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What is a good investment portfolio for someone starting in their 20s? 90% VT and 10% BND for a Roth IRA then 100% TDF for a 401k?

14.06.2025 00:11

What is a good investment portfolio for someone starting in their 20s? 90% VT and 10% BND for a Roth IRA then 100% TDF for a 401k?

Don’t lose the money!

Seeking financial independence would have helped me enormously, to avoid the many traps and pitfalls that I fell into along the way.

Thanks for watching, and keep up the great beginning you have made!

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One of the rare times that a young adult can have their cake, and eat it too!

So what, if you take a bit longer? It still beats TWO MORE LIFETIMES away!

There is a saying, “You make your money elsewhere, you grow it, in the stock market.”

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Play some stock market simulation games, in order to determine the validity of this point for yourself.

Look more closely.

Do this, by buying fractional shares at a broker who offers fractional shares. Buy everything on the list, in the same proportions as your highly prized fund does! No commissions, no fees! Current broker minimum investments (at the time that this was written) in each security range from $5 to $1 to as low as 1 penny, per transaction. The future will probably be even more flexible.

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Bonds are absolute shit. The only time bonds make more than the rate of inflation and taxes combined, is when interest rates are dropping continuously for a long period. If you are going to ever invest in bonds, then this is the only time in the investment interest rate cycle to ever do so.

Look up my other, beginner related answers on many fine topics related to financial questions here on Quora! Navigate to my profile page. Tap or click on my answer count link. Browse a dozen or two topics of interest each week, until you begin to see an overall pattern worth copying and then follow it!

If he REALLY knew what he was doing, that would NEVER have happened, because the first rule of investing would have stopped him in time.

So who has worn a cock cage. One of my guy FWBs put one on me last Sunday and left with the keys? I was very nervous at first but have calmed down. Told me he'll unlock it tomorrow.. Let me know.

Simple!

Nope.

While you are young, and are to be commended for doing even minimal investigation into the whole retirement account and investment thing, and realize that investing in both an IRA and 401(k) is by far your best initial option, you do not have even a clue yet what will really work (well), and what won’t. Nobody is born knowing even a lick about money or investing. Nobody teaches us a thing about it in school either. Our parents CAN’T teach us, either because they don’t know themselves, or, like Warren Buffett, the kids just don’t want to learn, and are only going to want to play Santa Claus, by giving guilt money away at their “favorite charity”! Warren Buffett’s ex-daughter-in-law, was possibly the most avid student of his system, and she has made a small bit of money, writing books about her former family connection and what she learned from him! Smart girl!

What do you do to make yourself sleep early?

“Does ANYBODY just throw dollars down on the ground, and walk away?”

It is far easier to lose the money, than it is to keep it. You will never know how hard, until you begin to PRACTICE the first rule of investing IN EARNEST!

They admittedly know LESS than nothing, (some of what you know, just ain’t so), and they are GUARANTEED to make mistakes, and will INEVITABLY lose the money, at least in the beginning, right?

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Walk down the street, of ANY neighborhood in America, on the night before trash collection day. Look at all of the trash bins, put out for pickup.

This is a blatant lie.

You will wonder why anybody gets excited by 7% annual “average” stock market returns, when practically any business that you pick, can often make 100% percent returns, EASILY?

Hello,hope y'all doin good, i came to Quora to share my strange story , a very weird one , a story when luck smiled at me ,maybe u will enjoy it , let's begin,have fun... A year ago ,I was a real porn addicted(btw I was 18) ,but never had sex before, I don't have a gf I didn't try to find one even ,always thinking to go to find a sex worker but then I just don't , everyday watching different bodies getting fucked and everyday enjoying. One day, I was watching porn, a big ass lady with big boobs ,just after seeing her the image of my female cousin poped in my mind, (let's introduce her : she's 35 years old , very big ass , nice boobs ,not very big but nice,always wearing tight clothes , she's divorced ) and I thought of me fucking her ,I never had sexual desires for her but now I do days went by and when I met her I was so horny ,I couldn't stay with the family cz my penis was clearly erected , I realized this is my first time I get horny for one of my family ,it not illegal in my country.well to make a long story short( if u want details just text me I will tell u 😊),I decided to give her signs that I want to fuck her,finally I decided to have sex and with my cousin , I thought it is the best beggining for me, i started touching her when I came across her in a narrow place , make her feel my hard cock when we hug , I thought it will hard and I will be ashamed but no , I felt nothing and she said nothing , probably she thought it was by mistake,anyways, I decided then to talk with her about sex, waited for her to be alone in a room and talk with her, I confessed everything about me watching porn and addicted..etc,she said it's normal and u are growing up and u must have sex,well at that time I was like whaaat????? Well I didn't control myself and asked her for sex ( horny like I Ve never been before) she said that she will think Abt it ,2 weeka went by then she called me ,telling that she reserved a room in a hotel and we meet tonight ,we met,and bruuhh, sex is great , I mean, I had to find a pirstitue ,what I was waiting for to have such a feeling ????, I will never forget that night, I started kissing her she was kissing hard ,she misses sex so bad , she sucked my dick and swallowed my semen ,I felt I'm in a dream , then when fucked ,her ass was very big and the anus was open ,didn't struggle to get my hard cock inside it , she was obviously missing sex , she was shouting ,fuck me yh fuck me , I go fast after every word until I cum , we did that 3 times , then we went to her pussy , using condoms I fucked her so hard the moans were higher , everything was perfect ,in the end I asked her to lick her body , licked pussy ,ass, boobs,then she sucked my cock until we sleeped ,all I know that she was dirty ,well before even having sex with her I knew she is an open minded woman , and a woman that looks that she donesnt know anything , but she knows everything, but never expected having sex with her ,well she was horny and that helped...but no one of us regretted that sex ever.. We still have sex from time to time ,and I started having sex with sex workers , joining threesomes..etc If u want pics of her text me.

You start with tiny, no, MICROSCOPIC amounts of cash. Each deal, must represent far less than 1% of your available cash.

This is why the first rule of investing is so painful and so powerful.

Thus, the whole target date scheme is inherently defective. Though, as I stated earlier, and this bears repeating for all of us lazy people out there, including myself, ANY plan is better than NO plan! In other words, NO plan is in fact, the worst plan of all, as even a BAD plan is better, even sometimes FAR better!

Hi everybody! I have been looking at posts on narcs and narc abuse on here and if has really helped me out a lot. I am currently struggling with my situation and need some advice/support. I met a narc last year, everything seemed to good to be true. Love bombing, always texting calling and taking me on dates. Everything changed when someone warned me about him out in public in front of him and who he is. This caused a conflict with us and the love bombing seized. he would tell me that everything is okay and i can come and talk. He would set a time limit on me and kick me out after that. he would then text me like everything was fine and we hung out again and after that he completely ghosted me for one week. He came back and texted me a week later laughing about the ghosting and acting like nothing had happened. he continued to text me ( not like in the beginning) make plans with me, then on the day of the plans he would just ghost me. One day he would act interested the next silence. i contacted him a month later and he acted like nothing happened. He was on a vacation and sent me a picture of another woman ( someone he allegedly met on the trip) to strike a reaction but i never gave him one. After the trip he came to my place and was extremely rude, accusing me of going on dates with a bunch of men. The next day he accused me of being an alcoholic and that he wanted nothing to do with me but said well maybe we can be "friends" then ghosted me i assumed at this point it was over and i would never hear from him again. He contacted me on the holiday a month later acting like everything was great. We ended up hanging out a month or so later and when we hung out it went well, i thought things were going in the right direction. after we hung out.. silence. I would try to text him and if he replied it would be very short then he just stopped replying. He ghosted me for almost three months. I thought he was done this time and of course he popped up again like nothing happened. At this point i was getting sick of if so i questioned him as to why he dissapeared and always does this. Of course he had some sob story about a injury and family member dying of cancer. I felt pity for him and he gave me an apology.. so i took him back stupidly. things seemed to be going smooth for a couple months, of course until his family member died and his injury got better he never contacted me and was distant. Menawhile, i was there for him during the difficult time for him. He lied to me about the funeral and never wanted to chat. I was chasing him and he would always claim nothing was wrong but when i said i thought he used me when he was down he could not handle it and would always tell me he didnt care and to go away. I would get so upset i would try texting him to work it out he would barelt respond and if he did he would not be nice about it. we did hang out a couple times after that, he would ignore me after. One day i was like hey i think you are seeing someone else, and i was like well ixam seeing someone so no problem if you are he said " buy bye good luck with your new guy stop contacting me" i was devastated and tried to get into contact with him for weeks then i just gave up and accepted it was over. He ended up contacting me a month later acting like everything was fine. He wanted to go out and have drinks i told him i would. He and i both seemed to have a great time. He ends up ignoring me again. I kept texting him trying to figure out what was wrong. He kept saying everything was fine and i said ok can we hang out again? He said maybe i was like why? He just kept saying maybe … our last conversation we had… i said what is wrong ? He said nothing is wrong everything is fine. I asked him why he keeps saying maybe. He said " maybe but i dont want to see you right now" i said why? He saix " im just not feeling it, if i wanted to date i would" i said why did you contact me less then a week ago wanting to go out? He said i didnt.. even though he did. So i said should i just move on or what? He said whatever you want to do. So i said that he was really confusing me and asked him if he had anything more to say before i move on? My messages were turning green so i panicked he blocked me and reacted irrationally. I said " omg did you block me? My messages are not going through. Even texted him on my work phone asking what was up. And called him twice ( please dont judge me i know it is pathetic i never was this type of girl before him) so he replied and said " Ok I'll block you now" then immedietly blocked me. He has never blocked me before since I have met him he will just ghost. Is this ths final discard aka " grand finale? Did i just push him too far? this has upset me so much its hard to even function.

Americans reportedly throw out an incredible 40% of their food! I cannot confirm this number. Only that EVERY trash can smells horrible. That is where the smell comes from. Rotting leftovers.

Use your nose, as well as your eyes! Collect ALL the data that is available to your senses!

First, eliminate the annual fees.

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Yes.

You NEED the 10%, 15% or higher tax breaks (depending on how expensive of a state you live in for income taxes), on your initial contributions! MANY of you won’t make ANY other money at all, your first year!

What?

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Allowing you to learn surprisingly rapidly! Make TONS of experiments! Write down your rosy projections in advance in your trading and business journals.

What else do you notice?

By this same logic, investing in TDF is a bad idea. They charge an exorbitant 1.1% in annual fees! Yikes!

Why do unattractive men assume that a pretty woman like me want them?

You will also!

Want to sample how hard it REALLY is?

Look at their prospectus periodically. List their purchased assets on a sheet of paper. Do TWO simple things.

The proof?

Read a copy of “What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars”. A top, professional guy, who belatedly realized, that he was merely LUCKY for DECADES!

What you MUST do, is to embark on a lifelong, self-educational journey, into the realm of finances, money, proper money management, investments, and do so, on a fairly wide range of topics. Crypto is crap, unless you are, perhaps, an exceptionally talented psychologist, with a deep understanding of human nature, and can exploit other people’s weaknesses sufficiently to make one or more big killings, and then get out.

I don’t recommend a “good investment portfolio” for people in their 20’s. Why would I waste my time on such a thing? I am far older than that. I want something good for ME! RIGHT NOW! No matter how old I am, no matter how ignorant I remain! I need something good for ALL seasons of life!

Have you not looked at their prospectus yet? WHY are you contemplating investing in something that you know next to NOTHING about? You are convinced that investing in “everything” must be “superior”? Logical sounding. But false.

Almost every other trash bin, is open. The lid is propped up from the packing material that their latest toy was packaged in. And thrown away. Correction, PAID to be thrown away…

(Be sure to be prepared WELL in advance! Open up that Roth IRA tomorrow, and fund it with even just $50! Or whatever you have in spare change! Just open it, and LEAVE IT ALONE! It will work off your initial, 5 year clock! Get your’s ticking today!)

There is some truth to that. Figure out how much truth. For yourself.

Your question assumes that the conventional “wisdom” of having mostly stocks in your youth, and mostly bonds in your old age, “is a good plan”. So pervasive is this notion, that ALL 401(k) target date funds use one or more variants of this philosophy. You are supposed to buy into a target date fund “maturing” around your “anticipated” retirement date, and let it automagically provide for your old age, by slowly moving out of stocks, and more into “supposedly safer” bonds.

30% to small businesses, which YOU start up, and actively run.

Secret trick #2: Make a conscious choice, TODAY, to get to financial independence as SOON as possible!

Look over the list again. Out of the dozens to hundreds of investments shown, read the financial statements of enough companies, that you discover some dogs, that are currently losing money.

Each month, review your progress. Compare your initial expectations with reality. How many deals did you find? How many did you investigate? How many did you do? What is your annualized ROI (profit)? Adjust your expectations appropriately.

Most people that I talk to, don’t even know what a Roth IRA even is, much less actually have one opened up, and are actively using it!

Why do you think?

You just got 1.1% MORE than your TDF units!

I suspect that you don’t either, but you could change that at any second, making me totally wrong about this speculation.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Want to do even better?

Yes, they do.

This investment portfolio will give you a broader education, and more diversification, which is always recommended when you are ignorant. After all, if you KNEW what was going to win, GUARANTEED, then instead of diversifying, you would pile EVERYTHING on one roll of the dice, right? Unfortunately, that ignorance we were blessed with at birth, never completely goes away. Prudent investors keep their egos in check, and protect against the biggest risk of all. TRUSTING yourself to know far more than you ACTUALLY do!

Do MORE of the stuff that does work.

If not much longer!

Will prices go up, or will prices go down, for companies that were once making money, and are now losing money?

We already discussed the problem with bonds. If an investment yields an inferior rate of return, then WHY would you want to risk investing even a PENNY into it? Wouldn’t you make more money, going with 100% VT? Remember, even a TINY improvement in annual yield, creates STAGGERING increases in final wealth over time!

Financial independence, on the other hand, comes to people who put in the time, self-study, and effort, in as little as 5 years! Whoa!

Okay, I am now going for level 2 financial independence, but the point is, I will ALWAYS have more work to do, more improvements to make, before I arrive!

Use a broker, to get competitive bids on nationally available rates on CDs. These will always beat your local banks and even your local credit unions by a far cry.

Secret trick #1: Invest in your traditional IRA, not the Roth IRA!

THAT is the most useful investment portfolio that everybody, of any age, could ever possibly hope for!

While you cover the bases, by making sure that you buy every winner, you wind up with mediocre returns, because such a strategy makes equally certain that you buy every loser as well. Winners plus losers equals “average blah”.

Because, in the end, playing his OWN game, he lost it all!

They lost the money, not once, but TWICE, on the same investment. Guess what happens to the “old” toy, that is getting replaced with a “better” model?

STOP doing the stuff that doesn’t work.

It is SO obvious, that most investors ignore it immediately. “Why would you even have to be told such a perfectly obvious statement as that?”

Remember to stay under the $250,000 FDIC insurance limit on each bank, for ALL of your CDs with that bank combined. Don’t be foolish, like the idiots who lost their investment capital at SVB, by keeping amounts over $250,000 there, when that world famous, silicon valley company folded. Yes. They folded because they bought government bonds during a period of RISING interest rates, (the WORST possible time to buy bonds, ANY bonds), lost their asses on paper, and then for real, when the inevitable bank run started. Even geniuses, who gamble on “can’t lose” investments such as treasuries, are idiots! Don’t be one of them, and copy what they do, just because they are smarter than you!

30% to real estate.

This includes all real estate RELATED investments as well. You need to allow for this, so that you can get started with small amounts of money.

More throwing money on the ground, and walking away.

Can’t be bothered to read the fine print on the prospectus, or do any investigations into the financial reports of the companies that you are investing in? Then get out of the stock market entirely. You are not investing, or even speculating. You are GAMBLING, and that never looks pretty, no matter how lucky you might get in the beginning!

10% Financial Emergency Fund.

Why?

This is my current portfolio allocations. When I eventually figure out a better system, I will immediately switch to it, but for right now, I am pretty ignorant, and this is the best that I have discovered so far:

(Content: DD FF 2024Jul30)

Do your annual Roth conversion by December 15th each year, using your standard deduction, and pay no additional taxes on that money!

While ANY plan is better than “no plan”, allowing people to help themselves to your investment cash whenever they want, is a particularly foolish strategy. High annual fees guarantee sub-par returns, and even small drops in annual investment returns WILL result in dramatic end results, when compounded over sufficient lengths of time.

Why?!

So, what is a beginner to do, then?

Your tax breaks give you an enormous boost right away!

By simply eliminating even ONE dog from the list, the “average” of YOUR portfolio, with perform BETTER than your fund’s portfolio! Get rid of 10 to 20 dogs, and you will see a RAPID improvement over the so called “genius” portfolios of even the highly touted darlings of Wall Street!

I am STILL not quite there yet!

Yep.

Do the experiment. Record the results. Record the results of EACH deal, each trade! EXACTLY how much did you make or lose?

Want to outperform ANY index in the world?

DON’T buy ANY shares of companies that were once MAKING money, and are now LOSING money!

30% to paper based assets, (which includes the stock market).

Because microscopic investments that have gone badly, are really easy to recover from. Both from financial pain, and from emotional pain.

Your investigations have led you to believe that 90% VT and 10% BND is a “good” blend, for a person of your age.

What do you see?

Deposit your funds over $1,000 into short term CDs, at the highest available rates. Funds under $1,000 go into Money Market Funds, for government obligations. You will lose at least 1/4 of a percent to annual fees on the MMFs, but you can get your money out tomorrow, and have the cash before the end of next week. Make it a practice, to NEVER take any money out for “financial emergencies”. Instead, learn how to deal with “surprises” more skillfully than that.

You make allowances for your ignorance, and you vow to never repeat any of your stupidity. Well, not more than 3 or 4 times, if you can help it… Heh!

ALL of those trash company customers failed the first rule of investing. They lost the money. They PAID good money for packaging, and then, they paid MORE good money to get RID of that packaging!

Why wait for retirement? For a 20 year old, that is still OVER TWO MORE LIFETIMES AWAY!