Madeline
Growing up with a single Jewish father meant that he wanted his daughters to never need a man. This included financially and teaching us how to invest. As I grew older and started to make my own money, I became very thankful for the good habits he instilled on me, especially when I see my friends who do not have as good of habits. For this reason, I have wanted to spread the wealth of knowledge to anyone who will listen.
I have put a majority of my money into ETFs. This is the safest because it purchases a number of companies at once rather than making a single bet on only one company. That being said, the hype of the single companies like Tesla and Apple and listening to Robinhood Snacks podcast, has made me want to try the single stock thing. So, I have a smaller fund where this is my focus. This is what I have in each.
SPY
SPY is one of the ETFs I have been investing in the longest. It was the first ETF I bought when I opened my brokerage account in my early 20s. Because it follows the S&P 500 it follows the stock market almost to a Tee. When the US is doing good, I am doing good. When the US has a dip, this index is one of the ones most likely to climb back up. For that reason, it is in my portfolio.
SLY
Where SPY is a safe ETF, SLY is a riskier one. The SLY index fund is full of small companies. I have invested in it for a few years and it has done quite well for me. It was one of the first ETFs I picked for myself when I was learning how to invest. Since it is all small companies there is a lot of room for growth and they do not make for the target of controversy, which makes them easier to grow than the larger.
QQQ
QQQ (or as my dad calls it, “the Qs”) is an ETF my dad told me to invest in. Without doing much research (not something I typically do) I bought a few and since then, this has been one of my fastest growing ETFs. The index is based on innovative companies that are not in the financial field. When learning how to invest, QQQ is a good index fund to see what success looks like.
VNQ
Although VNQ is not the only REIT I invest in, it is probably my most favorited. Buying real estate has always been appealing to me, but what to do after it has been purchased, I would have no clue and would likely lose money. Investing in a REIT solves this issue. It is a real estate index fund, hence REIT, that purchases real estate and gives you the return in dividends. I favorite the VNQ because it is managed by Vanguard, a company that has ETFs that have historically done well for me.
CRM – Salesforce
Moving on to individual stocks, CRM is the stock ticker for Salesforce. When it comes to individual stocks, I keep them in my Robinhood account due to the extremely low trading fees. Every company I have worked at has used Salesforce. I worked for a Salesforce competitor over a decade ago that has a lesser product and so I am familiar with the industry. This is a company I know will do well and for that, I own a few stocks.
WGO – Winnebago
I first bought WGO, the stock ticker for Winnebago, when the pandemic first happened. People wanted to travel but did not want to deal with flights or hotels. This makes traveling with an RV very appealing and therefore a must buy stock. Now that the pandemic is coming to a close, at least we all hope, it may be time to sell, but it is still doing me good, so I will hang on for the time being.
Ethereum
I would be lying if I said I did not have money in crypto currency, that being said, because there is nothing to back up the price other than the hype of the public, it is not a safe bet. There is nothing to learn about how to invest when it comes to crypto currency. I have a few dollars in both Ethereum and Dogecoin. If I lost everything, I would not even notice. So, if you have a few extra bucks, I say go for it. But if you are on a tight schedule to make the most of your money and looking to really learn how to invest, skip it.
