How did you guys start your investment portfolio? I have no investment other than a savings account and have no clue where to start. Any guidance will be appreciated!

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I use an app called Robinhood that doesn't charge fees and is super easy to buy stock through. I try to buy a new stock every paycheck just so I can slowly build up my portfolio.

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Start contributing to your 401k to get the match

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Use Betterment! They automate the investing, stock/bond index fund allocating and rebalancing based on your time horizon and goal amount of $$ you want to have saved in X years. they tell you how much and how often to deposit each month to meet your goal and they do the rest. Fees are v low and I've seen great returns so far

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The easiest thing is a target date fund, which starts with mostly stocks and as it gets closer to the end date will switch to bonds. Pick a date around your retirement goal. Vanguard has some low fee ones.

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Omg. Stop 🛑. First, don’t do any of the above first because that’s not how you stabilize your wealth. The very first thing you should focus on is stashing away an emergency fund first. This will be your savings up to 3-6 month worth of expenses. A good aim would be for 5,000 in a high yield savings account that has 1.00% APY or more. There’s a ton out there such as Ally Bank and GS bank but do your DD. There’s some in the range of 1.2-2%. With that said, the second thing you should have lined up is your employer match which should match to what your employer is giving into the 401k. The third thing you should be doing is opening up a Roth IRA because after having a solid base of your EF in a high yield savings account, 401k employer match, a max Roth IRA contribution should really set you at a high level. I prefer Vanguard over anything. Once all that is settled then you can open a Robinhood account and trade away because once you set up your base then there’s nothing left to do but play money. That’s my 2 cents.

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If you aren't giving the full pre-tax max ($18,500 this year I believe) to your 401k all money should be going there until you hit that limit, then follow the post above

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Agree with PwC1 - get the full match first.

Max an IRA after, since your personal options are usually a lot better / more diverse than any B4 401(k) funds. I'd get a target or index funds.

Max your 401(k) after that.

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I just started with Robinhood. I'm not looking for resources on investing

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*now looking

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Tax Specialist 1 - Sorry, but you're misguided, though under the best of intentions, I'm sure. 😉 Yes, everyone should have an emergency fund, but that wasn't the question - just as OP didn't ask about appropriate life insurance coverage. We're talking investment portfolio. I'm sure all firms here offer a Roth 401k feature, eliminating the need to open a Roth IRA. By using the Roth 401k, you benefit from lower cost institutional share classes, higher annual contribution limits ($18,000 401k vs $5,500 IRA this year), and no contributory income limits that exist with a Roth IRA. Max out your 401k, then max out your IRA. This insistence on investing in a taxable trading account does not compute for me. For all of you young folks here, you should stockpile as much into your 401k as early as possible to benefit from the full power of Roth 401k compounding. Once you've maxed out your retirement, then you can have your play money. Until you have kids and begin saving for their college, that is.

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401k, IRA and then taxable accounts with target funds. EZ.

Vanguard funds

If you are investing, then usually you are going to hold long, ergo index or target funds are perfect. It diversifies for you and the non-managed funds will have incredibly low fees. If you are "trading", then go ahead and read more. Otherwise you may be wasting time.

Contribute to Roth IRA, also check if you can convert your 401K to Roth (that's what I am doing right now). In general you want to pay taxes now with your current rate being low to withdraw tax free later in life when your tax bracket is higher. Robinhood is good - just make sure you don't purchase restricted stock. Real estate is a good investment too but it's the whole another topic how you shld invest into it.

Oh and don't contribute to your 401K more than your employer is matching.

If you have no idea, 401k to get the match. Then low cost S&P 500 index fund

Started with Betterment but got off that train once I realized I could easily mimic the portfolio with a Vanguard account. Look up the Three Fund Portfolio and buy ETFs since they don’t have the $3k mins

ETFs are cool but certainly slightly more involved than mutual funds (since you have to buy in whole shares.) I prefer mutual funds for my tax advantaged accounts and ETFs for taxable. However, these are all details. Save money and get in the market as early as possible and stay long. You'll may not get baller rich, but you statistically you will do fine and it's better than spending that money on bullshit.

It's foolish to not max out your 401k first. Those saying to only contribute to the 401k matching level and then max out an IRA in index or TD funds aren't thinking about fees. You'll benefit from the lowest cost institutional shares in a 401k plan vs paying full retail in an IRA. Index and TD funds aren't special enough to seek them in an IRA over a 401k plan. Institutional buying power, people. Do it.

Plus don’t use betterment, they pretty much use the same funds as vanguard/fidelity as you are better off opening your own vanguard account since betterment and wealth front take out more from your pocket vs going direct.

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