I’ve recently come into a decent chunk of money and I really want to set myself up for a safe future financially (to the best of my ability—I’m not a very high earner).
The first thing I’m going to do is open a Roth IRA and max it out for the year (likely an 80/20 or 70/30 split between total us market and international index funds).
As for the rest, the large majority of it being added to what I already had saved in a HYSA.
But I want to open a small brokerage account. $500-$1000. Something with a little more risk and growth potential than my Roth. What would be good things to invest in? I will add to it as I can the rest of this year. After next tax season my priory will be the Roth. But I’ll still add to this account as much as I can manage.
In case it makes a difference I’m likely going with fidelity for these accounts.
Best moderate risk investments for a beginner?
byu/sleepy_shallot inpersonalfinance
Posted by sleepy_shallot
3 Comments
Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics. m
Investing guidance: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing
Bro your foundation is already better than like 90% of people so you’re good. Maxing the Roth first is the move.
For the brokerage just grab QQQ or VGT and call it a day honestly. Tech-heavy, more upside than a total market fund, not as crazy as picking individual stocks. If you really want to pick stocks just pick 2-3 companies you actually know and trust long term. Don’t spread $500 across 10 different things, you’re just making a bad index fund at that point.
Only thing to keep in mind is you’ll owe taxes on gains in the brokerage when you sell, unlike the Roth. Not a big deal now but worth knowing.
You’re already doing it right though fr
>likely an 80/20 or 70/30 split between total us market and international index funds
A broadly diversified 100% stock portfolio *is* moderate risk already. And depending on your time horizon, maybe even aggressive.
Anything riskier than that would basically be betting on a particular sector, or market cap size, or (even worse) individual stocks, which at the end of the day is just making a guess. I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than a very small “play money” portion of your portfolio.
ETA: You might find Vanguard’s risk tolerance questionnaire interesting: https://investor.vanguard.com/tools-calculators/investor-questionnaire