Index Fund Investing for beginners: This is one of the best investments that requires very little work, almost no skill, and has some of the best overall returns. Here’s why - enjoy! Add me on Instagram: GPStephan
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What IS an index fund? An index fund is basically just a group of investments that you can invest your money into, and then you’ll own a small percentage of the entire thing. Index funds track the entire market as a whole, rather than one specific stock.
Why Invest in an Index Fund: They have very low fees. This is because indexes are very simple to put together, very simple to manage, there isn’t much overhead, and those savings get passed on to you. This is also what’s known as a PASSIVELY managed fund. You’re getting an entire portfolio of stocks that automatically gets balanced and adjusted over time, without doing any work, and you pay as low as 0.04% annually.
This is the opposite of a MUTUAL FUND, which employs professional stock pickers who aim to generate market-beating performance. However, the additional overhead expense associated with this, as well as the fees incurred by buying and selling, ultimately gets passed on to you, as the investor, in the form of higher fees. And that is WITHOUT the guarantee of actually beating the market.
Second Advantange: The majority of investors will get a HIGHER return long term with an index fund than they will by investing in individual stocks on their own. Several studies have suggested that over 92%-95% of portfolio managers could not out perform the market index over a 15-year period. And these figures are SO MUCH WORSE for the average individual investors.
Third Advantage: Diversification. Even if you have 20 individual stocks in your portfolio, one of them dropping in price could cost you a lot of money. On the other hand, if you buy the SP500 500 index fund, your investment will depend on 500 different stocks, only three of which account for more than 2% of the entire index. This means having a few companies go down or up won’t make a huge difference in your portfolio, but you get the advantage of riding the entire market as a whole as they rise in value over time.
Fourth Advantage: It’s easy. I also acknowledge that I am not a stock market expert. I cannot buy and sell stocks that will consistently beat the market long term, nor do I have an interest in spending that much time watching stock charts and reading news so I can make the proper decisions. Source: https://mymoneywizard.com/3-fund-portfolio/
How to do this: My favorite index fund investing method is called THE THREE FUND PORTFOLIO: * US Stocks: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) * International Stocks: Vanguard Total International Index Fund (VTIAX) * Bonds: Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (VBTLX)
That’s it. This gives you the broadest diversification at the absolute cheapest cost. Not only that, but because you’re investing in multiple asset classes, you’re diversified through three mostly uncorrelated markets, and that protects you against any swings from one individual market.
