Investing Zero to One

General investing advice and information.

Basics

I generally start with the Bogleheads theory of investing. This involves investing in a few ETFs or mutual funds as a diversified portfolio. For example, a 3 fund portfolio. I use Schwab funds, but any with low expense ratios will suffice.

An important piece is figuring out the asset allocation for each fund. The simplest setup is just use a target date fund, picking a typical retirement date. SWYGX is one such Schwab fund with a target retirement date of 2040.

TDFs follow a glide path that generally invests in stocks when you are young (higher risk), and moves towards bonds as you get older and closer to retirement (less risk).

Target date funds are not a good idea for a taxable brokerage account. They are mainly best for a 401k or IRA account. See this thread and this SEC filing for why.

Are there TDF-like funds that can be used in a taxable account? Yes, iShares has some. This reddit thread has some good pointers.