re: Stocks or ETFs

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Individual stocks are just gambling to me. I really don't think most traders are digging into their financials, reports, board composition, etc

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ALL investing is gambling. True that individual stocks are generally more risky. Groups of stocks add diversification that tends to lower the risk, but still have risk.

There are plenty of individual stocks that are fairly low risk during their runs. Bandwagon investing doesn't require a ton of research. Nvda is up over 100,000% for the past decade or so. Which is ridiculous. I am up 1000% by jumping in on a stock that everyone in the world could see was a good bet to continue to trend up. There are many similar stories. I think the majority of investors should have some individual stocks in their portfolio. I am probably 75-25, with 25% being in individual stocks, but they have definitely made good returns for me.

I got so tired of picking winners and losers. It’s only ETFs from here on out.

VOO
VUG
VXUS

Those three are solid and most importantly consistent.

Buy IVV every month. 30 years call me from your mansion

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SCHG is way better.

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Don't really disagree for the long haul, have some actually.

SCHD is built for income and stability, SCHG is pure growth. Depends on what you want your portfolio to do.

Comparison

Returns By Period
In the year-to-date period, SCHG achieves a -13.47% return, which is significantly lower than SCHD's 11.91% return. Over the past 10 years, SCHG has outperformed SCHD with an annualized return of 16.57%, while SCHD has yielded a comparatively lower 12.27% annualized return.

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Vanguard Total World Stock ETF has 3,500 stocks

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Rewind to 5 or so years ago...

Owning $10,000 spread across 3500 stocks vs NVIDIA. The thrill of seeing that one stock pop, explode, go down, explode again, the media coverage, the anticipated earnings updates, etc.

The ETF does great too, but its the thrill I am referring to. I am happy to see one of my ETF's succeed, but seeing that vs seeing something I take pride in individually owning like Trane, Generac, or American Express....the fun is seeing a chunk of money in individual stocks and how they perform.

ETF is like being a casual baseball fan liking a certain team for their history of success, stadium venue, and uniforms/colors but only knowing a basic concept of the format of the team. Individual stock is similar to following one or two players from that exact team, knowing all their intricate stats, cheering for them to succeed, keeping track of stats, and seeing that player break his season high of HR or RBI totals. Its much more interesting to track an individual player and his impact on the team's success than to just watch a general team win that you know little about.

ETF's are great don't get me wrong. All I am saying is that individual stocks to me are way more interesting to monitor and cheer for.

I use a few financial institutions. One is all about mutual funds and ETF's. The other is all about buying individual stock, although they do have a few mutual funds in my account. I have around 50 individual stocks with one institution. My first market check of the day starts with the institution with the individual stocks. Better yet, the institution with individual stock usually outperforms the institution with ETF's.

I enjoy individuals more, but I don't recommend just owning individual stock unless you are in a position to shrug your shoulders at a 30% loss and say lets sell it so I can reduce my tax burden.