• @marx2k
    link
    511 months ago

    I make 120k in a medium sized city where the median income is about 75k. I’m pretty content, tbh. I also don’t buy shit i don’t need. Most of my expenses are my hobbies. I do have a lot of hobbies. But I still make enough every two weeks where I’m able to stash it away in a savings account.

    Now if I only knew how to and had the balls to invest beyond retirement accounts.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      411 months ago

      Investing tip #1: don’t take advise from strangers on the Internet

      Investing tip #2: get a zero commission trading app, like Fidelity or TD Ameritrade, and just squirrel away a bit of each paycheck/monthly/whatever into a low expense ratio, broad market ETF, like VOO (https://etfdb.com/etf/VOO/#etf-ticker-profile)

      Start slow, but contribute regularly. Keep enough cash in the bank for emergencies, and don’t bother even thinking about trying to “time the market” - just set it and forget it.

      • @marx2k
        link
        111 months ago

        Yeah I think my issue had always been no knowledge of how to pick even the right etf. For example, how did you even land on that one?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          111 months ago

          Criteria for that one: low expense ratio, so you aren’t losing (much) money to the fund manager, large market cap, so you are less succeptible to shock, and the ETF probably isn’t going anywhere, and as a S&P 500 ETF, it holds stocks from all 500 businesses in the S&P 500 (weighted by the respective market cap of said businesses), so it’s not tied to any single sector, making it more resilient for long-term investment.