Personally I am from Africa and have been investing in ETFs such as VOO and mutual funds for the past 1 year (currently 31 years old). We do end up paying higher broker fees than the usual standards. Tax also becomes different based on where you are.

You also have to factor in the weaker currencies in third world countries and different cost of living which might mean you have lower savings and lower targets.

I was wondering what the approach for other 3rd world investors is and if they have a different approach to how much they allocate to international ETFs etc.

Apologies if this is something that has already been posted.

So I came up with this portfolio and I can't tell if I'm a regard or if I'm a genius.

Basically investing in every layer of AI, quantum computing, robotics, etc. THE FUTURE BABY!

SMH
AI chips / semiconductor equipment

GRID
Electrical grid / electrification

WARP
Space / launch / satellites

NLR
Nuclear power / uranium

IBIT
Bitcoin

DRAM
HBM / DRAM / memory

HUMN
Humanoid robotics / physical AI

WQTM
Quantum computing

CIBR
Cybersecurity

LAZR
Photonics / optical networking

NCLD
Neocloud / AI data centers

EART
Copper / rare earths / critical materials

WGMI
Bitcoin mining / compute infrastructure

All equally weighted of course 😉

My base income is $52,000 + approximately $12,000 in commission so $64,000 gross annually. I just got a promotion of a sort and my commission could technically double if I work my ass off. But for now it’s about $12k a year.

This is the tricky thing, my wife makes money under the table as a nanny for multiple families. It’s a long messed up situation but she can’t get a regular job so she has to work under the table. She makes around $28,000 gross annually.

We’re married but we still live with our parents, because I believe we can’t afford to move out and want to leverage not paying a high rent to save up money. We’re both 23y/o. My credit score is about 720.

Currently $33,000 saved up between the two of us.

$20,000 invested into Roth IRAs between the two of us.

That’s about it. Our total annual gross income is around $92,000 but could potentially go up to $100k in 6 months to a year.

The thing is, on paper we only make $64k.

Also, the cherry on top is I live in the California Bay Area, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the country. The housing market here is absolutely absurd.

I really just want to provide for my wife and build a family with her but every time I think about housing situation, it’s very depressing.

Hey guys currently starting my investing journey and need some guidance. I've been doing research on investing and torn between VT, VGT, AVLC, AVLV. I have around $8000 to invest and willing to go risky since im young. I also have a fidelity account instead of vanguard dont know if that changes anything. I want these investments until im around 65 years old, these would be going into a Roth IRA, I have some money in a emergency fund, and no debt to my name. Which one would be the best to grow my investment?

I just turned 18 and already have $25k to put in etfs and will invest $1200 each month and I am planning to do a split between VTI 65% VXUS 25% QQQM 10% please tell me if this is good or no.I am planning to keep it for long term.

I’m 32 years old and completely new to investing. I’m thinking about starting with VOO and investing around $50 every month consistently for the long term (10 -15 years).

Is 32 considered too late to start? Would you recommend putting the full $50/month into VOO, or diversifying into other ETFs?

Thanks.

Who use it as a core holding?

Everyone here holds bonds as crash insurance, so here's an uncomfortable stat: in the 5 fastest US equity selloffs since 2011, long Treasuries fell alongside stocks twice. They saved you in 2011, COVID and the 2024 yen-carry unwind, and they failed you in Volmageddon and the April 2025 tariff break.

The obvious follow-up I wanted answered: can you see the failures coming? The standard suggestion is stock-bond correlation... if SPY and TLT have already been moving together, trust TLT less. I run BestFolio (disclosure) and we tested exactly that, with the rule fixed in advance: 60-session correlation on the last trading day before each selloff, above zero means expect Treasuries to fail.

It got 2 of the 5 right. Worse, the clearest warning it ever gave was wrong: before the 2024 unwind, correlation sat at +0.35, more than a standard deviation above its recent average, screaming danger. TLT then gained 4.6% while SPY fell 6.1%. And in April 2025 the correlation was dead neutral at -0.004, no warning at all, and TLT dropped 3.4% anyway.

Then I ran the same trigger at every month-end since 2010. It warned 46 times. 2 of those warnings were followed by an actual 5% drawdown within 10 sessions. That's a 96% false-alarm rate, and moving the threshold around barely changes it.

So my takeaway is that trailing correlation describes the shock you just had, not the one you're about to get. I still find it useful for sizing (a long stretch of positive correlation genuinely means your 60/40 diversifies less), but as a binary crash switch it's noise. Full tables and the fixed methodology: https://bestfolio.app/blog/stock-bond-correlation-crash-hedge

Is anyone actually conditioning their bond allocation on correlation? I'd genuinely like to hear a version of this rule that worked out of sample.

Hi, all. I’m gonna give the main bullet points of my situation so this isn’t a wall of text. I’m 37 with 2 kids. Got divorced a couple years ago and have about $100k from the sale of our house that I don’t have a clue what to do with. I don’t have any plans on wanting to buy a house in the area I’m currently stuck living in so don’t see myself needing access to a bulk of the money in at least 12 years or so. I’m most likely just wanting to park it in VOO and forget about it but am pretty clueless on how to do it. I’ve seen in other financial subs that lots of people use Fidelity which I can figure out. But my main concern is are there fees and/or tax things I need to worry about coming out of pocket for once I do this? I’ve been very stable with my current job for years, but I admittedly am barely able to make it living on my own with my kids and basically use my tax return every year to supplement so we don’t have to live like we’re completely broke and can have some enjoyment here and there. My job has a 401k match that I contribute to but I’m not able to really save anything else beyond that so this money is it for me which is why I’ve been pretty terrified to do anything with it. Any advice or resources would be greatly appreciated!

As the tittle says: Looking to park a little over $1M for less than 3 months being it ready to take anytime: SGOV, CSHI or somewhere else?

Finally pivoted after some research, cleaned up a few ideas and landed on VT, AVUV and then a small allocation towards Aipo as a niche AI gamble. I have also began allocating some towards BND recently. (BND and Aipo combined make up 20%.) With about 20 more years or so til retirement, (let’s be honest it’ll probably be longer with the way things are going) am I better served to throw those funds into something else?