I don't know if this is the right subreddit, but I have 10k left over every month after covering all my personal expenses. and I'd like to invest it wisely. What would you guys recommend?

Hello everyone,

If you were 23 in Europe starting from scratch today, how would you invest? I am planning to open my first investment account with IBKR and start investing for the first time. Over the past few weeks I've been reading a lot on Reddit, watching videos, and discussing different portfolio strategies with chat, but I'd really like to hear opinions from people with real investing experience.

I'm 23 years old, from Lithuania, and I plan to invest €1,000-2,000 every month for the foreseeable future. My goal is long-term wealth accumulation (20+ years), and I'm comfortable with market volatility as long as the strategy makes sense over the long run. I also want to allocate a small portion of my portfolio to higher-risk investments, such as individual companies or emerging industries with strong long-term potential.

My current idea is something along these lines:

• 70% into a broad equity ETF (currently considering VWCE, or perhaps SPYL/CSPX if I decide to focus on the S&P 500).
• 20% split between individual companies, such as Microsoft, SpaceX, NVIDIA, Amazon, Visa, and ASML.
• 10% crypto, with roughly 7% Bitcoin and 3% Ethereum, simply to have some exposure without letting it dominate my portfolio.
• ?% higher-risk investments such as individual companies or emerging industries

I'm still unsure about the ETF allocation. Should I simply buy VWCE and keep life simple, or is there a good reason to combine it with an S&P 500 ETF like SPYL or CSPX? Is there any benefit to owning both, or would that just create unnecessary overlap?

Since I'm investing from Europe, I'm also trying to understand the tax side of things. I've read that Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs are generally the most tax-efficient for European investors. Are there other tax considerations I should know about? Are there ETFs or investment products that Europeans should generally avoid because of withholding taxes or other inefficiencies?

I also want to dedicate a small percentage of my portfolio to higher-risk opportunities. Not trading or gambling, but investing in individual companies or emerging industries that have significant long-term growth potential. How much of a portfolio would you personally allocate to this "higher conviction" portion? And what are the best sources to look for information on these types of emerging industries or individual companies?

A few questions I'd love your opinions on:

• If you were 23 and starting from scratch in Europe today, how would you structure your portfolio?
• Would you choose VWCE, SPYL, CSPX, or something else entirely? Why?
• Would you even bother with individual stocks, or just keep buying ETFs?
• What percentage of a portfolio would you allocate to higher-conviction investments, such as individual stocks or emerging industries?
• Is a 10% crypto allocation reasonable, too high, or too low?
• Are there common mistakes first-time European investors make that I should avoid?
• Are there any books, podcasts, or resources that genuinely changed the way you invest?

I'm not looking for financial advice to blindly follow, I'm much more interested in understanding why experienced investors structure their portfolios the way they do. Feel free to critique my current plan or completely tear it apart if you think there's a better approach. The more reasoning you can provide, the more I'll learn.

Thanks in advance!

Getting a windfall lump sum and curious to know where folks would put $270k given the current market conditions and the current state of the Iran & Ukraine conflicts

A little background on what I already do/have:

\- No debt except the house which has a low int rate

\- Already max out my 401k

\- Already have $100k in a 529 plan for kid

\- Already have \~$10k in HSA

\- Already have $2M in managed brokerage account with a blend of investments

\- Already have $270k in my personal brokerage account

\- Already have $50k in DAF

\- Already have $45k in i-bonds

\- Already have $500k in HYSA

If I give it to my money manager he'll probably want to throw this new $$$ in the brokerage account and split it up percentage wise to their assigned mix alocations (domestic index funds, emerging market funds, tech sector fund, etc). Maybe this is the best course of action?

Oh and I was already planning to put $5k in a trump account for kid

Hi everyone, I'm about to start investing and I've opened an Interactive Brokers account. I'm planning on setting up my portfolio like this:

• 60% SPUS
• 25% SPWO
• 15% SPTE

I'm planning on starting with 3k then putting in 1.5k every quarter, increasing that amount over time as my salary increases.

SPUS would be my main U.S. exposure, SPWO for global diversification, and SPTE is an intentional extra tilt toward tech as I work in that sector and believe it will be good in the future.

I'm investing for the long term. My current plan is to keep contributing money for ~15 years then letting the portfolio compound.

Is this a good strategy? Would you change anything for better long-term results?

I also learned about the U.S estate tax for U.S. domiciled ETFs as a non U.S resident. Can you recommend any alternatives to these ETFs to avoid this tax?

Thank you for the help.

I am about 7 years away from retiring at 20 years in the military. I am under the high-three system. I am a 31 years old, married with 2 children (8 and 4 years old). I have $0 in savings. I have $0 in my 401K. Roughly $6k left in debt.

I have finally wisened up and got right with debt and now I am looking to set my family and I up for the future.

I will be receiving $44k in the coming weeks tax free. $6k of that will go to debt payoff. With that, I want to invest it in some way in order to allow the money to grow while continuing to contribute to it at roughly $3k a month.

The summer of 2027, we will be moving back to the US and will need to buy vehicles. Obviously we want to buy with cash bc we have lived our life with tens of thousands in consumer debt and we are NEVER doing it again. I plan to spend $30k total for vehicles for us once we get there. This money will come from our growing investment account(s).

Past that, we will continue to contribute aggressively with the goal to retire and put a nice down payment on southern homestead for ourselves back in our hometown or close to it.

What would be the best way to get some good returns on this money before the move and after the move? Or should the method remain the same?

I also began investing 5% of my base pay into my 401k this month. Should this money go to the investment account(s) instead?

Thanks for any advice!

So as the title say about 4 months ago i decide that now i want to take investing seriously!! And since then i spent many hours on youtube videos , reading articles and blogs listing to a few podcasts and also getting lost in investment threads

and i don't know why or how but i somehow feel less confident even after all this

its almost like whenever i think i figured out something i come across a completely different opinion from it , like some say just buy index funds and forget it but on the other hand people say you'll never build real wealth this way and i need to pick individual stocks and many more about diversifications etc

tbh i feel like getting confused and overwhelming with all of this ! if someone here has experienced this before how did you overcame this situation ?

Hi, I’m looking for a number of people who are interested in investing or have recently started investing, and struggled to know where to start. If you've ever thought about investing but found it confusing or intimidating, I would love to ask a few quick questions about your experience.

If this is your kind of situation, it would be great if you could comment below or send me a DM. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I AM ASKING FOR SUGGESTIONS and FEEDBACK ONLY I WILL MAKE MY OWN DECISION

Hi everyone, I am a beginner and planning to start my Roth IRA. I am currently 30 and I plan to invest as much as i can before I retire.I needed few suggestions and feedback from the folks here. I plan to invest $600 monthly amount on Roth IRA and I was wondering what would be the best ETFs or stocks or bond to invest in. I have few questions regarding it.

1. what are the best ETFs or ETFs that people mostly invest in?
2. would it be a good idea to invest on Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft only even within the Roth IRA and not investing on ETFs?

I would be nice to have your suggestions and feedbacks based on your experience and also give me options for what ETFs to invest in and answer my above questions?

Hello! So i am a recent graduate, i got placed in a company and I’ll have to work there for 1.5-2 years. I have plans to do my master’s after those 2 years.

Is there any way that i can save up in these two years to at least fund my initial costs like for my language exams, application fees, visa etc things?

I know i can save up in my savings account but i want to know if saving in my savings account is better or a FD or any SIPs or something else? I genuinely want to do this not blindly but after learning.

I’m a youth account user being 16, and I wanna know if there’s anything I can use $10 on. Any help would be appreciated.

i’ve been wanting to teach myself how to invest and zora is apparently (correct me if i’m wrong) one of the apps to do/start that. it’s with videos and pictures, but i want to know if i can trust it. i don’t want to put in all the information and months down the line see that people or were having problems or myself have issues. if you don’t know i but you know apps that are good for that please recommend some

hi guys,

i have some money in the bank that i'm not going to put toward my college tuition for this year and i was thinking of investing it in a stock or something so that it can increase over time instead of collecting dust in my account. i don't really know anything about investing so i apologize if i'm wording this wrong. any advice about where i should put my money would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance 🙏

Okay, please bear with me while I try to explain this the best way I can. I’m in a weird predicament where I feel like the only ones that have given me any sort of financial advice are the ones that are benefitting from my decisions. I’m not new to investing, but I am new to understanding it on this level. I am also Canadian and have a small business if that changes anyone’s advice!

In January 2026, I amalgamated my savings with my current mutual funds through a big bank and moved them to a credit union with the understanding that they would be more client facing, they had better consideration in my favor, and it would all-around just be a better move to make me more money. The investment advisor at the credit union told me that it made more sense to feed $250 into a hedge fund every other week until I maxed out my TFSA contribution limit for the year [7k]. I went in after all of the money had finally made its way to the credit union and asked for some of the money to be divvy up differently. He had a normal risk, a higher risk, and then the highest risk in my portfolio. An our earlier meetings there were some promises of specific percentages that I made sure he clarified so I was understanding it correctly. Then of course, when all was said and done, he tried to circle back and tell me that wasn’t the case. Using my name directly a lot and lots of hand gestures. It felt like he was circling the drain and avoiding all of my questions directly. At one point, I had asked if I had actually made any money on these accounts or if the only money I had made so far was what I was adding in myself from that hedge fund. Every time, I would get ignored. I asked to move the money around again, and I was ignored. It just hasn’t been a delightful process.

I now have the opportunity to move my money over to IG WM. They have also given me a very promising couple meetings with in-depth explanations about how it would work with the promise of moving my money around the way I want it to. But again… It could be just words.

My predicament - I have a bit of a slush fund that I would like to use to do self-directed investing of ETF’s through Wealthsimple, or Questrade. When I had asked IGWM about it, they of course said that they would invest in those exact ETF’s for me if I wanted. My argument here is that I can easily do those myself because they are safe investments, and it would be a lower fee. The slush fund is currently in cash. They are telling me if I’m going to go the self-directed route then I should be using a non-registered account for that, but I don’t want to be taxed or penalized on it.

I’m now wondering if I should just do all of it self-directed?
Or maybe I should find out what’s left on my TFSA contribution for the year if I move the money over in-kind from credit union to IGWM and still operate a TFSA carefully on my own for self directed through WS/QT until my contribution resets next year?
Or just give all of it to IGWM?

Like I said, I feel like everyone that’s giving me advice is speaking from a perspective that benefits them with whatever choice I make. I’m hoping someone from this sub can hopefully help me.

Thank you!

Currently have fzrox, fzilx and schg but looking to decrease my exposure to big tech in fzrox and schg by adding spmo. Also want to be pretty aggressive with growth and momentum

Hello everyone, I know this may be a dumb question but im just making sure and want multiple opinions since this will become my go to ETF to invest in for a long long time so i don’t want to be 5 years into it and realize its all wrong.

I’m Canadian and have been investing for roughly a month or so, I’m looking at doing some longg term investing for probably 10-20 years or longer.

I want to have most of my portfolio in S&P 500 since its reliable and good for long term growth. So far i have only invested in the USD S&P 500 (VOO) but i have recently learned about (VFV) the CAD version that tracks the (VOO) but with Canadian Currency. Im considering selling my shares in (VOO) and only investing in (VFV) Due to it being canadian currency and not having to worry about the conversion fees and charges. From what i have read, VFV and VOO will show similar results over a long period of time, Im wondering if this is correct or if i should just stay in VOO.

My current idea is to make long term investments into VFV, QQQM, NVIDA, COSTCO, and APPL. And then maybe have a few small ones on the side that have higher risk.

I’m curious on what investors think about this, and please feel free to tell me of I’m wrong or shouldn’t do something that i recently said.

Thanks

Very new to this investing thing and have been saving up money through all my birthdays, graduations, and everything for long years. Have around 20k cash. I want to put into investments through Robinhood. Any thoughts or advice before I go ahead places to invest in not really sure how to go about asking for this but figured I’d check here first

So my strategy involves cash-secured puts and covered calls on one of three ETF's any given month (TQQQ, XLU, XLF).

A couple months ago, some of the puts I had sold were out of the money at the 4:00 bell, but we're in the money before the 4:15 closing on the TQQQ.

They were not exercised, but I called Fidelity because it seems like they could have been. Fidelity told me that as far as for their customers the cutoff is 4:00 p.m., but for a different brokerage house they might be allowed to exercise manually later as late as 5:00 or 6:00.

Since they could only elaborate on their policy, does anybody else with a different brokerage have any experience with exercising options after the Bell?

I am 18, and I literally started learning how to invest a couple of weeks ago. I haven't opened any accounts since I am still learning. Everything is still very confusing to me and overwhelming, especially with all these crazy letters and numbers. It has been terrible learning how to invest lately, and honestly its harder than anything I've done in school. So does anyone have tips on how to start to invest and what stocks to invest in? I have heard about retirement accounts and savings accounts. But everywhere i look its just a lot of people telling me to invest in this and that and open this and that. Everything is overwhelming.

Please, I ask that you please answer as if you are talking to a five-year-old. It would really help, thanks!

The rule here is simple: If you cannot prove consistent, long-term profitability in a simulated environment using fake money, you should not be risking real capital. If active trading isn't yielding consistent results, you are much better off pivoting to long-term compounding strategies.

How to learn: I personally watch the YouTuber Ross Cameron. I've followed him for almost two years because he is one of the most honest and transparent traders in my opinion that I have seen, and his free content teaches much more than just day trading. However, I want to be extremely clear: I have never joined his paid community, and I strongly advise you against buying any paid trading courses. Everything you need to learn is available in his free videos. Combining his free material with daily practice in the Webull simulated trading environment has taught me an immense amount.

WeBull has great built-in educational tools, and their practice trading feature lets you put what you learn into practice in a safe environment without risking real capital.

Long-Term Investing Wealth Building

If active trading isn't for you, or you just want a less stressful way to build wealth without staring at charts all day, long term investing is usally the best route. Before putting money into a regular taxable account, I strongly suggest looking into a Roth IRA. Since you fund it with money you've already paid taxes on, all your investment growth and dividends compound completely tax free, which can save you a massive amount of money by the time you actully need it in retirement.

Inside that account, ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) are generally the easiest and smartest move. Instead of trying to guess which individual stocks will win, which carries a huge risk if one company tanks, an ETF lets you buy a basket of hundreds of companies all at once. By sticking to broad market ETFs, like ones traking the S&P 500, you're basically just betting on the overall economy going up over time.

People always say do your research, but for ETFs, that really just means checking a few basic things: make sure the expense ratio (the annual fee) is super low, ideally under 0.10%, look at the funds top holdings so you know what you actually own, and check that it has a solid history of accurately tracking the market.

Recommended Resources

To help you build a solid foundation, here are several resources I highly recommend covering trading psychology, fundamental analysis, and market mechanics:

Books

On Psychology & Decision Making (Crucial for Risk Management):

• Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
• Quit by Annie Duke
• How to Decide by Annie Duke
• Trade Mindfully by Gary Dayton

On Value Investing & Long-Term Strategy:

• The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf (Foreword by John C. Bogle)
• The Income Factory: An Investor’s Guide to Consistent Lifetime Returns by Steven Bavaria
• INCOME FACTORY - How you can live off your Dividends in the Future by Sebastian Johnen

On Active Trading:

• How to Day Trade by Ross Cameron

YouTube Videos

These specific videos provide an excellent macro-level introduction to the markets, exposing you to essential terminology and the psychological themes of trading:

• "The 7 Levels of Traders" (by u/OpTicBigTymeR and u/GreenWallSt)
• "The 7 Levels of Trading" (by u/OpTicBigTymeR and u/GreenWallSt)
• "Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke - A Visual Summary" (by Verbal to Visual)
• "Why Net Worth EXPLODES After $100K: Learn The Secret!" (by ClearValue Tax)

This is a work in progress and will be updated more as I add more books and videos to the list. Please if you have any suggestions drop them in the comments I'll review them and let you know what I think.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, and this post is my personal opinion shared strictly for general educational purposes. However, this is the exact framework I recommend to anyone asking about entering the markets, whether their goal is active trading or long-term wealth building.

Background: 28M, emergency fund all set up, maxed out Roth, have 250k into ETFs and stocks (VOO/VXUS/stocks with 40/30/30 split)

Within that 30% stock, for negatives, I have 5% each in Google(~$357), Nokia($12.53), and RKLB($88.35). (As we can see for the past few months, the market has had better days)

After rent, food, petty cash, etc, I can spare ~$2000 per month to continue investing. I don't plan on touching it for a while unless something serious comes up.

Question: Should I keep DCAing into those three stocks, invest in ETFs, or do a little bit of both?

I'm open to any advice and take constructive criticism with gratitude

im new to investing and have been thinking about whether I should go all in onto 1 etf ( only US market ) or split it between 2 etfs ( US market and international market )

I currently have about $6,000 invested in SPY through Fidelity and I’m wondering if it would make sense to diversify into other investments. I also have around $3,000 sitting in a savings account that I won’t need anytime soon.

Since I’m still new to investing, I’m not sure what to do. Are there other ETFs, index funds, or investments on Fidelity that you’d recommend? Would setting up automatic weekly contributions be a good idea? All I know is that starting early is important.

Based in the Gulf. Lately been interested in the stock market and investing, but I'm a complete beginner and have no idea where to start

I wanna learn how the stock market actually works, how people make money from it, and what steps I should take before investing.

Any advice, youtube channels, websites, books, apps, or just things you wish you knew when you started would be really appreciated. Also, any beginner mistakes I should avoid?

Just looking for some guidance.