First time investor, advice

I broke myself in with ETF's and a couple major players like MSFT and WMT. Slowly integrated buying individual stocks.

Start with ETF's for bulk of your portfolio (50% SPY and 50% QQQ for example). Then pick a handful of companies that you personally know very well as a customer or whatnot; and go through a few earnings reports...get to know the price action on these companies and responses to earnings and news, etc.
That's pretty much how I started. From there, you will know what direction you want to go next. If your index etf's are doing just as well as your handpicked stocks; then put your money in index ETF's and focus on your primary income. It's not worth taking on increased risk and a 2nd job worth of hours to manage your portfolio if you cant beat QQQ. That's my personal benchmark for whether or not I'm wasting time and energy.

If your 401K allows it, I would suggest taking a small portion of your retirement (no more than 5%) and putting it at risk by buying stocks in your 401K. Stock investing is not for the faint of heart, and your best to keep the majority of your money in index funds. Keeping it in your 401K will shield you from capital gains taxes which I expect to go up.

Open up and max out, every year, a Roth IRA.

Now what you do in there? What's been said in this thread. A diversified mix of indexes, ETFs, and fixed income.

quote:

---

I opened a TDAmeritrade account to poke around. Are mutual funds a good place to get started?

---

Yes. Sounds like you are doing great with low debt and maxing 401k.

First, do you pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) as part of your mortgage payment? It is usually required unless you put down 20% or more. If you are paying it on a conventional mortgage, keep making that extra payment until you get 20% equity, and then do whatever it takes to get rid of the PMI. How to get rid of PMI

As others said, see if you are eligible to open a Roth IRA.

If eligible, you can contribute for 2020 $6,000 ($7,000 if you were 50 or older). You can still open one for 2020 if the contribution is made before April 15, 2021, and then make another contribution for 2021. Spouse (if married) can do the same.

That gives a couple up to $12,000 per year to invest via Roth, and up to $24,000 that they can contribute now if they move before April 15.

You already paid taxes on the money you will put in from your savings account, and you get no tax deduction for the contribution to the Roth. The beauty of the Roth is that when you withdraw the money in retirement, you will not pay taxes on the gains it has made, which could be substantial at your young age.

Eligibility depends on your tax filing status and your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) found on your tax return. If filing as single, eligibility starts to phase out (allowing lower contribution) at 2020 income range $124,000–$139,000 and 2021 income range $125,000–$140,000. If Married, filing jointly, phase out is at 2020 income range $196,000–$206,000 and 2021 income range $198,000–$208,000.

If you are under or within those income limits, you can set up a Roth for you and one for spouse (if married). It does not matter that you already have a 401k.

Take up to $6,000 per year from your savings and put it in the Roth that you open in TD, Vanguard, Fidelity, etc. You can then purchase within the Roth whatever investments they offer for Roths. A basic S&P 500 Index fund is a good place to start. You can divide your money up and put some in other funds or even individual stocks, but funds are the safer bet. (I have most of our Roth money in basic Vanguard stock index funds, but I put some in a Vanguard health care fund that has done well.)

I've mentioned before that in the mid-90s I plunked $5,000 in a Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund and let it ride with dividends reinvested. It's now over $75,000. It could go to $3 tomorrow, but so far so good. Roths did not exist until 1997, but if I had put that in a Roth I would not be having to pay the damned taxes on the dividends and capital gains.

Hope this helps. Good luck.