re: Best stocks for a 20 year old to buy

Tigerbait, while I jumped in the LVVV discussion in this thread, I’m onboard with the others who have recommended sticking primarily to broad market index funds. That was the biggest lesson I learned from ‘A Random Walk Down Wall Street’. I think the stat I hear repeated most is that a simple 3-fund portfolio (total U.S. stock market, total international stock market, and total U.S. bond market index funds) outperforms 85% of actively managed funds. I just use the Vanguard Target Date funds, which is actually a 4-fund because it also adds the total international bond market fund as well. Set it and forget it - don’t try to time the market.

Here are some stats I pulled from a Fortune article:

quote:

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Over the longest span, the numbers were particularly brutal. The S&P 500 outperformed more than 92% of large-cap funds over the last 15 years. Mid- and small-cap funds fared no better over the time period, with their benchmarks besting them 95.4% and 93.2% of the time, respectively. Overall, 82.2% of all active funds were outperformed over the 15-year period.

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LVVV is my plaything. Aside from that one particular venture, my entire investment strategy revolves around a 3-4 fund portfolio.