

You cannot pick good individual securities reliably with 5 hours a week of effort. He will lose money tryna go down that road. VOO and chill works, and takes minutes.

smcvay2024

As a student I’d focus on a growth ETF such as SCHG and then some other ETFs such as VOO and SPY. With a long investing timeline I’d focus about 60-70% growth.

Appropriate-Delay-66

Take that profit and pop into VOO !

jabs09

Low cost index ETF like VTI/VOO it’s better that way

ra__account

People invest for income, people invest for medium term purchases like a house in 10 years, people invest for retirement. And other things. Knowing what you're trying to do is important to give accurate advice. If you're investing for retirement, you should not be selling. You buy VTI/VOO or equivalent and you sit on it until retirement. You want to move as much of it as you can into a tax shelter. Are you legally documenting any of what income you do have? That's a requirement to have either an IRA or self employment 401(k).

AlfredoCustard

Should have invested in VOO instead

besthuman

VOO / VFV No options. Just that. Slow(ish) gains are better than big losses.

boogi3woogie

VOO and chill

Delicious_Put_5857

VOO

whitenoize086

Usually telling them to go VOO or VTI doesn't work out cause what if the crash comes. I start by getting them to open a brokerage and go full SGOV. Then remind them of the VTI gains comparatively over time.

spilledonwhite

About the same as VOO minus all of my free time.

brother7

If you haven't selected a broker, consider Fidelity. You can automate weekly purchases of VOO. They allow fractional shares. Be sure to set Dividends and Capital Gains to REINVEST.

Rav_3d

Agree with VOO/QQQM split. Many will tell you it's too heavily weighted to large cap technology. They are right, and I see that as an advantage. As for individual stocks, if you're willing to take more risk with a small portion of your portfolio you can do very well, but choose the wrong stocks and fail to manage risk and it can turn out poorly. Stick with elite market leaders and DCA.

teddyevelynmosby

That is the beauty of investment, no different than holding TSLA, NVDA or AMD at the early days it is all about conviction and risk taking. If something that easy like borrow money to the tits and dump it in VOO and wake up 20 years you will out win any payday loan rate, be my guest. (Not a investment advice but I am esger to see

Dizzy-Monk-

FUCK STOCK PICKING!!!! I’m going back to VOO

AcceptableReason1380

But you’re losing compared to VOO

milkplantation

Nothing will survive a true crash. Outside of short term treasuries, everything will get crushed. A market correction is inevitable, but we also can't predict the cause or type of market decline, so it's difficult to forecast which ETFs will fair better. As an example, VOO's valuation is very rich, while VXUS has a lower valuation. Logic would suggest that VXUS is priced for more growth over the long term, but few could have predicted the current issues in the Middle East. Global and emerging markets are more sensitive to fluctuations in oil prices than the U.S., and accordingly, when Hormuz was shut down, VXUS was hit harder in the drawdown. So, as the saying goes, "diversification is the only free lunch in investing." With that said, you could buy the whole market with 80-90% of your portfolio in something like VT total world ETF. Or, you could mix VTI and VXUS to a ratio that suits you. It's also worth noting, though not an ETF, Berkshire Hathaway is a diverse holding company and stock with the most downside protection. They have 400 billion dollars on the sidelines in the event that a crash does occur. They also have a floor in how far the stock can actually fall as they buy back their own shares with that 400 billion if the price decreases enough. They also hold a lot of recession proof businesses like railways and energy companies. The stock tends to underperform the market during a bull run, of which we're currently in, so you will have to accept less portfolio growth in the near term in exchange for that downside protection. One last note, keep your cash in a high-interest savings account (HISA) or buy short term treasuries (T-Bills). Both HISA's and T-Bills are often called cash equivalents. They'll mitigate the capital loss caused by inflation while giving you modest returns with zero downside risk. SGOV is an ETF that acts like short term treasuries, paying you out with a dividend by holding government debt. Look into how this works. It adds up.

Killsocket1

I was under the assumption that if you have the time, as in you aren't retiring inside of 5 years, that a solid portfolio is you could/should put that 30% you have in cash right into that VOO and make it a 60/40 split.

hymie-the-robot

if you run a backtest on your proposal, over the last 12 years, in round numbers, maximum drawdown could reach 25%, vs 35% for VOO. consider whether your allocation will be sufficiently comfortable, and whether it's worth giving up return (about 1/3 less in backtests) by holding cash.