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I’m looking to add another stock or two to my portfolio, any recommendations?
[Discussion] How will AI and Large Language Models affect retail trading and investing?
[Discussion] How will AI and Large Language Models Impact Trading and Investing?
Would it be a bad idea investing in the same investments in a Roth IRA and a regular brokerage account?
Is it ok to never have bonds if you start investing early?
Anything I should know about investing in Vanguard ETFs on Fidelity?
What would you all recommend for second year of IRA?
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
Let's go! For most, the best investment route is to just purchase a S&P500 index fund/ETF and hold on (*while adding to it often and extra when markets are in a down-cycle). Vanguard's VOO and VFINX have low expense ratios % and are great choices! VTI / VTSMX are also good (total market) options.
I hit $100,000 in Broad Market Index Funds (mostly VOO and VTI) this Jan
QQQ or VOO which one will you choose ?
Question about ETFs: What happens if the provider goes under as a business?
Wife's IRA has positions in high-expense ratio funds. Sell and buy VOO?
i want to start investing and i don't know where to begin
Looking to invest savings in VTX and VOO. What should I invest more in.
After watching Nvda go up up and up some more, i dove in at 600 a share. 🤔😳
What stock/suggestion have you gotten from this sub that actually WORKED?
As a whole this sub is overly negative on taking profits and building a cash position
What to do with $300,000 just sitting in my checking account?
What stocks(s) did y’all buy recently and when was it?
100% stocks is not universally good advice. Stock market indexes are not always the right benchmark for your performance.
Is FZIPX same as AVUV? Looking for Low ER small cap ETF
Is putting $50 into VOO every 2 weeks (for the next 20 years) a good or bad idea?
What index fund do I pick for my Roth IRA?
12m Emergency : 100% CD/Tbills vs ~25-75% VOO & rest in CD/Tbills?
Is it normal for the index funds to be weighted this heavily by mega caps?
Where to invest 10k leveraged from CC cash advance (5% fee)?
As a non-US resident is it worth getting Ireland-domiciled ETFs?
Advice for a 27 year old trying to leave the nest?????
Any advantage to buying VOO through Vanguard rather than Schwab?
What are y'all's plays on tomorrow's CPI news? Any calls being made?
Looking for long-term investment suggestions, 30yo • $1-2k / mo.
What is the difference between some EFTs like Vanguard S&P 500?
Mentions
VOO, VTI, and SPY are basically the same ETF. If I am index investing, I only buy VT. It's the most diversified index in one ETF. You can buy stocks in addition to VT. I'd be careful about picking too many individual stocks at first if you are in experienced. You really don't want to get clapped on stocks like what happened to retail in 2022. I get it everyone wants to get rich quick, but also consider the risk as well.
Sell the bags and buy VOO. Only garbage can go down 84% in a raging bull market
Oh yeah because we all own VOO shares
With 50k, I'd just go all in VOO. Maybe 5k for individual picks if you want the fun of it.
I mean how much were you planning on investing in each company? I don't see the point in investing tiny amounts in a bunch of companies/random ETFs. I would do something like $30k in VOO, $15k in VXUS or VEA and $5k in BTC.
Imagine if you had just bought VOO instead 🤷♂️
I think you should just consolidate the ETFs into $VOO (US Large Cap) and $VBR (US Small Value). Keep the individual large cap basket. Limit the whole basket to less than 15% of your portfolio. Keep the speculative basket to around 10% Put 5% into Bitcoin 50% - $VOO 20% - $VBR 15% - Large Cap Growth picks 10% - Speculative 5% - Bitcoin
You’re trying to get too cute. $50k isn’t that much money to spread out among 28 different investments. Just put it all in VOO, VXUS and maybe one other high conviction pick (I would choose GOOGL or BTC) and call it a day.
Lol exactly. They act like they are better than everyone earning 10% yearly returns, saving until 60 years old lol. In the last 2 years , I have made more than 1000% returns on stocks. You can always be careful if you have stop losses and not be stupid. Don't get me wrong, I have a portion allocated to VOO, that's only because my savings account doesn't give me 7-10% interest.
You used margin to buy IREN, CIFR and DGXX which are already a meme type stocks AND sold diversification. How would you think this is going to end. If you would have brought SPY or VOO you would be in much better place. Margin is a double edged sword if you don’t use it carefully you will be doomed.
VXUS is beating by VOO by over 10% YTD
Sorry and welcome. I'm 50% VOO and 50% equal weight S&P (RSP). I'm tired of paying short term cap gains to tie S&P performance.
Open vanguard account, start Roth IRA, buy VOO or Bit index funds and don't touch the money. You'll be a millionaire by 50
If you swapped VOO for VT you would be buying every equity.
Moderate risk to me would be like 80-90% SGOV, 10-20% VOO. Maybe even a little BTC, because I personally wouldn't put all that equity into a new home, but depends on your plans in 1-2yrs. Low risk to me would be 100% SGOV. I wouldn't keep it all in HYSA, that sum is over the limit of FDIC protection and there's tax benefits to SGOV.
I’m 19M in the US looking for advice when starting an individual investing profile. I use Robinhood currently and would like to stay on there for the time being. Next year will likely be the first year that I will be in a tax bracket (the lowest) and am wondering what funds / large caps would be good for me to be putting some money into on a weekly basis. I would be able to split up about $5 a week to be putting into these separate funds. I currently have about $120 into VOO on an individual investing account.
Its been 1 month amigo. Markets can dip for years and you gotta be able to stomach that (aka.. the chill part lol) but in general the ETFs like the S&P500 (SPY) or related VOO e.t.c make positive returns year over year, so it's worth it. People treat them as set and forget, and you should do the same- in 20 years+ you'll be happy. They aren't really there for short term gains (for a passive investor, that is). For a passive investor, any dips are buying opportunities, that's it.
What thesis have you been making? VOO up 16% YTD. Other markets are similar. Doesn't require a genius to capture them gains.
So… I’m not stupid for spending the last 4 years investing from -50;000 net worth to about 250,000 with 230 of that being VOO…. I’m happier
Fair haha. I just think whatever I touch it ends up going down or lose money. Lol Sorry to everybody who owns VOO. 😅
I started investing (VOO and chill) last month. And I've already lost money. I'm prob better off putting money in CDs.
I’ll mentor you. Invest in VOO or something of the like and forget about it. If you need to play options, sell CC’s on stocks you own, sell cash secured puts on quality stocks you wouldn’t mind owning. Do these things and make money
>I guess my understanding of the general advice might be ranking the usual threes (VT, VTI,VOO) by the level of diversifications Sorry for the second reply: this is a poor way to think about it, as described above the additional diversification for each "tier" actually adds riskier (and what should be compensated) types of risk. Look at what the holdings are, not the count.
90% smart decisions, if you can't stand the thought of just buying VOO then pick some out of the sp500 as 90% of your "smart decisions". This is a risk management issue. You threw a bunch at random shit with sound bites and popular picks around here. Keep that position small relative to the rest of your portfolio.
Its times like these you really gotta buckle down, grow up, invest in good, high quality long term holdings like Tesla and leave the SPY, VOO, IWM garbage for the irresponsible kids to gamble on.
looks like i picked the wrong week to quit sniffing VOO
First off congrats for starting at such a young age. I also started investing when I was 18. Personally, I think you should just stick to $VOO (80-60% of your allocation) and $VXUS (20-40% of your allocation) for now until you get it built up before adding other ETFs or mutual funds to it.
Just don't play single stocks or options. It's gambling. No one actually knows what will happen. The only thing we have to go off is history. VOO and chill. You'll make so much more money in the long run. Play with some leverage when the fire burns if you're desperate, otherwise just keep it simple.
You do realize the VOO and chill crowd are inherently in the “AI is not a bubble camp” right? The stocks you mentioned individually are 20% of the SP. If the AI bubble “pops” all the index DCA-ers are fucked too.
Actual advice from a millionaire - sell the entire port and put it in TQQQ (3x daily levered QQQ) while also DCAing into it with your salary. One of the best all-time compounders if you can deal with the variance. You won't be able to mentally settle for safe stuff like VOO right now, and with the incoming fed rate cuts this is a fantastic time to go heavy into it.
No sense trying to rebut a pointless rebut. It's pretty obvious who's in the 100% VOO camp without bothering to look at their post history lol. So many cracks forming in the many international rules and norms we took for granted since WW2, but folks just see VOO's price history and just say no problemo, it'll just keep chugging along.
There is tremendous blindness towards exUS, small caps, value, energy... gold was a real bargain at $1200 and it was HATED. Everyone on Reddit is all about VOO and Chill, and they completely are willfully ignorant of the AI and Tech overconcentration risks. It's mind boggling.
Crsp and pypl might recover. I'd keep them and sell the rest. But in the future just do VOO and chill.
Honest question by why is reddit so VOO instead of QQQ?
Are you definitely buying the car in the next 5 years and not willing to walk away from buying if the market tanks during that time? If so, put all of it in HYSA since you are spending it imminently. If you are willing to abandon the whole car idea if the market tanks, throw all your car money in VOO and hope it grows. More upside, more risk.
Or tl;dr it: Buy and hold VOO (or a similar whole market index fund) forever (for lots of simple reasons).
Guys who didn't invest in ai stocks the last 3 years = there's a bubble. Guys who did invest in ai stocks the last 3 years = ai is just getting started. Who is right? Lmao. VOO and chill mofos.
The average advice here is to go VOO/VTI/VT and hold.
Would VOO or QQQ be good options?
When people say buy VOO they just mean buy an S&P500 index fund VOO is just shorter then saying "S&P500 index fund" ; its sort of like when someone ask for a kleenix they don't necessarily mean a kleenix brand facial tissue, they just want a facial tissue
A lot of overlap. I would switch out RSP for VOO.
A good example is eschewing tech over the last decade and holding small cap and international hoping they will get off life support. That international has done well in 2025 is of little consolation for all the lost years. Same goes for “VOO and chill” when QQQ returned more than 2x.
So many people have absolutely no knowledge base surrounding investing or what an ETF even is that it’s often safest just to say invest in VOO because it’s extremely well known and it’s reputation would probably feel more trustworthy to the new investor than other lesser known etfs.
I COMPLETELY AGREE The OP is 18. Tech will outperform VHT by miles. At 18, he needs to be aggressive. Even VOO has outperformed VHT by 5% the last 10 years. In the last 10 years SMH has outperformed VHT 30.6% vs 9.7%. Tech will remain dominant for the next 20 years or more.
Its shorter and easy to remmeber. At this point id think VOO and s&p500 fund are interchangeable. I dont recommend voo tho unless one is factor investing or has other funds selected for domestic mid and small cap
Don't waste your cognitive effort on investment. Pick a very simple strategy and automate everything, literally don't think about it. Use your time and energy MAKING money, not on investment. this is the most underrated aspect of boglehead/index investing IMO. Of course it works well in practice in terms of returns. But it also frees you up to actually make more powder. I literally just withdraw X% of my paycheck and autobuy VOO in my brokerage account. I've been doing this for like 10+ years, I have 95% of my networth there and I don't even look at the price more than a couple times a year.
If I was starting again at 18. I wouldn't invest in VXUS. Until this year VOO has outperformed VXUS. Even the last 6 months VOO has outperformed VSUX. I would suggest investing that $100 monthly in Tech funds like SMH or SOXX. Tech has been dominating since the 1990s. I don't see that changing over the next 20 years.
Because "invest in the sp500" is too vague for people. They go, "which fund?done one have a better expense ratio? I'm at charles Schwab, does that matter?". It's easier to just tell them to invest in a fund. VOO is a lot easier to type than FXAIX. Doesn't even matter which one you choose, it's just easier to remember the name of VOO.
I had never heard of "buffered ETFs" until your mention of them. I had to look it up. The largest one by AUM, BUFD, has an expense ratio of 0.95%, more than 30x the ER of VOO (0.03%). I don't need to know anything more than that to decide that BUFD is a losing proposition. But on top of that, it's listed as actively managed, so not even a passive index fund, which is also a no-go for me.
i recommend SPY, never understood the VOO thing
As with a lot of things tax related it is not that clearly specified. ETFs that follow different indexes are clearly OK. Many people will even swap between ETFs that both follow the same exact index, such as the SP500, but which are run by different ETF managers (for example, SPY and VOO). That is pushing it too far for my taste, but so far the IRS has never challenged that. Roboadvisors such as Wealthfront and Betterment have published white papers on the tax loss harvesting techniques where they simultaneously sell and buy "similar" ETFs, such as VTi/ITOT/SCHB if VXUX/IXUS. The IRS has never challenged them for doing this, so I am comfortable doing it. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/substantiallyidenticalsecurity.asp is a simple to read article about the subject.
I’m inclined that healthcare would thrive in 2026, hence the addition of VHT, but I’ve considered replacing VHT with just an individual stock, say Pfizer, on top of my VOO, QQQM, and VXUS. Thoughts?
The objective of my post is to get money into the market on a regular basis. Being optimal is not the goal, although that can follow as you learn more. Everyone knows and can easily buy VOO. Getting money in the market should be the objective.
À 18 ans avec **30+ ans d’horizon**, tu joues le jeu le plus facile à gagner : **le temps**. **VOO** = pari concentré sur les États-Unis (excellent historiquement, plus volatil, plus dépendant d’un pays). **VT** = le monde entier en un ETF (moins de biais, plus robuste sur très long terme). **Choix rationnel** * Si tu veux **simplicité maximale et diversification automatique** → **VT seul**. * Si tu assumes le biais US → **VOO + un ETF international** plus tard. **Options solides** * **VT (100 %)** → solution “set & forget”. * **VOO + VXUS** (ex. 70/30) → plus flexible, même logique. * Évite de multiplier les ETF au début : la discipline bat l’optimisation. **Règle clé** DCA mensuel, aucune tentative de timing, réinvestissement automatique. À ton âge, **la constance compte infiniment plus que le choix exact entre VOO et VT**.
Just put whatever excess cash you have in index ETFs. Sometimes you’ll want to buy an individual stock (nothing wrong with that!) but need some time to do research or think about it, and months can easily pass while life gets busy. I like to just keep as much invested as possible, so things like VOO are just usually no brainers for me. If I can’t think of something else to invest in, just buy that!
I'm going to keep it simple in 2026. A bunch of VOO and a bunch of VGT. Sure there is some overlap but that's fine.
Except VOO at the US market valuation top is a bad choice, too!!! [The Case for Investing in the International Market | Charles Schwab](https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/case-for-the-international-market)
>Is there a reason why so many people on here suggest VOO instead of saying something like "an S&P500 ETF"? Simplicity, brevity. I also will say VTI rather than "a total US stock market ETF" and what I really invest in is a mix of ITOT, SCHB, and VTI as I tax loss harvest between those three "total US stock market ETFs".
It doesn't particularly matter. As long as it has a low fee and roughly matches the market, those are the only truly important rules. I have around a 20% allocation in VOO as the backbone of my portfolio, and I have around 5% in VIG so I can have some realized returns in the form of dividends. It works, and I didn't really want to overthink what is supposed to be a "set it and forget it" investment.
Is there a reason why so many people on here suggest VOO instead of saying something like "an S&P500 ETF"? If youre with Fidelity they have FXAIX which run with half the expense ratio compared to VOO (miniscule difference at the end of the day). I dont mean to knock the advice since I DCA into FXAIX every paycheck, just curious why we generally recommend one investment product over the others or even just saying "invest in an S&P500 ETF."
I exited my employee stock in a SP500 Co and put it all in $VOO. I have an automated buy that comes out of my account monthly.. I never log into my account. If the SP500 implodes money probably won't be of major concern. I sleep well at night.
You can do whatever mental gymnastics you want. Bottom line, you are down on a year where people made money hand over fist. You would have been better off just sticking your money in VOO instead of deluding yourself into thinking that you know what you are doing. If you are getting outperformed by a high yield savings account, then you aren't a successful trader, and it is absolutely irresponsible of you to be giving advice to anyone.
You've somehow never heard of VTI or VOO?
https://totalrealreturns.com/s/NOBL,VTI,VOO They've underperformed almost all of the past 10 years. It's still arguing with charts from the 80s when investing has changed significantly since then.
If you are trying to flip $12k into $100k in a few months, welcome to the casino. But if you are trying to build wealth and stay rich, yea, VOO is safer for you. Once you have a solid foundation then you can play a little.
> in tech ETFs Habit 1 that more people don't do: invest in broad market index funds (VOO/VTI/VT) rather than individual stocks or sector-specific funds.
I’ve learned to take some profit, and it seems to be a good thing. Your favorite stock goes up 15%… sell 15% and roll it into VOO or something similar. Good chance that stock goes back down that 15% in the next week or 2
I'm a relatively new investor. Over the past 8ish months anytime the market dipped ~1-2%ish I put some money into VOO. If it dipped more I put more in. If it kept going up for a few weeks I left it alone. I thought buying dips would maximize my returns. Recently I did the math and learned my average purchase price doing this still resulted in a higher average than if I just DCA'd the money weekly. So now my fidelity account has a weekly DCA and I spend a lot less time checking my stocks daily.
Put something every month, regardless of how small, into your investment account and buy VOO. Over time, it adds up.
SPYM or VOO 60% - s&p 500 VEA or SCHF 40% - developed international no china
Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate the insight and different perspectives. And thank you very much for helping me understand the uncompensated risk concept. I kind of get the idea but the way you put it is very succinct. Love it. Re: Risk level, I get your points. My counter argument is that U.S.has a lot of concentration risk on AI compared to VT which is significantly more diversified. I guess my understanding of the general advice might be ranking the usual threes (VT, VTI,VOO) by the level of diversifications
You got it mostly. I sell calls and puts in my trading account mainly. Naked strangles when I see vol rank spike. It’s all about number of occurrences to make the statistics work. Kind of like if I flip a coin 10x, chances I get a 5/5 result is actually less than if I get a 6/4. But if I flip 1000 times my 50/50 odds will be much closer. Really suggest going to tasty trade and taking beginning option course. It’s what really made me understand with “Mike and his white board”. For you though, you sound like you want to be a buy and hold kind of person. Selling the call is a way to take profit, but still hold the position. Options give you more options. They aren’t inherently “risky” unless you don’t know what you are doing. It’s like saying knives are dangerous. They are a tool and handled improperly can hurt you, but they are a very very valuable tool when used properly. This forum does not use options properly. It’s just gambling. When you buy stock you are essentially betting that it goes up. But over what time frame? Will it end up like Disney and be a dud for the next 30 years? Will it be the next Cisco and drop and not recover for the next 20 years? Or will it be Apple and steady as she goes? Will it be nvidia and just rocket to the moon? The question is what return do you want? What risk do you want to take on? And what time frame? Me personally in my long term, I would rather cap my upside to make sure I made money on my positions. I’m good for retirement as it stands, I have VOO in my Roths, When I make a 100% gain on a position, most people go to rebalance and sell stock. You can do that. But then you pay capital gains. I instead sell cc. I also don’t like buying much stock. I’d rather sell a put. I take on same risk but use 1/4 of the buying power, and if stock goes down, I still make money. Sometimes I have to chase it but it’s very rare something gets away from me (nvidia is one that did). It’s hard to essentially tell you much without overwhelming you. Go do the options course and at least you will get an idea of what strategies are out there. It’s way more than covered calls or just buying a leap. Anyone who says options are risky or gambling 100% doesn’t understand them.
It depends on how much you can invest to chill with 30 years on VOO, I would take a break reevaluate and try again. You still have 5k with a good trade you can recover and make profit with 1 trade good luck
A better way is to buy puts for your main ETF holding e.g. SPY or VOO. If markets go up you risk your principle which takes away from the upside of your ETF position, and if markets go down your puts gain in value and offset the loss of your ETF position. You can tune your risk / bearishness profile to wherever you want it to be depending on what option you buy.
Another way is to buy puts for your main ETF holding e.g. SPY or VOO. If markets go up you risk your principle which takes away from the upside of your ETF position, and if markets go down your puts gain in value and offset the loss of your ETF position. You can tune your risk / bearishness profile to wherever you want it to be depending on what option you buy.
I’d lean heavier into an index fund like VOO, VTI, SCHG, I jumped out of Google like an idiot few months ago and I bought at 150 (small position) Given the AI landscape, Google seems like it might be the quickest to monetize AI, and their potential move to sell chips of their own could accelerate sales and profits long term if it takes off. Not to mention their balance sheet is strong with lots of cash and minimal debt (unlike Oracle) I’m thinking about buying back in myself, good luck.
VT should not be considered any more conservative than VTI or VOO. In fact, I would argue that your order of conservative to aggressive is backwards! * VOO is US (a developed market) large caps only. Large caps tend to be safer than smaller caps, developed markets safer than emerging (and even among developed markets I've seen people argue the US is extra safe). * VTI is US only, but adds smaller caps, which should be seen as adding a more aggressive area compared to VOO. * VT includes smaller caps and emerging markets, both can be seen as adding aggression compared to VOO. Single country risk is also an uncompensated type of risk, even if it is the US. An uncompensated risk is one that doesn't bring higher expected long term returns. Uncompensated risk should be avoided whenever possible. Compensated vs uncompensated risk: * https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/uncompensated-risk/ * https://www.northerntrust.com/middle-east/insights-research/2024/wealth-management/compensated-portfolio-risk >But not all risks are compensated with an expected return premium. * https://www.pwlcapital.com/is-investing-risky-yes-and-no/ (Bold mine) >Uncompensated risk is very different; it is the risk specific to an individual company, sector, **or country.**
So you’re saying I can buy VOO at a ten year long sale price, then cash in year 11? Sold
Ok but spy will rotate bad companies out and bring good companies in. Same with QQQ. So you always have exposure to the best of the best. It’s insane to think that just because a lot of people buy VOO it is going to drop or stagnate
Full port VOO and chill with like $<100 / mo messing around on prediction markets.
Please check out [https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/) In general, I'd say the advice are: \- VT - If you are more conservative. This is all world ETF. \- VTI - If you are a little less conservative. This is all U.S. market ETF. \- VOO - If you are more aggressive type investor. This is S&P 500 or the top 500 largest companies in U.S. Good luck.
So the majority of your portfolio is QQQ, you use box spreads as "loans" that give you the funds needed to buy downside protection ETFS. I sincerely appreciate the response, utilizing box spreads for funding and the Sortino Ratio were completely new to me before this comment. Much better information than "VOO and chill"
XMAG iinstead of VOO would be my pick at this time. However over 10 years, some Nasdaq-100 etf.
VOO down less than 1% in the last week. Still up 1.44% in the last month, and everyone is talking like these are the end times. Wtf are you regards gambling on?
I literally started investing and maxed my roth ira on Feb 20 the last ATH before it started dropping. I panic sold when VOO was around 500, but then saw the Trump tweet that skyrocketed VOO back up and I panic bought at 480 before it went above 500. After that I realized how stupid it is to time the market.
Unfortunately, this is not mathematically right. Process => It stabilizes psychology, mind is disturbed by volatility, by having a process, we pacify the mind free from disturbance. That is all process does. Price => That gives a clear edge on return of invested capital. ROIC at $100/shar is lower than $75/share. My friend bought AAPL in 1998-2000 and holding now. He claims that he is better than buffet, return on invested capital. His cost basis is 23 cents => [https://imgur.com/y48vu5A](https://imgur.com/y48vu5A) Based on my analysis, better to buy/hold VOO or QQQ, when market dipped 20%, sell some VOO or QQQ and stocks which can grow long, esp top 20 companies of SPX at that time (Say mag7).
VOO has more AUM and higher trade volume - making it more attractive to invest in. Otherwise they're more or less identical, yes. There are hundreds of ETFs that all do the same / similar things.
Fractional shares? Yes, VOO is fine. Invest and walk away. Lots of passive investors have 50%+ of their portfolios in VOO. Some people have close to 100%.
Happens to a lot of people, luckily your probably young with that kind of loss. When your older, you can make 12k in a day with your port size, but lessons learned, dont FOMO in on TOPs, almost all your plays are either BLOOD red stocks, that have fundamentals, for example NVO would be something like that now, or google earlier this year, or ETH at 1,400. If you dont see A++ setups dont play them, focus on making money outside stocks, and then being good at A++ plays when they come, Make sure the companies are good, honestly if a stock is making you lose sleep overnight, its probably too high of allocation, or more. Stocks should be boring, simple, but stay active enough to stick to your rules, have rules, stick to them, new rules every week. You can still learn how to trade, and not VOO, but start smaller, if VOO gives you peace go for it.
Hi everyone, looking for honest feedback. I run a small business and want a simple, repeatable monthly system for taxes and investing. Here’s what I’m doing: Taxes (~$40k/year): - Every month I set aside tax money - 100% goes into gold (IAU / GLD) - I also keep 1–2 months of taxes in cash as a safety buffer Remaining profit: - 20% stays in cash (living + business expenses) - 80% invested, only into 4 assets: Investment allocation: - 40% S&P 500 (VOO / SPY) - 25% Gold - 20% Bitcoin - 15% Silver Goal is not to beat the market, just something robust, simple, and sustainable long-term. Is holding tax money mainly in gold reasonable? Does this asset mix make sense? Appreciate any advice 🙏
Have you bothered to see what VOO contains? Also, open an IRA, the greatest financial gift the government will ever give you. Finally, read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle.
You want some sort of diversified total US stock market ETF, then you want some international exposure. VT has both combined. If you prefer to control the ratio yourself or optimize for small amount of taxes, then VTI+VXUS. Both of those options have merits and I wouldn't agonize about either path. Just pick and get that money in the market. Some people are recommending VOO but its less diversified than VTI/VT so it's not my personal first choice but its fine. Keep in mind that every brokerage has versions of these funds and there are schwab and fidelity equivalent versions that you could also use. Since you only have 3k, I wouldn't worry about adding bonds yet. I'm not sure your age, but my 2c is to start worrying about that when you have at least 100k invested.
200$ in VOO is an Excellent way to start investing. Congrats and Good Job! If you graduate on to picking stocks, remember industry leaders and look at all time charts. Zoom out!
When I started investing, I put like $25 from each paycheck into VOO and then slowly increased that until I found the amount I was comfortable with. VOO is simple and you can't go wrong with it. A lot of people use it as their core, long-term investment. I still have my VOO but I buy VTI and VXUS now. You'll learn as you go which funds work with your plans.
When you zoom out 100 years it sure makes those 50% draw downs look small but I guarantee you people will freak out if the VOO went back to the low 300s lol. Just make sure you have cash for the crash or can hold through some painful times! We are incredibly late stage in an unprecedented bull market don’t get blindsided. Profits are just a number on a screen until they’re realized
Jim Cramer from CNBC recommends new investors put their first $20,000 USD into a low cost S&P 500 index ETF like Vanguard’s VOO. He wrote many books.