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Can you offer investment advice? I'm debt-free, about to start earning $2k more per month than I need to survive. Please offer any suggestions for optimal investment method(s). (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by LemmyInRedditSux@lemm.ee to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml

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48 years old, currently have no investments. My net worth is my car and the clothes on my back, and I don't ever want to be in this situation again.

(Edit: I don't need to buy a house or anything whatsoever related to a house, so please don't mention the "h" word in your response, it's triggering me for tangential reasons. Let me be clear, I will NEVER care about real estate whatsoever, mmmkay? Just trust me when I say I have a roof over my head and it's completely paid off, no property taxes, and No, I will never sell it, so the whole h-word" aspect of life is not a concern for me, k?)

Just looking for guidance where to invest this relatively small amount of money every month so in a few years when I'm older & frailer I'll have enough for retirement. I don't want it to just sit in my bank account, I want it to grow.

For reference, I've been living on approx $1500 per month for as long as I've noticed, so I don't need much per month, and the sooner I die, the less retirement fund I'll need, but we can never predict when anyone's death will happen, so let's assume I'll live to 100 because I'm ridiculously healthy & an exceptionally good driver, never been in an accident, one speeding ticket in my entire life, no social life so I never get into risky situations, so let's just plan for the possibility I'm going to live another 50 years.

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[–] yote_zip@pawb.social 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

This is all great advice in this thread that I can vouch for. If you have more questions post more threads - this investing stuff is more or less a "solved" math problem so you'll generally get "the right answer" from anyone in this community.

There's also more to learn beyond what to buy and where it goes. You should also look into the psychology and strategy of Boglehead investing. You'll need the nerves/rationality to never ever sell your stocks or react to market changes in any way. Don't even look at the market or your money ideally. Set a course and trust the math. The best way to lose invested money is by touching it. The more you touch it, the more you lose. Index fund investing is so simple that you may feel anxious that you are not doing enough - this is normal and it's important that you don't start fiddling with your money by e.g. tilting towards tech or trying crypto etc.

[–] LemmyInRedditSux@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where physically do I go, and who do I contact to begin an index fund?

[–] yote_zip@pawb.social 5 points 1 year ago

It depends on where you're putting it. Someone already posted the US flowchart which I highly recommend following.

If you're putting it in a 401k you'll be setting that up with your employer's 401k provider, which you don't get to pick.
If you're putting it in an IRA you get to choose your own provider, and the best ones that people recommend are Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard. You'll be served well by any of those 3, as they are all friendly and have no fees etc.
If you're putting it in an HSA you'll set that up through your employer's HSA provider, which you don't get to pick.
If you run out of space in your 401k/IRA/HSA you can also open a "brokerage" account which gets put raw into the market with no tax-advantages, but has no yearly input limits. This type can also be started from your Fidelity/Schwab/Vanguard account.

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