Where to invest in my own?

Submitted by tlr92 t3_11du47z in personalfinance

I don’t get an option for 401k at my job and have little to no experience when it comes to how to do any investing. So, on my own, how do I go about investing?

Should I go to a physical financial advisor/institution or should I go through something like Robinhood or similar?

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ScrewWorkn t1_jaau1l6 wrote

You invest pretty much the same way in a 401k as you do on your own. You add in money and then pick the funds you want to invest in.

  • Read the FAQ on investing
  • Open a IRA (either roth or traditional, probably Roth for you) with someone like Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab. I use fidelity, I love their customer support.
  • Pick some investment, typically index funds to invest in. I would recommend something like FZROX to start with. It is easy and pretty much a set and forget it.
  • As you get more comfortable read up on 3 fund portfolio.
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No-Lunch4249 t1_jaavkzc wrote

You should open an IRA (Individual Retirement Account). The reason to open this kind of account is because they come with tax benefits, which an account somewhere like Robinhood won't

There are two kinds of IRAs: Traditional and Roth.

For Roth, your deposits to it are NOT tax-deductible now when you make the money (unless you have income that is pretty low). But you then don't have to pay any taxes on the money or your gains when you take it out in retirement.

For Traditional, your deposits to it ARE tax-deductible and you won't have to pay taxes on it now, but you DO have to pay taxes on the money and your gains when you take it out in retirement.

Which one is "right" for your situation can be overwhelming and difficult to figure out. But the most important thing is to open an IRA, NOT a taxed brokerage account somewhere like Robinhood.

Check out places like Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, and TD Ameritrade which I believe are all highly recommended by this sub generally. You can do it all online too!

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tlr92 OP t1_jaax7ur wrote

Yes! It is all overwhelming and hard to know what advice is good advice!

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No-Lunch4249 t1_jaayz0c wrote

Yeah it is tough! But honestly by even opening up a retirement account and throwing a few bucks in every paycheck, you’re putting yourself ahead of (no shit) like 40% of people in the US (I assume you’re US based).

Like the other commenter said, we’re here for you, and the wiki is an amazing resource. You got this!

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Stock-Freedom t1_jaaz5dz wrote

Follow the flowchart.

My generic advice:

https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png

Here is the flowchart from the r/personalfinance subreddit’s Prime Directive. If you follow that, you will be ahead of almost all of your peers.

Stop by the sidebar to see the Common Topics, which include basic money handling and investing.

You don’t need to talk to anyone or buy some random book to do this. You have all the tools right here.

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