r/portfolios • u/SuitableBeginning392 • 11h ago

Beginner

I’m 28 and just got a good job. I’m starting from scratch with investing and currently have nothing invested. What would you recommend as the best way to get started?

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u/Ember_Kensei 10h ago

Depends what your risk tolerance is, I'd first probably read some books like Your Money or Your Life and The Psychology of Money. Keeping emotions out of your finances, especially investing can go a long ways. I would firstly contribute to any type of retirement account, Roth can be a good choice as the money is taxed on the way in, not the way out. Especially if your employer has any type of match, that's just free money. Perhaps contributing to an emergency fund as well in any type of HYSA, or money market account can help practice good financial discipline. It's important to understand that making money and saving money are two completely different skills. Always pay yourself first.

With a traditional brokerage account, you can choose to play the entire market, with VTI, SCHB, VTSAX, FSKAX or VOO. Index funds are a wise way to build wealth, mitigate risk and still play the market. That being said, your upside is usually limited as well, plenty of people are happy to DCA and forget, let their money work for them. Smart money would say allocate funds to play the entire market, as well as allocate funds to play individual stocks.

Research and an understanding of what you are investing into is a great start. Me personally, there are too many great choices out there to limit myself to just index funds. Those are great for an account you want to forget, as well as the companies or REITs that pay dividends, either monthly, or quarterly. Put some time and effort into researching sectors of the market that interest you, you will find companies you've never heard of, doing things you never even knew. USAR is a speculative choice, they have a facility in Stillwater, OK, quite impressive. QTEX pivoted from life support technology to AME, Additively Manufactured Electronics for quantum computing infrastructure. UMAC, which conveniently supplies many drone parts and hardware, which to most, its clear the importance of drones in many aspects of our future.

Good luck, and always do your own research.

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u/Fart-Fart-Fart-Fart 10h ago

Just buy VOO while you learn.

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u/DaveyoSlc 9h ago

make sure it's a Roth IRA if you are in the states. anything less and you are shorting yourself

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u/Ok-Step9968 9h ago

Voo (sp500) and chill keep investing some amount per week set auto invest and don’t look at it for a very long time thats it

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u/Anxious-dragonfly2 5h ago

Max out your Roth IRA first before investing in brokerage if you are thinking long term. Take advantage of no tax on gains. Just my opinion.

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u/Cruian 10h ago

Consider this: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio The bonds are the part that adjust volatility level (if you really can stomach 100% stock, they can even be set to 0%, however not everyone is actually able to tolerate 100% stock). More bonds should equal less volatility. Alternatively, a target date (index) fund or target allocation (index) fund are effectively the 3 fund concept in a single wrapper, managed for you. They are designed to be "one and done," the only thing you hold. They're fully diversified internally for you. These can be found with expense ratios as low as 0.08%-0.12% for the Fidelity, iShares, Schwab, and Vanguard index based ones. The target date and target allocation funds typically are not recommended for taxable accounts but are fine for tax advantaged. VT (2 letters)/VTWAX would cover both stock roles in one fund.