So I need 3k minimum to invest in an index fund? how the fuck is everyone here investing?

Get a job?
Iike for real. At the age of 18 i scraped together $3k that I made at fucking mcdonalds and traded stock with it. My margin account required a 25k minimum.
I have no clue whats in that book. But I can assure you that Veeky Forums does not communicate with financial advisors to make their investing decisions.
Investing does not require accountants, and brokers play a very small part as the facilitator. This shit isn't rocket science.

If you absolutely want Vanguard, you can start in a Vanguard STAR fund, which has a minimum of 1,000 dollars. Contribute to it over time until you reach the next tier (3k) then transfer to the new fund. When you reach 10k in there, transfer to the elite account.

It was pretty easy for me to do this.

if u looked at blockfolios from past months on biz, i mean blockfolios threads from past months check archives, u would see most of those threads guys had a couple hundred $100-$500 dollars invested in coins, if u had 5k u were a ballar, now u check those threads and more guys have 5-50k in their blockfolios now, what this tell u is people are actually making money, u guys just got in but in a couple months it will be u since we are all early adopters,

>tfw started with 400
>tfw now ~40k

Cheapest?
Robinhood, it's free or something. But from what I hear it's a little limited.

The next cheapest, US based broker, is ETrade.

robinhood
your fucked if you are not in an approved country for it though, then you gotta pick a broker with cheap rates or lots of free trades.

how old are you op?

>those high ass fees

you bought the wrong ones nigga

making over 10% per year, i dont feel too bad.

what does yours look like, where did you put yours into?

I started investing through my employer with a 401k plan. Now have 130k saved 7 years later.

Feels good.

Im just trolling you did good.

Ive got VOO (s&p 500), and BND (us govt/corporate bonds), VEU (all world excluding US).

might add the emerging markets one since they have been killing it but some of those countries scare me

Question 401k what are the best areas to invest like today I logged in tommy account saw that SP400 sucked moved what ever small %$ I had in there to the SP500 which is doing great

VTSAX is 0.04%, tracks the whole market tho

This is my YTD in my old employer's plan (didn't roll over because fees are .06%)

VYM

Where the fuck do you live that someone can work part time and "save up 3k easy"? Are you referring to people who still have mommy and daddy pay for everything in their life?

I recommend you exit your bond fund and doubnle down on international shares and total stock shares if you are nowhere near retirement. Studies show that there is very little reason to hold bonds at any age group, regardless of the recommendations of bogglehead forums. I just didn't see the justification after trying bonds for over 7 years with little to show for it in my 20s. It was something like 20 dollars a month and constant drain on their value due to interest rate swamp.

damn, thats rad. i have only gotten jobs at small companies that didnt have 401ks, which is why i made the IRA. would be awesome to have a big firm job that matched 401k deposits. congrats.

is the percentages how much they take from you? i never really looked into more of this, i followed a "lazy man" ira guide and just did what it said.

yes. maybe not everything, but nothing wrong with enjoying your life with your parents while theyre still capable. im closer to them now that ever, not ashamed and im set up for a much more comfortable life in the future. i already have a down payment for small house in savings too. Also live in california where shit is way to expensive to do alone, so maybe things are different where its more affordable.

Medtronic was good to me.

yeah, read up on expense ratios right now. it's important. a small percentage difference can add up to a LOT over 30+ years

investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/092613/pay-attention-your-funds-expense-ratio.asp

all he has to do really is dump the bond shares into his two other funds, that should put him over the 10k requirement in both his investor funds, which would let him get both admiral funds (same indexes, much less fee).

I would have to do the math but this small change would easily let him beat out anything he has gained from his bond fund just from the fee change.

id be just a little bit short to admiral on both. i could move them all to one and make it though. which one would be safer? domestic stocks has made more, i figure go with that?

domestic would be good to be first as you get your better fee reduction, drops to .04% from .15% Then when you have a little more, upgrade your international for a drop from .18% to .11%

because you got rid of your bond laggard, you end up with a fee of only .15% total rather than your current .48%

I agree, Get the admiral shares

Im on the 100% VTSAX portfolio

Thank you, fellas. this is a lot more of what i expect from this board over all the crypto screeching.

Made the transfer and should be able to upgrade to admiral on it as soon as it clears. once that goes up high enough, i will send any extra over to the international and do that one too.

thanks again.

Keep putting money into those funds though and maybe rethink that bond fund until your portfolio is bigger.

As for crypto, I skipped out on buying anything in emerging markets even though I'm young and volatility is good at this age. Crypto is my emerging market investment

If you're not in college or are poor then it should be easy DESU. Really, you could probably get 5k to start easily.

Good job bro, I do the same and just keep feeding it with a good portion of every paycheck. Set and forget about it - pretend it doesn't exist. Then check back in 20-25 years and be very well off - you might even be able to think about retirement then

We're all gonna make it

Dude I live on my own and saved up 5k this year from almost nothing. Where do YOU live?

Am I doing it wrong by just using VFIAX?

just deposited 5500 for this year, going to add more right at the start of next year. i have enough in savings to do it, i wish i could transfer all of it already. put 11k in right when i made it a year ago, was able to deposit for that year and the previous. this is the first time since then i added more, i realized i should have done it a lot sooner. better now than later i guess!

So I assume this is a Roth IRA then? Yeah I have the same here.

You could consider opening up another brokerage account (taxable ofc) to invest more.

just gonna save it, will need a down payment for a house eventually. its just 40k right now anyway and ill need a lot more for the homes prices around here.

you could always move somewhere with cheaper real estate

id love to, my industry isnt too widespread. id way prefer rural to the suburban/city world im in now. just hard to find jobs in my field that are not in big cities.

PGGAX up like 18% or some shit this year.

Get on my fucking boomer level, plebs.

yea lets see those gains when the bull runs out of steam bud. that shit when like -50% in two months in 2008

>in 2008
yeah, like everything else? LOL

Yes goyim, make sure to be a strong independent individual and pay rent on time to me, Mr. Goldstein. Remember you're 18 now, living with your parents to save money is absurd!

@anyone

So I just opened up my vanguard fund, and I have $3200 to invest. Problem is, I know absolutely nothing about the overwhelming number of options to put my money in.

Is there a place I can read about this, or is there one go-to fund that I should be looking at as a newfag?

thanks boys.

wtf Im 22 and have 10k in my savings account. do none of you seriously have a savings account?

There's literally no point in keeping that amount of money in a savings account if you don't plan on using it. Make money off it.

put it in VFINX, then when you have 10k upgrade that to VFIAX since its the same fund but with lower fees

You can buy Vanguard's index funds as shares of an ETF. Generally lower fees and lower entry price. Just buy in through a brokerage account like TD Ameritrade.

VTI is a good option. Shares are around $100 or so.

So this would be the fund I invest in for general investing purposes right?

I only opened an IRA account, so I guess I need something seperate tio be able to buy VFINX

where do you get 10% annual gains over 20 years?

you opened it as a retirement fund?

I opened a retirement fund but I havent put any money in it yet

Trading using gf's 6 figure inheritance

Theres so many options. What should I do if I want to take out $10k of crypto gains for this?

you're doing good, you can also switch to VTSAX

>Theres so many options. What should I do if I want to take out $10k of crypto gains for this?

Look up 3 fund portfolios, do your research, don't let anyone on Veeky Forums tell you what to invest in.

I cant get over OP being bewildered as to how anyone could have $3,000 to invest in a fund.

There's no harm in offering advice, and does it really matter that they were 'bewildered'? Not everyone gets the same opportunities.

>how the fuck is everyone here investing?
By logging into my banks website,
going to the brokerage tab,
searching for whatever ETF/stock I want
and clicking on buy.
Then I get to choose the number of papers I want,
press OK,
wait for 2FA confirmation
and *bam*, pic related.

How else would you do it?

>and brokers and advisors that they communicate with to buy and sell stocks?
and now that you say, yes, this is also an option.
when I don't want to be bothered to check at which exchange I'm buing, or if its some low volume special funds that you have to buy or sell through the emitter, I just call my advisor and tell him what I want.

You can try other low cost brokerages like t. Rowe or Schwab

They only have $1000 dollar minimums and you can start even lower than that if you agree to automatic monthly payments (Not fees, like automatically putting in money from your paycheck)

You must be quite poor if you can't spare 3K

My funds are 0.75%-0.9% for the first 50K, 0.15% seems pretty low

Unless you're 70 years old, you don't need such a large portion of your portfolio in bonds. As others have suggested, consider moving it into the total stock market or some into international.

if you can save up 3k easy, if you don't buy shit and live like a nihilist.
Why buying expensive food? if you can buy rice, or oatmeal.
Do you need a expensive Smartphone? expensive PC and so on.
I know an Eng. Msc. earns 50k a year, 2,5k after taxes per months, living in expensive city and just uses 800€. Mostly is rent 500€.
Reduce expenditure to a minimum and dont buy shit then you will see nearly everybody can save a little bit and a little bit over some time can be something

As someone who's new to all of this:

VFIAX or VTSAX?